A Masterwork that Sheds Tears - IA de Investigación especializada en el MIT

A Masterwork that Sheds Tears
… and Light
A Complementary Study of a Fang Ancestral Head

Roland Kaehr and Louis Perrois
with Marc Ghysels
translated by Rachel Pearlman

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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, con
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. Hon-
ored and often “consulted” during rites of propitiation or of divi-
nación, 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. Who among Afri-
can art lovers today does not know the Fang reliquary head at the
Neuchâtel Musée d’ethnographie1 (MEN), Head III.C.7400 (Higo.
1), the famous byeri that “cries”, so often exhibited and written
acerca de? Paradójicamente, for a long time the object’s very familiar-
ity led to neglect of the carefully preserved archives that accom-
panied it over a century ago. En 2005, on the occasion of the
MEN’s centennial, the staff took action to complete the study of
this exceptional object by means of state-of-the art technology,
particularly physiochemical analyses. The results, which pro-
vided surprising revelations, make possible both an improved
approach to the piece itself and a more nuanced stylistic classifi-
cation of Fang sculptural art.

Fang objects observed in situ in gabon beFore 1900
The first sculptures collected by Europeans in Gabon were
statues of the Fang peoples, or rather the “Pahouins”, as they
were called at the time. The collectors were the French naturalist
Alfred Marche and the Marquis de Compiègne, who had gone
off to explore the Ogooué basin, supposedly a gateway to East
África. These sculptures can be seen in an engraving (Higo. 2) en

Fang head, Gabon

(this page and opposite)
1a–c
III.C.7400, Musée d’Ethnographie de Neuchâtel (Suiza)
Acquired from Father Henri Trilles in 1902
pHoToS HuGHES DuboIS, pArIS AND bruSSElS, 1991

44 | african arts winter 2007

the title page of volume II of their 1875 work L’Afrique équato-
riale: Okanda, Bangouens, Osyéba. En particular, a “déesse pah-
ouine” [Pahouin goddess] of Betsi Fang workmanship (Higo. 3),
features a crested coiffure extending down the back of the neck
and large, protruding breasts, with a light-brown patina. El
object was first received as a gift by one of the expedition spon-
sors, Señor. Pilastre, a merchant in tropical products at Le Havre.
Two somewhat larger statues with round heads, apparently
forming a couple, are less representative in structure. They were
also collected in the same region and sent to Mr. Bouvier, a natu-
ralist from the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris, who was
interested in the activities of explorers.

Diverse Gabonese oral traditions report that, at the time of the
first European exploration of Central Africa, the Fang were feared
by all neighboring non-Fang peoples, including the Seki, Mpon-
gwe, Benga, and Kele, and were still not very well known to out-
siders. Paul Du Chaillu, whose expeditions in 1855 y 1865 hecho
him the first explorer to have traveled into the Gabonese interior
to any significant extent, had first reconnoitered to the north
of Libreville2 in the then-unknown region of the Muni estuary
and the Monts-de-Cristal foothills. The young French-American
learned the Myènè language around 1848 during his adolescence
in Libreville, where his father managed a business firm. Él era
the first to encounter the vanguard culture of the Fang peoples,
then at the end of their migration toward the ocean. He stayed
a few days in “Fan” and “Osheba” villages (among peoples also
known as Okak and Maké Fang) and went home both fascinated
and appalled. De hecho, having been warned and “conditioned” by

the Mpongwe from the coast, who considered the Fang peoples
savage warriors, he largely misjudged what he observed—par-
ticularly from the Ngil or Melan cult sites—and was convinced
of the Fang’s anthropophagy. Despite the fact that the consensus
of other explorers in the second half of the nineteenth century
did not in any way confirm Du Chaillu’s outrageous assertions,
for more than half a century suspicion of the Fang peoples and
their customs endured—particularly regarding their ancestral
cult and the preservation of human skulls.

From the start of the twentieth century, northern Gabon,
Equatorial Guinea, and South Cameroon were traveled by colo-
nial officers, missionaries, doctors, and the first forest exploiters,
all more or less interested in the opportunity to collect “souve-
nirs”: assegais, headgear, cutlasses, taburetes, everyday implements,
ornaments, and sometimes masks and sculpture. The artifacts
that reached Paris between 1900–1910 attracted the attention of
secondhand-goods dealers of colonial souvenirs, then of artists
or other avant-garde intellectuals; as we know, interest in African
art expanded during this period, as evidenced in Carl Einstein’s
Negerplastik (1920). During WWI, several military operations
took place on Fang territory, in zones under both German and
French influence. The intermixing of populations consequent
to these events and the setting up of vast forestry territories of
the Woleu-Ntem (northern Gabon) triggered relative social dis-
organization and thus less vigilance over ritual objects that had
previously been hidden carefully from foreign eyes. Collect-
ing Fang art objects, at least antiques, reached its peak between
1920–1925.

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invierno 2007 african arts | 45

(this page, l–r)
2 Sculptures collected by Alfred Marche
and Marquis de Compiègne during their
journey in Gabon in 1873.
pHoTo: DE CoMpIèGNE 1875:FroNTISpIECE

3
“Déesse pahouine” of Fang betsi
workmanship, 29 cm (11½»), collected in
1873 in ogooué Valley by Marche and
de Compiègne, ex-pilastre collection, le
Havre.
pHoTo: ArCHIVES, SoTHEby’S NEw york,

NoVEMbEr 14, 2003.

(opposite)
4 Chief from Mount Tembo, sources of
Ntem and woleu rivers, antes 1901
pHoTo: HENrI TrIllES © MEN

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Father trilles and the gabonese Fang peoples in 1900:

an ambivalent conFrontation

Henri-Louis-Marie-Paul Trilles (1866–1949) took his vows in
the Missions africaines de la Congrégation des Pères du Saint-
Esprit et du Saint-Cœur de Marie and was sent off to the “French
Congo” in 1892. Newly arrived in Libreville, he devoted his lin-
guistic training to the Fang and Myènè dialects. Shortly after-
ward, assigned to the Donghila Mission on the Gabon estuary,
the young Father Trilles consecrated his pastoral action in the
Fang areas around Libreville and its hinterlands (near Mondah
Bay to the north and the Como and Remboué Rivers to the south-
east). Tirelessly, on foot and by pirogue, de 1893 a 1898 Father
Trilles crossed the Fang lands—those of the Betsi on the east,
and of the Maké and the Okak on the north—quickly becoming
a connoisseur of Fang customs despite sacerdotal functions that
often led him to misunderstand what he observed.

