Pendant Mask
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
In Ghana and the Ivory Coast, regions that acquired great wealth from the mining and trading of gold, rulers displayed their status by wearing a profusion of gold ornaments, even attaching such objects to umbrellas and swords. Although many of these ornaments are abstract geometric shapes, some represent human faces or animals. Such works were made using the lost-wax casting method, in which a clay mold was made around a modeled wax form. The mold was then heated and the wax poured out, after which molten gold was poured in and solidified in the form of the original wax model.
Caption
Baule. Pendant Mask, 19th or 20th century. Gold cast by the lost wax process., 2 3/8 × 1 3/4 × 1 in. (6 × 4.5 × 2.5 cm) mount (display dims. 2023 Africa Fashion.): 6 1/2 × 1 3/4 × 2 in. (16.5 × 4.4 × 5.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund, 49.32.1. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 49.32.1_PS11.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Culture
Title
Pendant Mask
Date
19th or 20th century
Geography
Place made: Lacs District (formerly N'Zi-Comoé Region), Côte d'Ivoire, Possible place made: Vallée du Bandama Region, Côte d'Ivoire
Medium
Gold cast by the lost wax process.
Classification
Dimensions
2 3/8 × 1 3/4 × 1 in. (6 × 4.5 × 2.5 cm) mount (display dims. 2023 Africa Fashion.): 6 1/2 × 1 3/4 × 2 in. (16.5 × 4.4 × 5.1 cm)
Credit Line
A. Augustus Healy Fund
Accession Number
49.32.1
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
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