Stylized Figures

For the Fang of Africa in the late 19th century, reliquary guardian figures played an important role in ancestor worship. Stylized human figures made from wood protected Fang relic containers. Bieri, sculptors of the figures, designed them to be placed on the edge of a box of ancestral bones to protect the ancestral spirits. Emphasis is placed on the head, and a rhythmic development of forms implies restrained power. While the proportions of the body resemble an infant, the muscularity suggest an adult. It is believed that this combination of characteristics suggests the cycle of life, fitting for an art form connected with the cult of ancestors.
Similarly, the figures and bull of "Bull-leaping" from the fresco at the palace at Knossos (Crete) in the 15th century are stylized. Here the acrobatic maneuver and powerful charge of the bull are emphasized by the curving lines and animated faces. The sweeping lines of the bull enlarge to his great horns, as the beast, as well as the humans' elongated figures imply the elasticity of living and moving beings.