En 1899, Mgr LeRoy, Father Superior of the Gabonese Spiritains,
chose Father Trilles to take part in an exploration expedition pre-
cisely in Fang country, from the Atlantic coast (near Bata to the Rio
Muni) as far as the Cameroon borders and the Djah valley, as col-
umnist and guarantor of eventual territorial agreements with the
local chiefs, at a time when the region was in dispute among the
Germans, the Spanish, and the French. Father Trilles was chosen
for his knowledge of Fang dialects and customs, and also because
he was an experienced and robust bushman. He thus made his
way along with his companions from August 1899 to late March
1901 through Fang villages where nary a European had ventured
antes. Trilles was in charge of plotting the itineraries and drawing
up geographical sketches of known areas, and he also took pho-
tographs (Higo. 4)—an amazing exploit in 1900, considering the
fragile and burdensome equipment and pictures printed on glass

plates that needed protection during transport by backpack and
unstable pirogues for months on end.

His writings after returning from Gabon in 1907 abound in
information and observations from those years. No doubt he
also collected many artifacts from these isolated villages, as oth-
ers had done, to bring home as “souvenirs” or “evidence” of the
astonishing life led in Africa. Después 1902, Father Trilles wrote
more than he traveled “in the bush.” From his notes, he edited a
series of articles for the Les Missions catholiques review (Lyon)
durante 1902 y 1903, describing the trek between Bata and the
Djah valley and sharing many firsthand ethnographical obser-
vaciones, which he used again in 1935 for his book Mille lieues
dans l’inconnu: en pleine forêt équatoriale chez les Fangs anthro-
pophages [One thousand leagues in the unknown: in the depths
of the equatorial forest with the anthropophagic Fang peoples].
Después 1910, Trilles worked on a memoir of ethnographic char-
acter: Quinze années au Congo français (chez les Fang) [Fifteen
years in the French Congo (with the Fang peoples)], published
en 1912. In chapters 11 y 12 he reports what he was able to see
and understand of Fang socioreligious customs, the byeri ances-
tral cultic rites, and those of the fearsome Ngil.

Father trilles’s objects at the men
Despite the lack of formal documentation, did Trilles perhaps
“collect” the reliquary head from an inner village during his trek
entre 1899 y 1901? It is more likely that the effigy was ten-
dered as penance by a newly converted Fang within the mission-
ary-oriented zone of the Donghila Mission between 1893 y 1898.
Whatever the circumstances, when Trilles returned to France in
Primavera 1901, he took the sculpture with him, along with numerous
other ethnographic objects and even some skulls.

46 | african arts winter 2007

Para el 1910 Brussels Universal Exhibition (Figs. 7–8), Trilles
continued to seek out skulls, along with artifacts, among which
the byeri head, displayed above a Fang mask, is recognizable
from a photograph at the Neuchâtel Ethnography Museum’s stall.
This participation brought distinction to the Museum, en el cual
Knapp expressed great pride.7 The same photograph from the
BNGS was published by Arnold Van Gennep in his essay for the
ambitious Revue Suisse d’Ethnographie et d’Art comparé (1914).8
His caption to display cases 13 y 16 perhaps explains the ori-
gin of future errors regarding the head: “Tête sculptée fang sur-
montant un coffre d’écorce renfermant des crânes d’ancêtres” [Fang
carved head on top of a box containing ancestral skulls] (1914:67,
69). For the 1930s revised presentation of the “Gabon” display
caso (Higo. 9), the skulls and the reliquary head were not dissoci-
ated, and this remained the practice for a long time to come.

men Fang head in the exhibitions
Until after WWII, more interest was shown in the skulls than
the wooden head. The general European public (Opuesto a
its artists, intelectuales, and connoisseurs) in the early twen-
tieth century was far more fascinated by human relics—which
reminded them of the relics of Christian saints—than by “primi-
tive” wooden sculpture. Skulls were also of scientific interest
durante este período, when physical anthropology was especially
in the fore. After WWII, sin embargo, the piece gradually gained its
own reputation; like the Mona Lisa for the Louvre, the Fang head
became one of the emblematic objects of the Neuchâtel Museum,
one century after being “collected” from the field. The head
appeared in several temporary exhibits both at the museum itself
and elsewhere, and was published many times. In the 1960s, dur-
ing the exhibition “Parures et bijoux dans le monde” [Ornaments
and jewelry of the world] (Gabus 1961:41, 1962:27), by a sort of
ethnographic hypercorrection, the carved head was driven into
the disintegrated bottom of an overturned cylindrical bark box
(Higo. 10), one that had nothing to with the original which the
effigy had first protected. Father Trilles expressly indicated in
1901 that the head was no longer associated with any box: Due to
lack of preservation, the one containing the skulls had decayed.

According to Raponda-Walker and Sillans (1962:316), the relic
boxes were generally crafted with the bark of young Olax viridis
Oliver, a common palm tree of the Gabonese forest, called ekobe
by the Fang peoples. Its rough, grey bark had a strong charac-
teristic smell of garlic. The bottom and lid were of light wood,
held in place by rattan fibers on the circular side, itself made of
one rolled and tied piece. Sin embargo, this true-life chimera
endured to the time of the exhibit “175 ans d’ethnographie à
Neuchâtel” (Gabus 1967:168) en 1967 and sometimes appears as
a misleading reference in other catalogs and publications (p.ej.,
Perrois 1972, 1997:207) or is still sought after, as heads-with-
boxes are scarce today.

Its renown from then on widespread, Trilles’s carved head was
requested for the Fang exhibit at the Dapper Foundation, París
(1991–1992), then figured in “Byeri Fang: sculptures d’ancêtres en
Afrique” [Fang byeri: African ancestral sculpture] at the Musée
des Arts Africains, Océaniens et Amérindiens de Marseille (1992),
before leaving on a long tour in the United States with the exhi-
bition “Secrecy: African Art that Conceals and Reveals,” orga-

invierno 2007 african arts | 47

When and under what circumstances did Father Trilles and
Charles Knapp, subcurator of the Neuchâtel ethnographic col-
lections, make contact? There too, for lack of archives, we must
make a few suppositions. It is more than plausible to evoke the
Société neuchâteloise de géographie [Neuchâtel Geography Society,
NGS], of which Knapp was the active library archivist for thirty-
six years, from its foundation in 1885. At the start of the twentieth
siglo, Trilles’s publications were referenced in the bibliography
of the NGS’s Bulletin and a future contribution was announced.
En 1901, he was appointed as a correspondent-member (No. 53 en
the register). In addition to appealing for Bulletin articles and lec-
tures for the NGS, Knapp rarely missed an opportunity to fill the
display cases of the museum section under his charge. On June
28, 1901, “C. Knapp, Prof Conservateur du Musée ethnographique”
requested from the “Département fédéral des péages” in Bern an
exemption from entry rights taxation for “une caisse renfermant
des objets ethnographiques des îles Salomon” [a container of ethno-
graphic objects from the Solomon Islands] as well as for a hundred
“objets pahouins” privately sent from France by Trilles.3 Previ-
ous contact and a certain conviviality between Father Trilles and
Charles Knapp is confirmed by a letter dated July 2, 1901, to the
“Reverend Father” in Tours, only then requesting a valuation of
his collection.4

When Trilles came to Neuchâtel to give lectures the next year,
the Society paid 200 francs in francs-or (which at that time corre-
sponded to 680 or US$840 today) for the ninety-nine pieces on
the Spiritan Father’s list, a purchase very briefly mentioned in the
1902 Informe (Higo. 5ab).5 comenzando en 1905, the Bulletin published
a series of contributions on the topics of the Fang and their skulls
by Father Trilles (1905),6 Lausanne University professor Dr. Alex-
andre Schenk (1905, 1909–1910), and Geneva University professor
Eugène Pittard (1908). Schenk’s 1909–1910 essay is illustrated by a
full facial view and profile of Head III.C.7400, photographed on a
glass plate, where Father Trilles’s tiny label with blue edges is still
visible in the middle of its forehead (Higo. 6).

