Collection André Fourquet (1928-2001), Paris
Alain de Monbrison, Paris
Collection Viviane Jutheau, Comtesse de Witt, acquis en 1994

Perrois, Arts du Gabon. Les arts plastiques du bassin de l'Ogooué, 1979, p. 105, n° 103

Good condition overall. Wear consistent with age and use within the culture. Scattered few chips and scratches. Wear to edges and few losses to the kaolin of each faces. Missing part where the 4 crests meet with an old repair.
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Ce masque-heaume ngontang, étroitement apparenté à l'exemplaire du Musée Dapper (inv. n° 4295) et à celui du Dallas Museum of Art (inv. n° 1974.SC.33), se distingue par le très grand raffinement des quatre faces sculptées. Les visages blanchis au kaolin se singularisent les uns des autres par les scarifications finement gravées - arcs de cercle, croix, lignes en pointillés – qui les individualisent. Épurée à l’extrême, la construction faciale « en cœur » est structurée par la tension des sourcils arqués prolongés par le nez longiligne, concentrant la force de la sculpture dans les quatre regards pénétrants. Deux des visages ont les yeux sertis de fragments de miroirs, témoignant de la puissance de l'esprit féminin que ce masque évoque.

Illustration des canons de l’art Fang – tant dans la plénitude des formes que dans l'épure du graphisme - cette œuvre témoigne aussi de la vigueur de son rôle socio-religieux. Si elle s’apparente stylistiquement aux masques Fang à une seule face, présents au Nord du Gabon, sur la rive droite de l’Ogooué et également rehaussés de kaolin, ici la multiplication des visages (dont le nombre peut aller jusqu'à six) permet de renforcer le rôle divinatoire. Par ses danses, l’esprit féminin représenté agissait en effet comme l’intercesseur donnant accès au monde des ancêtres. « Appelés nlo-ngontang, [ces masques] avaient pour rôle de découvrir, en tant qu'entités émanant du monde des esprits, capables de tout voir par leurs deux ou quatre paires d'yeux, les sorciers maléfiques. En luttant contre ce fléau, la sorcellerie de l'evus, les masques ngontang contribuaient à la régulation sociale des villages fang au début du XX^e siècle » (Perrois, Fang, 2006, p. 49).

Fang mask, Gabon 

This ngontang helmet-mask, closely related to the one at the Dapper museum (inv. No. 4295) and to that belonging to the Dallas Museum of Art (inv. No. 1974.SC.33), is distinguished by the refined quality of its four carved faces. The faces, whitened with kaolin, are set apart from each other by finely engraved arcs, crosses, dotted lines that individualize them. The "heart shaped" composition of the🎃 visages are pared down to basic facial features, struﷺctured around the tension of the arched eyebrows that extend into the long thin nose. As a result, the forcefulness of the sculpture is concentrated in the four penetrating stares. The eyes on two of the faces are set with mirrors, a mark of the power of the feminine spirit that this mask evokes.

An illustration of the the ideals of Fang art, both in the fullness of the forms and in its minimalist design, this piece is also a testament to the vigour of its socio-religious role. Although it is stylistically similar to one-sided Fang masks from the right bank of the Ogooué River in northern Gabon, which are also embellished with kaolin, the multiplication of faces (upwards of six) strengthens the divinatory role of the piece. Through its dances, the feminine spirit depicted by the mask acted as a vehicle through which one could access the ancestral realm. "Known as nlo-ngontang, the role of these masks, as entities from the spirit world who were able to see everything with their two or four pairs of eyes, was to discover the evil sorcerers. In fighting the scourge of the evus sorcery, the ngontang masks contributed to the social regulation of Fang villages in the early 20^th century" (Perrois, Fang, 2006, p. 49).