Baoulé mask. Part of over 50 years. Delivered on base.

In African art, the art of the Baoulé occupies a special place. The finesse of execution of Baoulé masks and Baoulé statues makes them particularly accessible to Western tastes.

The Baoulé on wood sculpture has the finesse of realization of the goldsmithery: the sculpture is very refined, the surfaces are very polite, the representation of the scarifications, jewelry, hairstyle, face is made in a neat and meticulous way.

Among the Baoulé African statues are shown two main types:

* The Baoulé statues of spouses of the Soul (Blolo Bla) or wives of the SURLA (Blolo Bian).

* The Baoulé statues representing a spirit or genius of nature with the objective of appeasing them. The USU Asic statues ("genius of nature") are less frequent than (Blo bla). The difference for differentiating them from each other and the next. The genius of nature is always seated while the husband of the beyond is always standing.

We distinguish in the Baoulé statues the evocations of minds of nature (with sacrificial patina) and those of the spirits conducive to romantic relationships (with polished patina). The first type of statue represents the spirits of the bush with ambivalent power, as often in Africa, which are feared for their maliciousness: the statues of these spirits of the bush are honored to appease them and acquire their good grace and protection.

There are baoulé masks of ancestors. Baoulé masks have the same characteristics as the statues: elegant, finely carved and polite.

Otherwise there are zoomorphic Baoulé masks, recalling the buffalo and the antelope. These masks are always worn by men. They have a different achievement of the Baoulé masks portraits of ancestors, they are more conceptual and schematic because they represent spirits.

The Baoulé occupies part of the center of Côte d'Ivoire both savannah and forest.

Baoulé statues

The Baoulé statues correspond to 2 different types of worship:

    One corresponds to the husband (the wife) of the beyond which to be appeased claims the creation of a Baoulé statue with the effigy of the husband (the wife) of the beyond and an altar in the box of the individual concerned. The need to have a husband or wife of the beyond is reported by misfortunes and through a dream. It is for example following sexual disorders, in men, sterility in women. A man will have his wife Blolo Bian in the statue and a woman will have her husband from the beyond Blolo bla. This Baoulé statue will have to be swept through all trips. Its owner washer, wipes it, nourishes it, caresses it: hence the beautiful patina of this kind of work. After the death of its owner, the Blolo Bian or Blolo blah statuette is thrown or abandoned.

    The other type of Baoulé sculpture will represent a spirit and will have the role of appearing it. The Baoulé of spirit or genius of nature are always stated while the spouses of the beyond are always standing. We distinguish the spirits of Asu Asu Nature with a sacrificial patina and the spirits conducive to romantic relationships with a polished patina. The spirits of the forest and the bush are imagined as hideous: hunchback, the feet turned back, dirty skin, red hair, with huge eyes and a single arm ... Very dangerous, they can have a harmful effect on agriculture, hunting, health. Amarked by sacrifices, they can become conducive to humans. It starts with a consultation with the soothsayer that identifies the cause of misfortunes and prescribes remedies, consisting in having Baoulé statuettes sculpt for which he indicates sex, attitude, hairstyle and wood to use. The sculptor manufactures the Baoulé statuette, inspired by the physical aspect of his possessed client and trance. After the death of its owner, the Baoulé statuette is preciously preserved and the cult is chased by the descendants. The harmonious aspect of the statuettes of these minds of nature comes from the fact that the latter would not go to live in if they were given the hideous forms which are theirs. These Baoulé statues have an idealized human aspect, with beautiful hairstyles and ethnic tattoos, which give them a civilized air allowing them to make them favorable to those who practice their worship. On these asu as we notice the traces of sacrifices: foods, raw eggs, blood of the victims, hence the crust patina.

Baoulé masks

Les Baoulé have masks, no doubt, under the influence of their neighbors Gouro or Sénoufo. There are baoulé masks of ancestors but which now have a secular role and appear during dances of entertainment. These portraits have the same characteristics as statuary: elegant, finely carved and polite. They show great regional diversity in hairstyles and tattoos. . The Baoulé Double mask represents the marriage of the sun and the moon or twins whose birth is always a good sign.

