Carolingian marble sculpture. Carolingian Renaissance.

Rare head of a bearded man in marble wearing a hemispherical helmet with a summit button. The helmet has a long neck and nape protector with strips. This type of helmet is known from Byzantine representations of the 9th century (frescoes of the monastery of Saint Lucas in Greece) but the plasticity of the face, its volume and the marked cheekbones rule out a Byzantine origin and place this work in the Carolingian renaissance of the 8th and 9th century. Carolingian figured sculptures are rare and we must look for connections in the psalters of Utrecht and Stuttgart (executed around 820 in the scriptorium of the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris) as well as with the Carolingian ivories from the same period.

The sculpture presents work with a trephine for the beard and shows traces of burns, subsequent to the breakage.
The volume of the face is found on different ivories, for the most part on the cover of psalters or manuscripts : lower cover of the psalter of Charles the Bald (Bibliothèque Nationale de France), Book of Pericopes of Henry II (Bayerishe Staatbibliothek, Munich), binding cover of the Gospels of Drogon (Bibliothèque Nationale de France). The helmet finds parallels in the Utrecht Psalter (CXVI Alleluia fol.67v) and in numerous folios of the Stuttgart Psalter (folios 8 & 12 for example).
Works consulted: Carolingian art, Jean-Pierre Caillet, Paris 2005 - Ivories of the middle age, D. Gaborit-Chopin, Friborg 1978 - The Carolingian ivory carving of the later Metz group, Anne Harbor Michigan 1983.

Origin: France

Medium: White marble

Size: H:13cm

Period: 9th century

Condition: Wear and accident on the nose

Ref.236