Arts d'Afrique, d'Océanie et des Amériques

Arts d'Afrique, d'Océanie et des Amériques

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 48. Fang Reliquary Figure, Gabon.

Property from the Collection of Barbara and Brian Wolfowitz

Fang Reliquary Figure, Gabon

Auction Closed

December 12, 04:12 PM GMT

Estimate

150,000 - 250,000 EUR

Lot Details

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Description

Fang Reliquary Figure, Gabon


Height: 18 ¼ in (46.5 cm)

Possibly Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum für Völkerkunde, Cologne, Germany

Joseph and Doris Gerofsky Collection, New York

Sotheby's, London, Important Tribal Art, June 29 and 30, 1987, lot 45

Barbara and Brian Wolfowitz, acquired at the above auction

By Pierre Amrouche


The powerful sculpture is an abstracted representation of a muscular male ancestor. The figure rests on a posterior support which was also used, like a monstrance, in ceremonies where the lineage of the clan was recited by an orator who would be hidden behind a screen of banana leaves. The head boasts an imposing coiffure with parallel braids curving down along the nape of the neck. The face is expressive, under a large, rounded forehead adorned with scarification, a gaze narrowed by his hooded eyelids, and a mouth forming a classic Fang “pout”. In keeping with the Mvaï Fang style, the figure embodies key characteristics of the corpus: a curved abdomen, a protruding umbilicus, an engraved “cravate” scarification, and the tall, ridged coiffure. These relatively sophisticated objects are the work of a small ethnic group living between the Ntoumou and the Betsi, as Louis Perrois notes in Byéri Fang (Marseille, 1992, p. 52). The majestic work is imbued with a sense of sacred interiority.