RARE African Baule Mbolo Portrait Mask Hand Carved Unknown Age LE MASQUE BAOULÉ

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RARE African Baule Mbolo Portrait Mask Hand Carved Unknown Age LE MASQUE BAOULÉ:
$24500.00

RARE African Baule Mbolo Portrait Mask Hand Carved of Unknown Age LE MASQUE BAOULÉ. Within Baule culture, Mblo portrait masks are appreciated as the most refined and long-standing form of artistic expression. Lustrous curving surfaces, suggesting clean, healthy, well-fed skin, are set off by delicately textured zones representing coiffures, scarifications, and other ornaments. The idealized faces are introspective, with the high foreheads and the large downcast eyes. Fine scarifications and coiffures denote personal beauty, refinement and a desire to give pleasure to others.

This fine portrait mask is worn during Mblo performances of skits and solo dances. Mblo masks, used in entertainment dances are one of the oldest of Baule art forms. These refined human face masks are usually portraits of particular known individuals. While they may depict either men or women, such works were generally commissioned by a man to honor a female relative or created by a carver in homage to a particular woman's dance skills and beauty. Because of their importance, only the best dancers are eligible to wear portrait masks in performance. On such occasions it is required that the portrait's subject, or "double," be present to accompany it.

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Measurements: 10 1/2”H x 5 3/4”W x 4 1/8”D.

Condition: Beautiful condition considering its age, which is unknown. Definite Age Cracks On Back. Please Examine Photos Carefully for condition.

ABOUT Baule Peoples:

The Baule (Baoule or Bawule) belong to the Akan peoples who inhabit Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire and one of the largest ethnic group in the Côte d'Ivoire.

This Akan Tribe in the Ivory Coast has artistic ability that is sophisticated and stylistically diverse. Non-inherited, the sculptor’s profession is the result of a personal choice. The Baule have types of sculpture that none of the other Akan peoples possess.

They have played a central role in twentieth-century history of the country. They waged the longest war of resistance to French colonization of any West African people, and maintained their traditional objects and beliefs longer than many groups in such constant contact with European administrators, traders, and missionaries.

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