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beyond appearances—when physics and chemistry

shed light on art history and ethnology

The Fang exhibit at the Dapper Museum in 1991 had brought
to light by careful analysis that certain Fang pieces were some-
times “charged”, es decir., contained exogenous components (metal/
bone fragments) invisible without the help of X-rays. En 1997,
during its sojourn in Bordeaux, Head III.C.7400 was X-rayed,
revealing a zone of stronger material density behind the eyes,
unexplained at the time.

A chemical analysis was also run on the famous “tears” that
exude from the head, more or less profusely, when transported,
an odd and ever-fascinating phenomenon. For a hundred-some
años, En realidad, the head has exuded—particularly under the eyes,
the chin, and at the tip of the braids—a highly viscous, sticky
brownish-yellow liquid with reddish highlights. According to
the preliminary results of the analysis from the Institut Européen
de l’Environnement de Bordeaux, made concurrently with the
X-rays, the liquid is totally soluble in standard organic solvents
but not at all in water, which proves its lipophilic character. Estafa-
trary to what was intuitively believed, it was not possible experi-
mentally to prove that a fluidity increase linked with temperature
could explain the “tears” phenomenon.11

En 2005, Professor Raphael Tabacchi of Neuchâtel University
undertook complementary studies on two different samples.
The conclusions of these investigations tend to confirm the first
resultados:

The Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectra (H1-NMR, in acetone sol-
vent) show typical signals in the methyl, methylene, methylene near
to carbonyl function, so as ethylenic protons. Several long saturated
and unsaturated aliphatic chains are present. The direct analysis by
mass spectrometry (APCI+ ionization) and by GC-MS (EI ioniza-
ción) confirms the presence of fatty acids C16 – C18 issued from tri-
glycerides. The relative abundance (%) of the fatty acids is as follow
(on an average):

C9: nonanoic
C12: lauric
C14: myristic
C16: palmitic
C18: stearic
C18:1 oleic
C18:2 linoleic
C18:2 otro
C18:3 linolenic

1.35%
2%
5.35%
16.3%
5.5%
25.4%
15.1%
23.6%
5.2%

These components are typical constituents of fresh vegetable oils
(except C9).

Bibliographical data regarding the composition of palm oil indicate
acerca de 44% palmitic acid, 4.5% stearic acid, 40% oleic acid and 10%
linoleic acid. Important differences and essentially the presence of a
second C18:2 isomer, are observed when comparing with the obtained
analytical results. On a purely chemical point of view, one cannot thus
state that the head has been treated, solo, with pure palm oil.

In such a case, we are probably in presence of an oil (or a mixture of
oils), which has very slowly polymerized at open air during the time,
remaining flexible, which is degrading and partially depolymerised
now. It is a known phenomenon involving radical reactions which
cannot be controlled. Sin embargo, one notes the presence of a high
quantity of insaturated fatty C18:2 acids (Kaehr 2006:173).12

5a receipt signed by Father Trilles, Enero 26, 1902.

5b beginning of the autographic list by Father Trilles,
annotated and checked by C. knapp, subcurator of the
Musée d’Ethnographie de Neuchâtel
pHoTo: © ArCHIVES MEN

nized by the Museum for African Art, Nueva York (1993–1995);9
hardly back from America, it joined the huge exhibit “L’esprit
de la forêt, Terres du Gabon” [The spirit of the forest, Gabonese
lands] at the Musée d’Aquitaine de Bordeaux (1997–1998) y,
selected by Harald Szeeman, at last occupied a place of honor
in the Swiss National Bank’s exhibit “Argent et valeur” [Money
and Value] at the Swiss National “Expo 02” (2002). This made it
possible for L. Perrois to ascertain that the reliquary head at the
Neuchâtel Musée d’ethnographie is one of the two or three world
references regarding Fang sculpture of Equatorial Africa, a lo largo de
with the one at the Metropolitan Museum of New York (anterior
Paul Guillaume then Jacob Epstein collections).10

48 | african arts winter 2007

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Como consecuencia, we must bring together these physiochemical
observations with definite botanic and ethnographic data. Accord-
ing to Raponda-Walker and Sillans (1962:316–17), the Fang peoples
traditionally used a siccative (drying) oil with properties highly
analogous to those of linseed oil, drawn from the seed of a tree
called añgèkh, botanic name Ongokea gore (Hua) Engl., desde el
Olacaceae family. From both the 1999 y 2005 analiza, cual
were strictly independent of each other, and these ethnobotani-
cal comments, we can thus ascertain that in addition to palm oil
as binder, other components were found within the oleoresinous
coating used by Fang artists to darken the yellowish wood of the
upper surfaces: charcoal powder (coloring), copal resin (Copa-
ïfera, a coloring and fixative), and part of the siccative añgekh seed
oil specially reserved to harden the applied varnish.

We can perhaps suppose that the Neuchâtel Fang head orig-
inally had an overall patina that stayed more or less lacquered
and dry for decades. Chemical alteration due to the ageing of
the components of the oleoresinous “smear” would thus explain
the running “tears” when the sculpture is moved or exposed to
ambient air (rather than when exposed to heat); the phenom-
enon is thus more of mechanical than thermal nature.

neuchâtel Fang head scanprooFed
The choice in 2005 of the MEN’s carved head by the French/
German educational television channel Arte as a subject for its
TV film series Arts du mythe prompted new research, looking
at the sculpture even more carefully and asking questions never
before dealt with, as well as redoing certain analyses by more
modern techniques. The piece was taken to Brussels and scanned
by Dr. Marc Ghysels on October 22, 2005, and the ensuing results
(sidebar, páginas. 50–51) proved extremely revealing in several ways.

