A Baule sculpture, Bouake region, Ivory Coast.

The Baule people of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) are known for their exceptional artistic traditions, particularly their royal sculptural works. These sculptures hold significant cultural, spiritual, and political importance within Baule society.

Baule royal sculptures typically feature:
Refined, naturalistic facial features with serene expressions, careful attention to intricate hairstyles and scarification patterns, elegant, elongated proportions with a distinctive stance, highly polished surfaces with rich patinas, precise geometric patterns in adornments and bases, the sculptures often depict royalty, ancestral figures, or spirit spouses (known as "blolo bian" for males and "blolo bla" for females).

Royal sculptures among the Baule serve multiple purposes:
• Symbols of authority and lineage
• Connections to ancestral spirits
• Protection of the community
• Embodiment of cultural ideals of beauty and character
Would you like me to explore any particular aspect of Baule royal sculpture in more detail? For example, I could discuss their historical development, specific types of royal figures, or how they compare to sculptures from neighboring cultures.

“To articulate historians, the most consistent features of Baule art is a kind of peaceful containment. Faces tend to have downcast eyes and figures most often hold their ams against the body. […] Among their abundant art forms, the Baule people continue to place the greatest value on masks and figure sculptures, which remain the only sculptural art still widely used in Baule villages. While there is a difference between the Baule view of their objects and that of Western connoisseurs, there are points of agreement. Aesthetic appreciation is one: Baule artist, and individual owners of objects, certainly sometimes enjoy the beauty of these objects and the skill it took coproduce them. […]

Ornaments above the face are chosen for their beauty and have no iconographic significance” p.141

Lit: Baule: African Art, Western Eyes. Susan M.Vogel 1997.

Gallerie Wolfgang Jaenicke

sold

Height: 54 cm
Weight: 1,4 kg