The pluriarc has been extensively drawn upon in ancestral veneration rites north and south of the Ogooué River. It consists of five musical bows and a simple resonator. When played, the resonator is held against the stomach as the strings are plucked. Stylistically the figurative element at the summit of this elaborate example's resonator is related to idealized portraits created by sculptors in southern Gabon. The use of white kaolin on the face elevates the subject to an otherworldly state of transcendence.