The CT scan study confirmed what was already visible to the
naked eye: the existence of a cavity under the chin in close con-
tact with the front of the mouth and extending even further
upwards, and of a horizontal perforation at the top of the coif-
fure, bringing to mind the suspension hole in the handle of forge
bellows. If the first cavity had perhaps been meant for receiving
a magic “charge”, the second provided a place to fix the tuft of
feathers with which each eyema byeri was coiffed. The scan study
also revealed that the head and its support, made of a single piece
of wood, was carved from the vertical axis of the tree trunk; el
heart of the log would have been about 10mm in front of the
nose. Aside from some tunnels caused by wood-eating insects,
the wood presents no other defects.

The scan showed heavy impregnation by an oily liquid both
from superficial manual application and simple passive capil-
larity action. The depth of impregnation varies depending on
ubicación, as some places appear to have received preferential
application (rostro, coiffure, and side braids). The original depth
of the oily penetration could be clearly seen by observation from
various viewing angles; this viewing also revealed a recessed
line that is perhaps linked to the mysterious “sweating” that has
lasted so long (as with the recurring drop under the chin), cual
incidentally leads one to wonder how long the sculpture will
continue to “cry”.

Sin embargo, the most intriguing discovery is probably the metal-
lic fragments, wholly unsuspected upon direct observation: no

6 The first publication of the Fang Head, Gabon, III. C.7400, en
1909, from glass photographic plate in the Bulletin de la Société
neuchâteloise de Géographie vol. 20, Neuchâtel, 1909–1910. El
work still carries very obviously, in the middle of the forehead, el
small label of identification affixed by Father Trilles.
pHoTo: © ArCHIVES MEN

only two metallic pins localized within the prolongation to the
rear of the eyes (already somewhat distinguishable in the 1997
X-ray), but new components hidden by the thick facial patina,
namely two decorative triangular patterns at the ears. Más
analysis detected metallic fragments at the cheeks, most prob-
ably linked to decorative plates, nailed or otherwise fastened and
long since lost. Two thin metallic strips, finely crimped, debe
have formerly extended over the face in a V shape, from the ears
horizontally to the eyes and from the ears down to the corners of
the lips (see p. 51). Such decorative patterns are known in Fang
statuary, both in Cameroon and Gabon, but are particularly rare
on the heads alone (Perrois 2006:Higo. 5 y P. 128). Y, bajo
the oozing patina, the surface of the wood is slightly rougher in
those areas.

Por último, the empty space behind the mirror fragments that cur-
rently constitute the eyes has triggered more questions. If the
piece is antique, which is manifestly the case, the mirrors could
only be a secondary, relatively recent addition that must have
replaced metallic rings that depict the eyes, a more traditional
and ancient component of which numerous examples exist in
reference collections. A subsequent, more thorough analysis of
the tomographies has in fact confirmed the existence of discrete
metallic traces at the eye sockets, explaining the presence of the
residual metallic pins, proven relics of the anchor nails of the
original discs.

Concurrently, identification of the wood was made by discrete
sampling, some fragments of which were also sent to the ETH
Laboratory, Zurich, for carbon dating. Through comparison with

invierno 2007 african arts | 49

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A Tomodensitometric Analysis by X-ray Scanner

Subject:

according to the owner’s statement (Musée d’Ethnographie de Neuchâtel, Suiza – Inv. III.C.7400):

Fang reliquary head (eyema o byeri), Gabon.
Wood with an oozing patina (palm oil, resin, charcoal) – 19th century.
Height: 272 mm (476 mm with the base) – Width: 183 mm – Depth: 170 mm.

Objective:

General assessment.

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Observaciones:

The scan highlighted the following features:

(cid:120)

this monoxylous head has been carved from an upright billet of a density around
minus 875 Hounsfield units [HU]; the heart of the log is about 10 mm in front of
the tip of the nose, thus avoiding splitting as the wood dries;

in general, the wood is largely impregnated by an organic fluid (palm oil) to a
depth of several millimeters, increasing the density of the wood to plus 100 HU;

(cid:120) more particularly, the face, hairstyle and side braids are intensely impregnated
with oil to a maximum depth of 15 mm (see blue arrows), and more lightly to a
depth of 50 mm (minus 500 UH, pink arrows); this is probably due both to manual
Ref. 051022-1

Fang reliquary head, Gabon

50 | african arts winter 2007

application of oil to the surface (anointing) and to passive impregnation by
capillarity;

the central braid and the back of the neck are only very superficially impregnated;

behind the circular mirrors forming the eyes (16 mm in diameter) there are two
empty cavities, 5 mm deep, into which metal pins have been driven, the longer of
cual, on the left, measures 23 mm (1);

faint metallic impregnations can be detected in strips running horizontally from the
ears to the eyes and diagonally from the ears to the corners of the lips; they show
that the head was once decorated with metal motifs (see simulations below), 8 a
10 mm wide, attached by nails which have left holes (2) and fragments of metal
buried in the wood (3);

the back of the mouth cavity is connected to a vertical drill hole, 11 mm in
diameter (4), piercing the underside of the jaw and able to contain an animation
device;

a few tunnels, 3 a 4 mm in diameter (5), bored by wood-eating insects, have no
impact whatsoever on the sculpture’s solidity;

a tunnel, 6 mm in diameter, has been drilled horizontally through the hair on the
crown of the head and the ends have been blocked by dense plugs (6).

(cid:120)

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Conclusión:

The scan of this monoxylous head shows:
–
–
–

that the sculptor has avoided the heart wood to reduce the risk of splitting,
the depth of the initial penetration of palm oil (see pink arrows),
the line marking the edge of the residual oil after a century of oozing (azul
arrows),
traces of metal strips that once decorated the cheekbones and jaw,

–
– a tunnel giving access to the back of the mouth (perhaps to work a tongue).

The above CT scan report answers the question set
out in the objective only. It is in no way intended to
certify the authenticity or age of the piece submitted
for analysis.

Dr Marc Ghysels

Appendices:

A set of computerised tomograms (1.2 mm thick) performed on a multidetector helical CT scanner: 40 axial
slices, 40 frontal slices and 40 sagittal slices completed by 120 opaque and translucent projections from
various angles and about twenty animated video sequences on CD-ROM.

