Female Baule sculpture

Female Baule sculpture kneeling on a pedestal with arms held behind her back, overall of compact stature, with broad shoulders and breasts close to the body, the torso is decorated with various geometrical motifs on the front and back, pronounced shoulder blades, the elongated cylindrical neck carries an almost large head, a smiling mouth under a narrow nose with broad nostrils, patterned eyebrows above almond-shaped eyes, scarification marks on the cheeks, temples, forehead and neck, the head is crowned by a ruffled crested coiffure; reddish, encrusted sacrificial patina, traces of age and ritual use.

"The other world man or woman is a solitary individual linked to only one human being. I have written that the Baule never use the words "husband" (wun) or "wife" (yi) in relation to the Other-World person. He or she is always referred to as the Other-World man or Other-World woman; in other words, the association is a dyadic sexual relationship, rather than the polyvalent marriage relationship that links two families in a web of mutual obligations.. There is an actuality to this relationship that situates it in the immediacy of lived experiences. Unlike the preexistence reality of the natural world, the blolo is a world that is revealed suddenly and experienced authentically: the palpable passion of a male/female relationship. The living partner admits to being "desired", in fact, "demanded," by an invisible, sexual being."

Philip Ravenhill, The Self and the Other, Personhood and Images among the Baule, Cote d´Ívoire, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1994:37.

600 - 800,- Euro

Height : 60 cm

Weight: 4,5 kg