1. A Masterwork that Sheds Tears…and Light.
- Author
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Kaehr, Roland, Perrois, Louis, and Ghysels, Marc
- Subjects
- *
FANG sculpture , *FANG art , *EFFIGIES , *SKULL , *SKELETON - Abstract
The article presents information on the Fang ancestral sculpture of Equatorial Africa. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, Fang ancestral sculpture of Equatorial Africa figured among the most emblematic and esteemed genres of African art. These anthropomorphic effigies, with an often haphazardly oozing black patina, of upright posture and subtle craftsmanship, were mounted on sewn-bark relic boxes containing the remains, including the skulls, of lineal ancestors. Every family had one or more. Honored and often consulted during rites of propitiation or of divination, these sculptures and the skulls they magically protected constituted the basic wealth of the Fang peoples of the past, a source of welfare, strength, and social power.
- Published
- 2007
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