Fang reliquary head, Gabon

Ref. 051022-1

invierno 2007 african arts | 51

(this page, top–bottom)
7 View of the ethnographic section at the
brussels Exhibition, 1910
pHoTo: © ArCHIVES MEN

8 The exhibition diploma
pHoTo: © ArCHIVES MEN

(opposite page, l–r)
9
“Gabon” display case in the 1930s
© ArCHIVES MEN, pHoTo: THéoDorE DElACHAux

10 Head driven into the bottom of an
overturned box (III.C.2239.a-b), in a display
case at the MEN. This true-life chimera
endured to the time of the exhibit “175 ans
d’ethnographie à Neuchâtel” in 1967 (Gabus
1967:168, fig. 5)
© ArCHIVES MEN, pHoTo: wAlTEr HuGENToblEr

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14C-AMS dating δ13C[o/oo] calib. edad [BC/AD]

ETH-31535 235 ± 40 –

25.8 ± 1.1 AD 1521–1584 (10.9 %)
AD 1625–1686 (43.4 %)
AD 1731–1809 (38.5 %)
AD 1924–1948 (7.2 %)

This great age explains both the disappearance of the metallic
plates that adorned the cheeks (only a few anchor holes showed
up on the scan) and some surface changes such as the accidental
breaking of the lower part of the left braid, which became almost
imperceptible over time under the thick patina, and finally,
the replacement of the metallic eyes by mirror fragments. El
lengthy time span would also be the origin of the oily sudation
fenómeno, by degradation of the original oleoresinous com-
pound. Other damage can be explained by different causes: Como
with many Fang pieces, this one is eroded around the mouth,
probably deliberately. En efecto, it was usual that the officiants of
the byeri took fine chips from the wood image likeness in order
to reinforce by empathy the power of magic “drugs”.12

heads and statues: which came First ?
Günter Tessmann “had already suggested that solo heads must
be an initial expression of ancestor worship, the carved wood
being a direct representation of the skull of the byeri, which must
have preceded the carving of more elaborate figures, busts or
full-length statuettes” (Perrois 2006:29). John McKesson revived
this theory (1987:7-21) by asserting that the heads-with-colum-
nar-neck alone were the archetype of the earliest byeri sculp-
turas. The American ethnologist James W. Fernandez concurred:
As of 1976, he had even suggested that these columnar puppet

reference samples, Hans Beeckman, head of the Wood section of
the Tervuren Museum, Bélgica, identified the slices as a variety
of Alstonia (Apocynaceae family), Alstonia congensis or boonei, a
lightweight wood called ekukh in the Fang vernacular, known in
local tradition for its medicinal properties.

The Carbon-14 dating, carried out on February 8, 2006, por
Dr. Georges Bonani of the Zurich Federal Institute of Technol-
ogia, Suiza, confirmed the head’s antiquity, indeed going
back somewhat further than had been imagined. Four points are
apparent on the graph of the result sheet, two of which must be
eliminated (the most recent—impossible—and the oldest), como
the probability percentage seems too weak. The remaining two
medians correspond to dates of 235 ± 40 BP (counting from
1950), es decir., between the years 1675 y 1755, approximately the
early eighteenth century.

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heads with heart-shaped faces and rounded foreheads could
have been basically of Ntumu creation, the style of the original
form of all other Fang artistic expression, a sort of “proto-Ntumu
style” (Fernandez and Fernandez 1976:723–46).

From this point of view, the Fang sculptors would have only
gradually completed the early archetypal form—at the mercy of
circumstances and successive centuries—adding arms and legs
onto the columnar neck, seen as a stylized body. This probably
led to the upright statuettes that travelers and other colonials
observed and sometimes collected at the turn of the twentieth
siglo. Such a development corresponds to a new actuality of
embracing Fang art as a “snapshot” and not as a stylistic pan-
orama frozen in time.

Perrois concludes, “In principle, I am not against the idea of
an original Fang style, particularly attributable to the Ntumu,
but I remain prudent since nothing in the tradition of the other
grupos, no more than in that of the Ntumu themselves, supports
it” (2006:30). Además, this “logic” of a linear and gener-
alized evolution, within a particularly complex and dispersed
historical-cultural framework, seems a bit overly tinged with
Western Cartesianism and has little to do with traditional Cen-
tral African systems of thought. Por otro lado, the ethno-
morphological analysis of the Fang corpus proves statistically the
fact of stylistic variations, identified at least for the period at the
end of the nineteenth century (Figs. 11–12; Perrois 1992); we may
hope that future research here in linguistics, history and, por-
haps, population genetics will tell us how they were made and
differentiated, and perhaps during which periods.

En 1992, the question had already come up in Byeri Fang, Sculp-
tures d’ancêtres en Afrique (Perrois 1992). The representation of
the lineal ancestor by a sculptural head alone is in fact not nec-

essarily the spontaneous and immediate approach one may first
suppose: “In the prehistorical paleolithic art, es decir. at the beginning
of ancient art, entire bodies, even in a rough manner, are sculp-
tured. To isolate the head as a whole significant image, a long
mental and intellectual route is to be followed so that part would
refer to whole” (Perrois 1992:45).13 It is thus doubtful, desde el
comparative data of the ancient arts of peoples without an alpha-
bet, that the theme of the ancestral “head-alone” had actually
been a “primordial” form that directly replicated in wood (y
perhaps stone) preserved reliquary skulls—a “simple” expres-
sión, por así decirlo, that subsequently became complex. Sobre el
contrary, we could imagine that it is the specific character of the
head-alone, abstractly evoking the ancestor in its entirety, cual
would be an outcome of thought and artistic practice together.
The subtlety of certain works can have us think so.

Concerning the heads-alone, collected mostly in Gabon and to
a lesser extent in eastern Rio Muni among the Betsi, Maké, y
Ntumu peoples, we can see by studying museum records and
other documentary sources that, de 1920 a 1930, they always
coexisted with the upright statuettes. During 1904–1909, Tess-
mann collected both heads and statuettes in the different regions
where he did fieldwork, in the north and center of Rio Muni.
Similarmente, in the Ogooué region around 1920, Pastor Fernand
Grébert reproduced this dual reality by sketching what he saw
in the villages: The “Byeri guardian” is smoking his pipe before
a nsekh byeri mounted by a head-alone, with bold eyes of cop-
por (Grébert 2003:folio 143), while one of his recently converted
flock, a chief of eminent lineage, is offering him a magnificent
and antique upright statuette with its reliquary as a token of his
new faith (ibid., folio 197). Además, according to what cus-
tomary logic and for what reasons would the Fang peoples have

invierno 2007 african arts | 53

kept the heads-alone, a presumably archaic style, when—at least
according to the authors cited—they had over the course of time
already “improved” them by sculpting full-body statues, sup-
posedly more symbolically complete? On this specific point, No
Fang informant has come forth. In the meantime, we still main-
tain that these two types of expression existed in conjunction
with the stylistic differentiation of the variants, without one of
a ellos (head-alone) being the actual origin of the other (upright
statues), at least throughout the period when these groups were
historically known. Regarding the more distant past, all hypoth-
eses are obviously accepted … but also with evidence.

