Lot 25 D α

All human depictions with the Baule are called "Waka-Sona", it literally translates to "wooden being" or "wooden people".
These statues are created for both aesthetic appreciation and for ritualistic purposes, such as ensuring good harvests or communicating with the spiritual world and they come in two main ritualistic types:
The Blolo bian/bia represents a spiritual spouse, either male (bian) or female (bia).
But much rarer are the Asyè usu figures that evoke an "earth-being" and are used as a medium by diviners to receive revelations. These carvings represent idealized male forms whose grace and beauty in both anatomy and adornment will seduce the spirits and compel them to use the sculptures as their temporary homes. The Baule translation for this sculpture is "stool" because the spirit chooses it as a resting point.


The Metropolitan Museum explains about the Asye Usu; the goal is to create more elaborate and ornamental features, to show that a lot of dedication has been invested in its execution by the sculptor, and the greater the expense to its owner. The culmination of such efforts hopefully results in the creation of a sculpture that is most attractive to the Asye Usu. When used by Baule diviners, such works not only flatter the Asye Usu but also add to the theatrical spectacle of a public pronouncement of a divinatory revelation. Their aesthetic quality dazzles potential clients with the caliber and sophistication of the instruments associated with a diviner. The beauty of this figure with its elaborate coiffure, the many finely chiseled scarifications and detailed fingers and feet advertises its owner's success as an intermediary with the spirit world. Consequently, diviners prosper by commissioning superlative figures as divinatory instruments. Ownership of extraordinary objects thus directly affects a diviner's professional standing and enhances public perception of his or her efficacy.
Of these large figures from the same workshop, only few are known. The Baule figure from Bayer is slightly smaller than the famous Rubin Baule but both are of a monumental scale two of the most refined Baule sculptures known." A tour de force work with majestic presence, it gives testimony to the highest level of Baule artistry. The upstanding composed posture, strong calves, elaborate beard and coiffure, symmetrical scarification patterns and the serene facial expression incarnate a physical and moral ideal within Baule society. Both figures share the engraved, ridged base, the hands on the abdomen, the fine detailed fingernails and toenails, and were clearly receiving a similar libation.