Head sculpture

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Description

wood, reddish brown patina, encrustations with blackish mass in some areas, rising from a massive columnar neck, a narrow face with nearly closed eyes and open mouth (reminding of a dead person), slightly dam., cracks, minor missing parts (partly spread with mass), old collection number backside, handwritten, black on white: “AJP 1157”, on block-like base;
presumably coming from a reliquary ensemble. Like most ethnic groups in Gabon, the Tsogho venerate their ancestors by focusing on the remains of them, which are kept in a basket and surmounted by a half figure or a head as guardian of the reliquaries, a practice which is also common with the neighbouring Sango to the east.

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Comparing literature

Lagamma, Alisa (ed.), Eternal Ancestors, New York 2007, ill. 99 f. Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Encyclopedia of African Art and Culture, München 2009, p. 584

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