Pendant: Face in Crescent (1900s): Art, History and Details

Pendant: Face in Crescent (1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This pendant was cast in gold using the lost-wax method. Gold objects 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.

Object facts

• Title: Pendant: Face in Crescent
• Date: 1900s
• Culture: Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, probably Baule-style goldsmith
• Type: Jewelry
• Technique: Gold
• Dimensions: Overall: 7 x 7.4 cm (2 3/4 x 2 15/16 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1952.118

A detail from the museum

Although the surface of this pendant was likely enriched (worked to enhance the surface level of gold) at the time of manufacture, the dark spots on the face show us where this enriched layer has worn away.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• Vogel, Susan Mullin. Baule: African Art, Western Eyes. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1997.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.