betsi “braided heads” From northwest gabon:

reFlections on style
Although Tessmann had collected some heads-alone, añgokh-
nlo-byeri, in particular among the Ntum or the Mvae in the Rio
Muni (some of which are in the Lübeck Museum today), we must
take note that a few of them—according to information obtained
—come from the “Fang” peoples, es decir. those formerly known as
“Fang Fang” or Okak, settled to the south of the Rio Muni on the
fringes of Gabon (Figs 13–14). These precious and early fieldwork
references are thus consistent with the attribution of the heads to
the “Fang of the South” rather than to the ensemble of the Beti-
Fang groups, as John McKesson had implied in his 1987 artículo.
Además, it seems that when we can trust the geographical
source by crosschecking original data, most of the heads-alone
from major collections come from northwest Gabon or its close
outskirts, namely the Rio Muni and the Ogooué Valley (sobre el
left bank, including its tributaries, Como, Okano and Abanga Riv-
ers): Father Trilles’s Fang Head III.C.7400, MEN; one from the
Institution des Orphelins d’Auteuil; another from the Fund of the
Congrégation des Pères du Saint-Esprit; those drawn in situ by F.
Grébert in the Talagouga region (Grébert 2003:folio 143, 199, 256);
etc.. (see Laburthe-Tolra and Falgayrette-Levau 1991, Perrois 2006).
If there had been the same stylistic workmanship of carved heads
among the Beti, Ngumba, or Mabéa peoples, German colonists or
other travelers would have undoubtedly found them, if only occa-
sionally. This does not then seem to be the case.

On technical, aesthetic, and symbolic levels, it is logical that
the añgokh-nlo-byeri (“heads-alone”) resemble the heads of the
eyema-beyri Betsi Fang upright statues, as much by their full
volume as by the elaboration of their coiffures. Why would the
artists have adopted other carving solutions or other ways to
ornament the sculptures, when their activity was at the core of
the same symbolic system? Concerning the usage of the heads,
they appear to be permanently fixed to their nsekh-byeri bark
reliquary boxes (the neck extended by a columnar tenon, alguno-
times of quadrangular shape and driven deeply into the very
midst of the relics and other “medicine”, es decir., in actual contact
with the sacred); their function was especially to “safeguard
magically” the family relics by protecting them from theft or sac-
rilegious curiosity from women, niños, or visiting foreigners.
The statuettes, having an overall similar role, could be detached
temporarily from their reliquaries to be used from time to time
as a kind of “puppet” in the liturgy of symbolic presentation of
the deceased at the Melan ceremonies, the initiation rites for the
young male members. De este modo, within a large zone of the Fang of

11 Geographic distribution and reciprocal influence
of Fang styles and substyles
pHoTo: © 2006 louIS pErroIS

12 works typical of Fang styles and substyles
pHoTo: © 2006 louIS pErroIS

54 | african arts winter 2007

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13 Fang busts and heads used in byeri
ancestor worship, collected near 1907-
1909 by the German anthropologist
Günter Tessmann in North-East rio Muni
región (nowadays).
a (l–r) Fang (= Fang-Fang or okak, south
of the rio Muni); Fang; Ntum or Mvae (=
Ntumu or Mvaï).
pHoTo: TESSMANN 1913:118.

14 Ntum Head
40cm (15¾»)
Inv. n° 70-13:1, Völkerkundesammlung
der Hansestadt, lübeck.
pHoTo: lAburTHE-TolrA AND FAlGAyrETTE-

lEVEAu 1991:58.

the South, at least between 1850–1920, heads and statues consti-
tuted two types of ancestral representation, much more comple-
mentary within a synchronically organized cultural experience
than historically different.

Stylistically speaking, the Betsi heads alone can also be differ-
entiated by their coiffures. We find various sizes, some of which
are impressive in their monumentality, such as the one preserved
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nueva York, measuring 35cm
tall (13¾»), 46.5cm (18⅓») with the neck (Perrois 2006:Higo. 1 y
pag. 128); others are much smaller, more intimate sculptures, semejante
as the “juvenile” MEN head measuring 26cm (10¼»; ibid., Higo. 3
y P. 128), plus 22cm (8⅔») for the columnar neck and rostrum,
48cm (19″) in all; or perhaps of dramatic effect, such as the head
of the former Helena Rubinstein Collection, 16.5cm (6½»), 45.5
cm (18″) with columnar neck (ibid,. Higo. 4 and p. 128). Su
facial morphology is in fact recognizable everywhere, con su
wide, rounded forehead shaped like the quarter of a sphere and
hollow, heart-shaped face more or less triangular and elongated,
softly curved near the mouth with thick, stylized lips, the eyes
sometimes depicted by coffee beans, big brass discs, or pieces of
mirror glued by resin.

If most of the heads have an almost-spherical volume visible
at every angle, or are pear-shaped, others have been worked with
a high relief technique, flattening the volume as if shortened in
espacio, to be viewed only from the front (in the darkness of a
pequeño, smoky structure, this technique is imperceptible), cual
reinforces the idea that the effigy-sculptures were not used for
purposes other than the static guarding of the reliquaries. On
the other hand, the coiffures are quite varied: either three or five
thick, stylized braids, more or less flat, falling onto the nape of
the neck or along the ears in locks; or with crested “helmet” and
lateral extensions recalling the shape of the nlo-o-ñgo hairpieces
worn in the past by the northern Gabonese men and women;
or with a chignon knotted with motley shapes made from thin
plaits (ekoma). Most of these effigy-sculptures have been skill-
fully finished with perfectly polished surfaces and thick blackish

patina —the embodiment of exceptional woodcarving crafts-
manship that stems from secular tradition. Their grace com-
mands admiration, especially if we bear in mind the harsh living
conditions of these groups within the equatorial forest context,
where the presence and survival of human communities can
never be taken for granted.

On the morphological level of some of the most accom-
plished works (Perrois 1972:93, 94, 314–30, 337, 339, 340, 350),
we recognize a great similarity in design, especially in the coif-
fures, namely those with straight braids from the Haut-Okano
region or with the “transverse occipital chignon” from the Como
valley in the region of the estuaries of northwest Gabon (Figs.
15–17). This leads us to think in terms of either contemporary
workshops organized around sculptor-masters (beba, sg. mba),
producing effigy-pieces for a whole series of lineal “customers”,
or of specific regional “modes” by which all the sculptors were
momentarily inspired (Perrois 2001:120–39).

conclusion
If one cannot doubt the exceptional esthetic quality of the
MEN Fang byeri head, very often reproduced in publications
dealing with the art of Gabon and presented in numerous inter-
national exhibitions, or its old age—attested by the museographic
documentation which accompanies it—its appeal mainly lies in
the fact that it has continued oozing ever since Father Trilles
brought it to Europe in 1901.

invierno 2007 african arts | 55

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The conjunction of three modern scientific analyses has
started to reveal its mysteries. The wood in which the master-
piece is sculpted was determined as a variety of Alstonia, to no
surprise. A CT scan at first pinpoints the part of the tree trunk it
was taken from, making possible the deduction that this choice
was not at all a random but due to technical reasons, es decir., to avoid
the w0od splitting as it dried up. The examination then shows
the importance of the wood impregnation with a liquid, un
irregular impregnation already partly absorbed. The chemical
analyses of this oily liquid, separately carried out by two special-
ized laboratories in France and Switzerland, both conclude there
is a complex mixture of substances, known through ethnobo-
tanical fieldwork especially, with properties resembling those of
flax oil, which could explain the pearling of “tears” under certain
circumstances, in particular when the object is moved.

