Romanesque marble head Saint-Michel de Cuxa Abbey. Element from the 12th-century choir screen.

Rare and significant Romanesque marble sculpture with pink and yellow veins, representing a female head in almost full-round. The oval-shaped face exhibits fine chisel work in the eyes and the corners of the lips. The eyes, with lead inlays in their cavities, give the sculpture a unique intensity, emphasizing the sober and hieratic expression of the face. The hair, combed into stiff strands, falls asymmetrically over the forehead. These formal characteristics, combined with the material used, a marble from the Pyrenees probably extracted from the Bouleternère quarries, confirm the prestigious origin of this piece, undoubtedly from the choir screen of the Abbey of Saint-Michel de Cuxa or that of the Priory of Serrabona in Occitania.

The choir screen of Saint-Michel de Cuxa was dismantled in the 16th century, and its fragments were dispersed, several of them now being part of private and public collections, notably at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which holds multiple elements from this choir screen. This female head comes from the private American collection of Karl Stirner.
Consulted references:
- Les tribunes de Cuxa et de Serrabona, deux clôtures de choeur exceptionnelles de l’époque romane, DRAC Languedoc Roussillon, 2014.
- Les ateliers de Cuxa-Serrabone : 1130-1155, Deux ateliers de sculpture en Roussillon, Gérard Vidal, 2015.

Origin: Occitania, France.

Medium: Marble.

Size: H: 20 cm.

Period: 12th century.

Condition: Wear, minor chips.

Price: on demand

Ref.254