The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Pendant: Face

c. 1930 or earlier

Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, probably Baule-style goldsmith

Gold
Overall: 5.8 x 3.9 cm (2 5/16 x 1 9/16 in.)
James Albert Ford Memorial Fund 1942.172
Location: 108C Akan & Yoruba

Did You Know?

The decorative spikes on the crown and chin of the head represent hair.

Description

Gold objects, always cast using the lost-wax method, are the only Baule art forms associated with ancestor spirits. Usually hidden in pots or suitcases, gold adornments are displayed on important occasions such as funerals. They are laid out around the corpse before burial. A widow will wear them on a chain around her neck or attached to her hair at the ceremony signaling the end of mourning.
  • Charles Ratton, Paris, France
    C. Géraudel
    ?-1942
    (Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, NY)
    1942-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH by purchase
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Invoice from Pierre Matisse Gallery, March 6, 1942; Check Form Memorandum with Accessions Committee Meeting 2-13-42. CMA Curatorial File
  • Milliken, William. "Exhibition of Gold." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 34, no. 9 (November 1947): 211-212. Mentioned: p. 211-212; Reproduced: p. 235 www.jstor.org
    William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and Ralph T. Coe. The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-Literate Peoples of the World. Kansas City, Mo: The Museum, 1962. Mentioned: p. 24, no. 31
    Royal Ontario Museum. Masks: The Many Faces of Man : an Exhibition Presented by the Division of Art and Archaeology of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto Canada. Toronto: The Museum, 1959. Mentioned: p. 42, cat. no. D 20
  • The Imagination of Primitive Man. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (January 18-February 25, 1962).
    Masks: The Many Faces of Man. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto M5S 2C6, Canada (organizer) (February 10-April 5, 1959).
  • {{cite web|title=Pendant: Face|url=false|author=|year=c. 1930 or earlier|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1942.172