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Sculptural Element from a Reliquary Ensemble: Head

Fang peoples, Betsi group

19th century (collected before 1914)

Not on view

This freestanding head with distinctive winged coiffure was among the first African works exhibited in an art gallery. Such heads and full-bodied figures, exactingly carved by Fang masters, crowned familial altars, which were composed of a bark receptacle filled with relics related to the most distinguished members of an ancestral lineage.
The exact circumstances surrounding the removal of this work from Africa are not known. However, by 1914, it had been exhibited at Robert Coady’s Washington Square Gallery in New York. The head therefore became the first African artifact displayed in New York alongside art by modern masters such as Juan Gris and Henri Rousseau.

Sculptural Element from a Reliquary Ensemble: Head, Wood, Fang peoples, Betsi group — Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Title: Sculptural Element from a Reliquary Ensemble: Head

Date: 19th century (collected before 1914)

Geography: Gabon

Culture: Fang peoples, Betsi group

Medium: Wood

Dimensions: H. x W. x D.: 9 1/8 x 5 3/4 x 6 in. (23.2 x 14.61 x 15.24 cm)
With base, Height: 15 5/8 in. (39.69 cm)

Classification: Wood-Sculpture

Credit Line: Curtis Galleries, Inc.

Accession Number: Armory-1914-01

The Met

The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at The Met

The Met's collection of art of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and North, Central, and South America comprises more than eleven thousand works of art of varied materials and types, representing diverse cultural traditions from as early as 3000 B.C.E. to the present.