Fang Añgokh-Nlô-Byeri ancestor head - €3,745.00

Art and worship of ancestors in Fang country

This african Añgokh-Nlô-Byeri ancestor head of Fang origin, Gabon, is quite exceptional.

In African Fang art, we know the famous byeri reliquary guardians in the form of full-bodied figures.
Regional styles emerged as the Fang people occupy a large geographic area.

Each lineage had its byeri guardian watching over the ancestral relics. Its custody was entrusted to the patriarch esa, the oldest man in the family.
The byeri were placed on a bark box serving as a reliquary, containing the bones of an ancestor.

If we often imagine Fang reliquary guardians with a dark and lustrous or even oily patina, there are exceptions to this rule.
Thus, the example here present has a rather dry patina and the neck presents a different state from the head itself.
This is due to the fact that the neck was sunk into the reliquary box while the head protruded from it.

Note also that the eyes have been highlighted by the addition of black wax.

This presumably late Fang head shows certain similarities in patina and wear to a copy in the Musée du quai Branly, Paris, ref. 71.1954.67.13.

This is an exceptional and old object from an ancient private collection. Please contact us for further information.

Later exhibited in Brussels.

Fang Angokh-Nlo Byeri head - SOLD OUT - €0.00

The Fang practiced until the first half of the 20th century a cult to family ancestors known as Byeri. Its plastic expressions are symbolic representations of the deceased in the form of eyema byeri statuettes meaning "the image of byeri", but also of single heads.

The piece shown here is one of those long-necked heads that were called angokh-nlô-byeri, literally meaning "the whole head of the ancestor."
In museums and private Western collections, heads alone are much rarer than full-length statues and often of a remarkable quality of finish; some, including this one, are unmistakably masterpieces.
If the statues ostentatiously represent a sexed ancestor (man or woman), the heads alone, on the other hand, are obviously less identifiable in this respect - hairstyles with braids or with cups (nlô-ô-ngo) can be worn indifferently by men. or women.

Unlike the statues representing an entire body which were revealed during initiation rites, the angokh-nlô-byeri heads remained carefully hidden in the lineage chief's room, at the back of his hut. They were regularly coated with palm oil and ba powder (a mixture of oil and pulverized padauk wood, this red coating being, like the parrot feathers of the same color which adorned them, the sign of the sacred).

This Fang head has a lustrous and oily patina that is entirely consistent with the aforementioned custom of coating it with palm oil.

Héritage Galerie - Art Africain Traditionnel

Fang Añgokh-Nlô-Byeri ancestor head - €3,745.00

Art and worship of ancestors in Fang country

Fang Angokh-Nlo Byeri head - SOLD OUT - €0.00