But above all, the 14C dating—of course despite its relative reli-
ability—suddenly ages the artifact more than a full century, de este modo
pushing back its date of origin to the beginning or middle of the
eighteenth century, implying—given the history of the “Fang”
peoples—that it had been carried for a long time, junto con el
migration of the lineage owning it, from Southeast Cameroon

56 | african arts winter 2007

to the Atlantic coast of the Gabon River estuary. This manifest
antiquity of a work from Equatorial Africa, where environmental
conditions for conservation are the worst, leads us to understand
that the head had not only been impregnated many times with
vegetal oil during family rituals, but had also been retouched, entonces
precious it has always been for its community. De este modo, a pesar de
it was known for a long time from standard X-rays that there
was “something” behind the mirror-made eyes, it was uncertain
whether it was teeth or bones.

The scanning undertaken for this study has definitively shown
that these dark masses were in fact long metallic points, the oxi-
dized traces of old nails used to fix metallic eyes (made of iron or
copper disks, as proven by light metallic fragments in the orbits).
These have deteriorated or broken off in the meantime, and were
replaced at the end of the nineteenth century by what one sees
nowadays, pupils made of mirror fragments. Identical traces
remaining on the maxillary and cheekbones also reveal that the
head was formerly adorned with metallic sheets, a practice pre-
served in South Cameroon rather than Gabon.

The thorough technical study of the Fang head of the MEN
thus expanded our knowledge of the mores and skill of the sculp-
tor artists in former times, its symbolism, the rituals encompass-
ing it, and the ancient history of the human group to which it
belonged.

Roland Kaehr is a Swiss curator, “docteur ès Lettres et Sciences
Humaines”, University of Neuchâtel (Suiza). He was deputy curator
for the collections of Musée d’ethnographie de Neuchâtel for forty years.

Louis Perrois is a French anthropologist and art historian, special-
izing in the cultures of Atlantic Equatorial Africa. Formerly director of
Museum of Arts and Traditions of Gabon in Libreville, he conducted
research in Gabon and Cameroon (1965–1984) and has published many
books and catalogues on the arts and history of these countries.

Marc Ghysels has a degree in medicine, with a specialization in radi-
ology. He comes from a Belgian family of artists and collectors and has set
up a business in Brussels conducting radiological and tomodensitometric
appraisals of artworks.

(clockwise from top)
15 reproductions of Fang heads in basler 1929:pl. 41 a–b, ex-brummer col-
lection (now at Musée Dapper, paris) and André Derain collection (now barnes
Base, Merion, uSA)
pHoTo: louIS pErroIS

16 “Classic” betsi head in basler 1929:cover, ex-Vicente Huidrobo and paul
Guillaume collections, 46.5cm (18⅓») now at New york Metropolitan Museum of
Arte
pHoTo: louIS pErroIS

17 “Classic” betsi head (ratton 1931), ex-Charles ratton collection, paris,
antes 1931, 28.2cm (11″).
pHoTo: ArCHIVES CHrISTIE’S Ny, MAy 19, 1992, pag. 69, No. 133.

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Notas
1
2

http://www.men.ch/
Libreville was founded in 1849 to serve as

a refuge for enslaved persons who had been freed from
capture by the slave ship Elisa, not far from the Ameri-
can mission station of Baraka created in 1842 (Diario
des Missions Evangéliques 1961: 156–62). This city was
called “Libreville” from its founding (see Kaehr 1997).

3
4

Copy of letters I f° 84.
La caisse renfermant les objets fang que vous

avez adressée à notre Musée vient de me parvenir. Je l’ai
déballée et en ai opéré la reconnaissance. Malheureu-
sement, j’ai eu de la peine à identifier toutes les pièces,
plusieurs n’ayant ni nos ni étiquettes, mais vous nous
donnerez un supplément d’informations l’hiver prochain
quand vous viendrez à Neuchâtel nous faire les conféren-
ces promises. Mon Comité a très favorablement accueilli
vos offres obligeantes. Deux des pipes étaient cassées.
L’accident s’est-il produit en route ? On pourra, je crois,
les remettre facilement en état. Les flèches empoisonnées
proviennent-elles des nains [Pygmy] ? La collection des
crânes est très intéressante. Je la ferai étudier. Veuillez
encore, s. v. p., me faire savoir à quel prix vous évaluez
votre collection ? En attendant de vos bonnes nouvelles,
veuillez agréer, Révérend Père, mes salutations et mes
vœux les plus affectueux, ainsi que mes très sincères
remerciements (Copy of letters I f°85).

The following year the museum bought
a run of twelve copies, large format (50cm x 37.5cm;
19⅔» x 14″), glued on cardboard from negatives on glass
plates. The purchase was to be completed by forty-some
objects in 1904 and another twenty-some in 1907 después
the clergyman’s final return from Africa.

Also in offprint edition by Paul Attinger

Prensa, the work was republished in 2002 by Henry
Tourneux, Karthala Editions as Contes et légendes fang
du Gabon [Fang legends and tales from Gabon] con el
famous head on the front cover.

Le Musée ethnographique de Neuchâtel est

l’un des Musées qui, par leur participation à l’Exposition
ethnographique [sic] de Bruxelles, en 1910, ont obtenu
collectivement le diplôme du grand prix, la plus haute
récompense dont disposait le jury de cette exposition
(Rapport annuel […] Exercice 1911:3-4).

Also published as an offprint by Attinger

Frères, éditeurs.

“Reliquary head, Fang, Gabon, madera, kao-

lin [?], fiber [?], palm oil, h. 9⅞». The Fang reliquary
cult was suppressed during the colonial period, y el
bark relic boxes, which had been protected by sculpted
heads and figures, were expropriated. Artists and own-
ers consequently began to incorporate fragments of
the ancestral relics into the very sculptures themselves
(Fernandez 1982). Collection: Musée d’Ethnographie,
Neuchâtel” (Nooter 1993:154, cat. 77).

La tête de reliquaire du Musée d’ethnogra-
phie de Neuchâtel est l’une des deux ou trois références
mondiales en termes de sculpture des Fang d’Afrique
équatoriale, avec celle du Metropolitan Museum of Art
de New York (anciennes collections Paul Guillaume puis
Jacob Epstein) (Perrois 2005:257).

dans les conditions d’expérimentation, une

Dans l’art préhistorique paléolithique, à l’ori-

gine de l’art, ce sont des corps entiers qui sont sculptés,
même de manière fruste. Pour isoler la tête comme une
imagen [signifiante] à part entière, il faut parcourir tout
un cheminement [mental et] intellectuel tendant à rap-
porter la partie au tout (Perrois 1992:45).

