Mblo Portrait Mask of the Baule: What It Was For and Why It Matters
Baule | Côte d'Ivoire | Commemorative / Entertainment
What was it for?
Mblo is a Baule theatrical genre of skits and solo dances, and the portrait mask is one of its highlights. It honours a specific, named living person. Most portrait masks were commissioned to honour a woman, often for her beauty or her skill as a dancer, and the person honoured appears alongside the mask that bears her likeness.
What does it look like?
A refined, idealised portrait of a specific person. The Baule are among the finest sculptors on the continent, and Mblo masks show their full skill: precise features, smooth surface, perfect proportion. They represent not simply what the person looks like but what is best in them.
Why does it matter?
Being the subject of a portrait mask is a great honour in a Baule community. It celebrates a person while she is still alive and able to appear beside her own likeness. The honour is earned through beauty, grace or the admiration of the community, and it turns personal excellence into shared celebration.
One thing most people never know
Many Western collectors bought Baule portrait masks without knowing that each one was meant to represent a real, named person. The mask was never meant to stand alone. In its own setting it appeared with the person it honoured, and the two were understood together.
Further reading: the source record for this entry.
This entry is part of the SEVICS Africa archive of 100 African masks. If you own a mask like this and want to know more about it, try our Mask Identifier.