Otherwise there are zoomorphic Baoulé masks, recalling the buffalo and the antelope. They are always worn by men. They have a different achievement of the Baoulé masks portraits of ancestors, they are more conceptual and schematic because they represent spirits. Formerly they were worn during funeral ceremonies to attract the graces of the beyond, cure diseases and keep wizards away. These Baoulé masks correspond to 3 types of dances: the GBA GBA, the Bonu Amuen and the Goli:

    The GBA GBA, of Gouro origin, is used for funerals of women during the harvest period. He celebrates beauty and age, hence the finesse of his features.

    Bonu Amuen protects the village from external threats. He obliges women to a strong discipline and he appears during the commemorations of the death of notables. The spirits of the bush have their own sanctuary in which they receive sacrifices. When spirits intervene in community life, their masks have the shape of a wooden helm representing a buffalo or an antelope and are worn with raffia costumes, metal bracelets with ankles. The muzzle has teeth symbolizing the force of the animal which must defend them.

    Goli can dance as well as entertainment as well as the funeral of important people. He was borrowed from the WAN after 1900. The KPLE KPLE mask has a round shape, surmounted by two horns. The male mask is red, the female mask in black (sometimes inversely in certain villages). He often appears in pairs in Goli dance and are followed by a pair of Heaumes Zoomorphs masks (Goli Glen), then a pair of horns with horns (Kpan Pre) and finally two man's head masks with braided hairstyles (Kpan). Although each pair of mask understands both male and female elements, the first two pairs are considered to have an essentially masculine personality. Goli masks are larger and heavier than other Baoulé masks.

There is also an instrument of divination called mouse oracle, composed of pottery placed on a wooden base. The oracle is made up of two communicating floors. On the upper floor, the soothsayer puts food next to a turtle shell containing small bones or a piece of iron to which small sticks decorated with pearl are attached. We put the lid on the box and wait for the mouse to go up to eat the food. We then open the box and the diviner decipher the message by analyzing the arrangement of the sticks or the bones moved by the mouse.

The Baoulé also created figures of monkeys, with a jaw progressive with pointed teeth, a granular patina due to sacrifices, the monkey holds in his hands a cup or a pestle. Sometimes the monkey would intervene in rituals of divinations, sometimes it would be protection against wizards, sometimes a deity protecting agrarian rites, sometimes a genius of the bush. This cult would be relatively recent.

The Baoulé sculptor and its characteristics

The profession of sculptor is non -hereditary and results from a personal choice or a desire that manifests itself during a dream or a crisis of possession.

There is great mobility in people and works of art in the Baoulé. These trips are as much opportunity to order a new type of sculptures or adopt a new type of dance from another village. Artists may have learned in a workshop and carry out works very different from this workshop. Artists travel and can sometimes work for customers living far from home.

The Baoulé have a wood sculpture which has the qualities of the goldsmithery: extremely refined sculptures, very polished surfaces, representation of scarifications, hairstyle, jewelry made in a careful and meticulous manner.

The Baoulé statuary is characterized by a certain realism, with the Baoulé beauty canons: round calves for women, long hands with tapered fingers, small buttocks. The harmonious hairstyle is made of many finely braided mats. The beard is neat and sometimes natural. The patina is smooth.

The religion of the Baoulé and the rituals

The Baoulé believe in a creative god called Nyamian, intangible and inaccessible. The god of the earth named Asia who controls men and animals. Spirits or Amuen have supernatural powers. The real world is the opposite of the spiritual world, called Blolo, where souls come from at birth and where they return to death. Religion has the main precept of the recognition of death and immortality of the soul. The ancestors are the subject of a cult but are not represented. Formerly a death was never considered natural. We therefore sought his manager. The heir was the brother or sister born of the same mother as the deceased, because he was considered that there is no certainty of being the real son of his father.

Rituals can evolve. The creation of a new cult can be decided following a dream or a crisis of possession during which the spirit is revealed to the dreamer or the possessed and explains the ritual, the rules and the objects that it must acquire or manufacture.

Sculptures and wooden masks allow you to create narrower contact with the supernatural world.

The Baoulé believe that an individual understands a body, a double and a soul. Each being would have a respondent in the other world: Blolo. To this celestial character are devoted statues to which are made.