References cited

Basler, Adolphe. 1929. L’art chez les peuples primitifs:
Afrique, Océanie, Archipel malais, Amérique et Terres
arctiques: styles et civilisations. París: Librairie de France.

Compiègne, Victor Dupont, Marquis de. 1875. L’Afrique
équatoriale: Okanda, Bangouens, Osyéba. 2 vols. París:
mi. Plon.

Einstein, Carl. 1920. Negerplastik. Munich: Kurt Wolff.

Fernandez, James W. 1982. Bwiti: An Ethnography of the
Religious Imagination in Africa. Princeton NJ: Princeton
Prensa universitaria.

_______, and Renate L. Fernandez. 1975. “Fang
Reliquary Art: Its Quantities and Qualities.” [Chroni-
que bibliographique], Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines 60
15–4:723–46.

Gabus, Jean, ed. 1961. Parures et bijoux dans le monde.
Neuchâtel: Musée d’ethnographie.

_______. 1962. Parures et bijoux dans le monde. nuevo-
châtel: Avanti Club.

_______. 1967. Art nègre: recherche de ses fonctions et
dimensions. Neuchâtel: Editions La Baconnière.

Galley, Samuel. 1964. Dictionnaire Français-Fang et
Fang-Français. Neuchâtel: Editions Messeiller.

Gonseth, Marc-Olivier, Jacques Hainard, and Roland
Kaehr, eds. 2005. Cent ans d’ethnographie sur la colline
de Saint-Nicolas, 1904–2004. Neuchâtel: Musée d’ethno-
graphie.

Grébert, Fernand. 2003. Le Gabon de Fernand Grébert
(1912–1932). Intro. Claude Savary and Louis Perrois.
Genève: Musée d’ethnographie and Editions D.

Grottanelli, Vinigi. 1987. Australia, Oceania, Africa nera.
Turin: Unione Tipografico.

Kaehr, roland. 2006. “Un chef-’œuvre qui fait couler …
beaucoup d’encre.” Ville de Neuchâtel—Bibliothèques et
Musées-05. 2005 Annual Report. Neuchâtel.

_______. 1997. “Fernand Grébert et sa Monographie eth-
nographique des tribus Fang.” In L’esprit de la forêt. Terres
du Gabon, páginas. 227–33. Bordeaux: Musée d’Aquitaine.

Laburthe-Tolra, Philippe, and Christiane Falgayrette-
Leveau. 1991. Fang. París: Musée Dapper.

McKesson, John. 1987. “Réflexion sur l’évolution de
la sculpture des reliquaires fang.” Arts d’Afrique Noire
63–64:7–21, 28.

Nooter, Mary H., ed. 1993. Secrecy: African Art that
Conceals and Reveals. Nueva York: The Museum for Afri-
can Art, and Munich: Prestel.

augmentation de la fluidité avec la température pouvant
expliquer le phénomène des ‘larmes’.

Perrois, luis. 1972. La statuaire fañ: Gabon. París: Office
de la recherche scientifique et technique d’Outre-Mer.

12 Personal communication, Professor Raphaël
Tabacchi, University of Neuchâtel, 2005; see also Kaehr
2006:173.
12

Comme beaucoup de pièces fang, celle-ci est

érodée autour de la bouche, probablement de façon volon-
taire: en effet, il était habituel que les officiants du byeri
prélèvent sur l’image de bois de fins copeaux afin de ren-
forcer par empathie la charge de certains ‘médicaments’
magiques (Perrois 2005:258).

_______. 1992. Byeri fang: sculptures d’ancêtres en
Afrique. Marsella: Musée d’Arts Africains, Océaniens,
Amérindiens.

_______, ed. 1997. L’esprit de la forêt. Terres du Gabon.
Bordeaux: Musée d’Aquitaine.

_______. 2001. “Les maîtres du Ntem: les sculpteurs
fang mvaï du Nord-Gabon.” In Mains de Maîtres, ed.

Bernard De Grunne, páginas. 120–39. Bruselas: BBL Cultur-
centrum.

_______. 2003. “Les Fang du Gabon vus par les mis-
sionnaires dans le premier quart du XXe siècle.” In Le
Gabon de Fernand Grébert (1912–1932), ed. Fernand Gré-
bert, páginas. 20–35. Genève: Musée d’ethnographie / Ed. D.

_______. 2005. “Gardien des reliques des ancêtres.” In
Cent ans d’ethnographie sur la colline de Saint-Nicolas
1904-2004, páginas. 257–59. Neuchâtel: Musée d’ethnographie.

_______. 2006. Fang. English version trans. Isabel
Ollivier. Milan: 5 Continents Editions.

Pittard, Eugène. 1908. “Note sur deux crânes Fang.”
BSNG (Neuchâtel) 19:58–68.

Raponda-Walker, André, and Roger Sillans. 1962. Les
plantes utiles du Gabon. París: Editions Lechevalier.

Ratton, Charles. 1931. Masques africains. Catalogue.
París: A. Calavas – Librairie des arts décoratifs.

Schenk, Alexandre. 1905. “Note sur dix crânes du
Congo français: Tribus des Yeveng; Race des Fang.”
BSNG (Neuchâtel) 16:296–303.

_______. 1909–1910. “A propos des Fang.” BSNG
(Neuchâtel) 20:412-15.

Sweeney, James Johnson, ed. 1935. African Negro Art.
Nueva York: Museum of Modern Art.

Tessmann, Günter. 1913. Die Pangwe. 2 vols. Berlina:
Wasmuth.

_______. 1991. “Les Pahouins: monographie ethnolo-
gique d’une tribu d’Afrique de l’Ouest …” In Fang, eds.
Phillippe Laburthe-Tolra and Christiane Falgayrettes-
Leveau, páginas. 165–313. París: Musée Dapper.

Trilles, Henri. 1905. “Proverbes, légendes et contes fang”.
BSNG (Neuchâtel) 16:49–295.

_______. n.d. [1911]. Dans les rivières de Monda
(Gabon). Lille/Paris/Bruges: Desclée / De Brouwer.

_______. 1912. Quinze années au Congo français (Chez
les Fang). Lille/Paris/Bruges: Société Saint-Augustin /
Desclée / De Brouwer.

_______. 1935. Mille lieue dans l’inconnu: en pleine forêt
équatoriale, chez les Fangs anthropophages. Bruges:
Librairie de l’Œuvre Saint-Charles.

Van Gennep, arnold. 1914. “Guide sommaire du Musée
Ethnographique”. Revue Suisse d’Ethnographie et d’Art
Comparé (Neuchâtel)1 (1):57–96.

invierno 2007 african arts | 57

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