Female Guardian Reliquary Figure (Byeri)

19th century

African Art

By appointment, Wurtele Study Center

Byeri guardian figures were originally attached to a cylindrical bark receptacle containing up to ten skulls assembled by several generations of a family. Referred to as "child of medicine," they received regular offerings. Many byeri display a bold gaze with an intensity suggesting vigilance, possibly meant to discourage women and children from approaching the sacred remains. Palm oil, lavishly applied to the surface, continues to saturate the wood of the figures that are on view here after more than a century. The palm oil preserved and protected the wood from insect damage and produced a luminous surface.

Medium

Wood, brass, palm oil, and fiber

Dimensions

15 3/8 × 4 3/4 × 4 3/4 in. (39 × 12 × 12 cm)

Credit Line

Charles B. Benenson, B.A. 1933, Collection

Accession Number

2006.51.221

Geography

Gabon

Culture

Fang Mvai

Period

19th century

Classification

Sculpture

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
K. John Hewett, London, from 1961. J. J. Klejman, New York; Charles B. Benenson Collection, Greenwich, Conn., by 1981–2004; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.

Bibliography
  • Frederick John Lamp, Amanda Maples, and Laura M. Smalligan, Accumulating Histories: African Art from the Charles B. Benenson Collection at the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2012), 50, 182, ill
  • Art for Yale: Collecting for a New Century, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2007), 183, pl. 165
  • "Acquisitions, July 1, 2006–June 30, 2007," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2007), 4, ill
  • "Acquisitions, July 1, 2005–June 30, 2006," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2006), 222
  • Frederick John Lamp, "Charles Benenson and His Legacy of African Art to Yale," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2004), 33, ill
  • Susan Vogel and Jerry L. Thompson, Closeup: Lessons in the Art of Seeing African Sculpture from an American Collection and the Horstmann Collection, exh. cat. (New York: Museum for African Art, 1990), 167, fig. 97
  • Susan Vogel, African Sculpture: The Shape of Surprise, exh. cat. (Greenvale, N.Y.: C. W. Post Gallery, 1980), 33, no. 112, ill
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

figures (representations), reliquary figures

Subject

guardian deities women

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