Lot 109
109
A LIMESTONE HEAD OF A MAN, POSSIBLY A POPE
A LIMESTONE HEAD OF A MAN, POSSIBLY A POPE
A LIMESTONE HEAD OF A MAN, POSSIBLY A POPE
2 More
A LIMESTONE HEAD OF A MAN, POSSIBLY A POPE
5 More
A LIMESTONE HEAD OF A MAN, POSSIBLY A POPE

FRENCH, 13TH CENTURY

Details
A LIMESTONE HEAD OF A MAN, POSSIBLY A POPE
FRENCH, 13TH CENTURY
on a modern base
15 ¼ in. (39 cm.) high; 22 ½ in. (57 cm.) high, overall
Provenance
The Collection of the Rothschild family.
By descent to the present owners.
Literature
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
R. Klein, Chartres. Naissance d’une cathédrale, January 1961, no. 5-211, fig. 5.
H. Arthur, Chartres (extérieur), Paris, 1962, pp. 24-32.
W. Sauerländer, Gothic sculpture in France, 1140-1270, London, 1972, pp. fig. 86, 116, 120-122, 217-218, 249.
J. A. Holladay, S.L. Ward, Gothic Sculpture in America. III. The Museums of New York and Pennsylvania, New York, 2016, pp. 318-319.

Lot Essay

The identity of this man is open to question. It could be a patriarch or, more likely, a pope. A parallel can be drawn with several representations of popes, notably at the Reims cathedral. On the north portal, the representation of St. Calixtus himself on the trumeau, circa 1225-1230, is close to the present head, with a pointed headdress decorated with cabochons and ending in a flattened ball (see Sauerländer, fig. 249). While the Calixtus on the north portal is shown with a beard, he is beardless on the south one, as is the present lot (op. cit., fig. 218, circa 1245-1255).
Two of the column statues in Chartes Cathedral dating from shortly after 1212 are also worth mentioning. Firstly, on the left of the Martyrs portal, Pope Clement wears a stretched tiara with slightly flattened ribs. On the Confessors' portal, on the right, Pope Gregory is carved with a bird on his proper right shoulder and wearing his tiara with a band topped by star-shaped folds.

More from Rothschild Masterpieces: The Kunstkammer

View All
View All