A male Baule
sculpture, Ivory Coast, standing on a circular base, short legs ending up in a
prominent buttock, well emphasized genitals, a slender torso with a pointed
navel, arms carved close to the body with hands touching the abdomen, slightly
emphasized pectoral muscles and shoulder blades, rounded shoulders, an
elongated head, three parted beard beneath a broad mouth, an elongated
flattened nose framed by open bulging eyes with high eyebrow arches, the
eyebrows extend beyond a semicircle and are connected in the middle by five
small rectangular scarification marks, semicircular ears with an embedded
rhomb, scarification marks all over the sculpture, capped by a domed, fine
striated coiffure with a pigtail at the back; brown patina, traces of age, ritual
use and several cracks, the base is partly eroded.
Lit.: Susan M. Vogel:
Baule. African Art, Western Eyes, 1997; Gernard de Grunne: Über den Baule-Stil
und seine Meister. In: Eberhard Fischer/Lorenz Homberger: Afrikanische Meister.
Kunst der Elfenbeinküste, Zürich 2014, p. 81-106.
Height: 56 cm
Weight: 1,90 kg