Patine suintante
In English use: Exudative ritual patina
A "weeping" surface where ritual oils and resins, absorbed over decades, exude back through the wood as climate shifts.
A characteristic surface of Fang and Kota reliquary figures: over many decades the wood is rubbed with palm-oil, animal fats, chewed copal resin, and plant decoctions to feed the spiritual charge of the object and honour the ancestors. The porous wood absorbs these oily substances deep into its cells.
Decades later — even in a Paris apartment or a climate-controlled saleroom — temperature shifts cause the wood to exude this old oil back to the surface. Sticky resins ooze through. The object reads as literally alive, organically active. In auction catalogues this patina is celebrated as the ultimate proof of authenticity and ritual depth.
Why the literal English fails: "weeping" or "sweating patina" sounds pathological. Patine suintante preserves the ritual poetry — a near-respiratory connection between object and ancestors.