Snake Pendant

19th–mid-20th century

Not on view

This delicate gold pendant takes the shape of a stylized coiled snake. The snake’s back and raised coils are defined by continuous lines of dots, creating a highly textured surface. The snake’s oversized head is at the center of the pendant, and its main features are its two large circular, bisected eyes. Three loops along the upper edge would have been used to hang the pendant from a string around the neck, and two groups of three small protrusions on either side of the snake mirror the loops and create a sense of rhythm and symmetry.

Among the Baule peoples of central Côte d’Ivoire, personal adornment in gold such as this pendant often hold a special status as part of a matrilineal family’s sacred inheritance - a group of precious objects kept as tribute to a family’s ancestors. A pendant such as this one could have been worn around the neck on special occasions or arranged outside the home during ceremonies and festivals so that other community members could admire them. Figural forms featured on such ornaments often refer to proverbs and bear symbolic meaning: the coiled snake, for example, is considered a symbol of femininity and fertility.

Further reading
Art of Oceania, Africa, and the Americas from the Museum of Primitive Art, Exhibition Catalogue. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1969.

Garrard, Timothy F. Gold of Africa: Jewellery and Ornaments from Ghana, Côte D'Ivoire, Mali and Senegal. Geneva: Barbier-Mueller Museum. 1989.

Hauenstein, Alfred. “Le serpent dans les rites, cultes et coutumes de certaines ethnies de Côte D'Ivoire.” Anthropos 73, no. 3/4 (1978): 525-560. www.jstor.org/stable/40459292.

Newton, Douglas, André Malraux, and Nelson A. Rockefeller. Masterpieces of primitive art: the Nelson A. Rockefeller collection. Knopf, 1978.

Ross, Doran H, and Frances Marzio. Gold of the Akan from the Glassell Collection. Houston Museum of Fine Arts, 2002.

Vogel, Susan M. Baule Art as the Expression of a World View. New York: New York University Press, 1977.

Vogel, Susan M. "Baule: African Art Western Eyes." African arts 30, no. 4 (1997): 64-95.