A WOOD 'NLO BYERI' RELIQUIARY GUARDIAN HEAD Gabon, Fang47 cm high Provenance: Vittorio Bellini (1936-2009) collection.According to the testimonies of European travelers in Cameroon and Gabon between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, the Fang were among the most aggressive populations they came into contact with. Proud and cruel warriors who often practiced cannibalism, able to fortify their villages with wisdom. Despite this fame, the carved figures that they created for the protection of the bones of the ancestors, a cult to which they attributed extreme importance, are masterpieces of hieratic beauty, in which - as in this example - essential lines are combined in a dramatic succession of cursive flashes and profound spirituality.