A Baule mask from the region Sakassou, Ivory Coast, of oval hollowed form, a protruding slightly open mouth, a pronounced philtrum, a slender nose leading to thick high arched brows, pierced heavy lidded eyes, a high forehead, hemispherical ears with a prominent tragus, scarification marks above the nose and on the temples, an asymmetric headdress with a ornamental knob on the right side of the head, the mask pierced through at the rim for attachment; beautiful glossy dark brown to blackened patina with signs of age and ritual use, several cracks. Provenance Mr Cabinet, Ivory Coast.

"The women’s amazing coiffure represents an actual hairdo with a bun on one side, and tressed rows on the other."

Lit.: Susan M. Vogel: Baule: African Art Western Eye, 1997, p. 143; Bernard de Grunne: Über den Baule-Stil und seine Meister. In: Eberhard Fischer/Lorenz Homberger: Afrikanische Meister. Kunst der Elfenbeinküste, Zurüch 2014, p. 81-106; Alain-Michel Boyer: Baule. Visions of Africa, Milan 2008.

Wolfgang Jaenicke, collected 2008

sold

Height: 30 cm
Weight: 1.2 kg (incl. stand)