Mask - Côte d’Ivoire (No reserve price)

Cavalier Baule

Baoule horseman figure


The mottled coloration of this Baoulé sculpture depicts a nude figure riding its mount bareback. Two types of statues are produced by the Baoulé, within a ritual context: the Waka-Sona statues, meaning 'being of wood' in Baoulé, evoke an 'assié oussou,' meaning 'being of the earth.' They are part of a type of statues used as medium tools by the Kòmien diviners, who are chosen by the asye usu spirits to communicate revelations from the beyond. The second type of statues are the 'spouses' of the afterlife, masculine, the Blolo Bian, or feminine, the Blolo Bia, which represent a quest for fulfillment through seeking homage to an idealized opposite sex. About sixty ethnic groups inhabit Ivory Coast, including the Baoulé in the center, the Akans from Ghana, a savannah people practicing hunting and agriculture, similar to the Gouro, from whom they have borrowed ritual practices and sculpted masks.