Sculptural Bust from a Reliquary Ensemble (The Great Bieri) Fang-Betsi artist 19th century In Fang society, figurative sculptures produced for the ancestor cult, or "Bieri," were designed to complement reliquary containers. Such works were generalized ancestral representations which were memorialized and addressed in times of need through relics preserved in the attached container. This sculptural creation distills the representation of a larger-than-life ancestral presence to a head with a penetrating gaze. It was originally placed at the summit of a portable family altar that held precious relics of at least nine generations of an extended lineage. While the relics were accessible to only initiated family members, the sculptural element visually summarized the importance of the contents. The black of the wood was enlivened with applications of palm oil that preserved the sculpture and enhanced the play of light on the surface. Historically, Fang sculptors created free-standing heads,