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

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

The work and its context

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

These pendants were 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 Diamond
• Date: 1900s
• Culture: Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, probably Baule-style goldsmith
• Type: Jewelry
• Technique: Gold
• Dimensions: Overall: 9.2 x 8.9 cm (3 5/8 x 3 1/2 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1942.171

A detail from the museum

This pendant may be an idealized portrait that the person who wore it knew.

Collection credit

James Albert Ford Memorial Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William. "Exhibition of Gold." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 34, no. 9 (November 1947): 211-212.

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.