A selection of Romanesque and medieval artworks, sculptures and reliefs from the 11th century to the 13th century. Romanesque statuary and architectural elements like Sedes Sapientiae, enthroned Virgin and Child, stone and marble capitals and modillions or friezes. Also explore our early medieval collection featuring Merovingian and Carolingian sculptures, reliefs, and artifacts from the 6th to 9th centuries. Explore our collection of romanesque art for sale.
Romanesque Madonna and Child. Sedes Sapientiae.
Rare enthroned Virgin and Child in limestone carved in very high relief. The Virgin holds the Child between her two knees in perfect frontality, a characteristic of the first Romanesque virgins known as Sedes Sapientiae. Mary is wearing a crown decorated with rectangular and diamond-shaped cabochons, her face in an elongated oval with protruding cheekbones and eyeballs. The throne, of fine quality of execution, has solid armrests with two arches resting on ringed cylindrical Romanesque columns with a molded base. Christ is represented with aged features recalling the anteriority of Christ over the Virgin. He adopts the same attitude as Marie, a shoulder strap diagonally across his chest. If parallels exist with the Auvergne Romanesque virgins, the more refined style of the characters and the throne, the geological analysis of the limestone lead us to place this sculpture in Burgundy, Champagne or Lorraine, in the second half of the 12th century.
Romanesque sculpture Saint-Peter Apostle. Transition Romanesque art Gothic art.
Important statue of Saint-Peter in very strong relief. This exceptional oolitic limestone sculpture shows traces of polychromy. The saint rests barefoot on a large base with an inscription “S SIM…” for Saint Simon Peter. Flat back.
The apostle, with curly beard and hair stylized in large locks, is represented standing draped in a mantle with vertical folds holding his classical attributes, the Book and the key.
The stylized beard, the wide eyes, the folds and the patterns of the clothing direct us towards a production from the end of the 12th century with still clear Romanesque influences. This work undoubtedly comes from an apostolic college.
Romanesque Christ polychrome wood sculpture Burgundy. 12th century.
Important and rare romanesque Christ in polychrome walnut wood. This large crucified Christ from a village in Burgundy is unpublished and is a significant piece in the corpus of Romanesque sculpture in Burgundy because its geographical origin is known. The head with the beautiful hieratic face, surrounded by a crown with traces of gilding is in a frontal position. The chest is weakly marked, above a perizonium revealing the knees. The legs are parallel and rest on the suppedaneum. The village of origin of our sculpture is within a radius of less than 20km from the virgins of Nolay, Anzy-le-Duc and Lantenay with strong plastic similarities with these 3 works, leading us to date this Christ from the end of the 12th century.
Romanesque Christ in Majesty. Romanesque Provençal Art.
Important and rare romanesque sculpture in very high relief belonging to a representation of the Last Judgment, and coming from a Romanesque portal or tympanum. Christ is represented seated on a throne, holding the book in his left hand and raising his right arm which has disappeared. The raising of the shoulder attests to the gesture. He wears a coat with straight folds in the antique style and richly decorated on the torso. The throne is decorated with rosettes and friezes of dots. The Book is also finely sculpted, with rosettes and characters. It probably represents the Book of Life with four engraved episodes relating to the judged soul. This Christ in glory is part of the corpus of sculptures of Provençal Romanesque art and can be dated to the middle of the 12th century.
Historiated romanesque capital. King David and Mephibosheth.
Triangular section corner capital with two sculpted and historiated faces. The first scene shows a horseman joining a banquet scene with a lamenting character in the background. The clothes decorated with curved lines are hemmed with trepan work. The second scene, the banquet, shows a king seated at a table, accompanied by two guests, one of whom seems to welcome the horseman. The table is covered with a pleated cloth and supports a plate in front of the king and some bread. This scene seems to correspond to the biblical episode of Mephibosheth at King David's table. The scene with the rider can therefore be the arrival of Tsiba who will betray Mephibosheth, which can explain the attitude of the second guest who turns away, contrite...
Sculpture of a Saint or Apostle Romanesque period. Paris area or Champagne.
Rare head of a saint or apostle from the beginning of the second Romanesque age. Almond-shaped eyes, with very marked cheekbones, eyelids and eyebrows. Stylized hair and beard with scrolls. The original style of this Romanesque sculpture makes it difficult to locate precisely. However, we can attribute it without too much risk to the Ile de France or Champagne. Origin: Ex Sotheby's, ex Kervorkian collection, ex Robert Kime collection.
Romanesque Virgin of Cerdanya. France or Northern Spain.
Rare and beautiful Romanesque enthroned Virgin from the 12th century. Our Virgin can easily be identified as a Romanesque virgin from the Pyrenees, from Cerdanya, a region of Catalonia shared between France and Spain. The Virgin carries the child on her left knee, Christ holding the globe in his left hand. The missing right arm was to give the blessing.
Remains of polychromy show that the Virgin wore a golden pectoral. The back is full, slightly hollowed out of the bench-throne.
The dress of the Virgin, with very vertical folds, confirms our dating, as do the faces of the Virgin and of Christ, which bring our majesty closer to the black Virgin of Belloc preserved in the church of Saint-Jean de Dorres and dated from the 12th century.
Provenance: ex Sotheby's.
Romanesque Christ Rhenish-Mosan Art. Gilded bronze.
Large Corpus Christi in gilded bronze. Christ is represented crowned, the crown decorated with crosses. It bears a long perizonium with straight and oblique folds, decorated with fine dotted lines on the sides. Long hair with beautiful locks falling over the shoulders. The legs are parallel, the feet resting side by side on the suppedaneum. Beautiful remains of gilding. Of good size and quality of execution, this work is part of the corpus of Rhenish-Mosan Christs from the 12th century, and may have been produced in Cologne. The face of Christ, however, moves away from classical Germanic productions and shows the influences of Mosan art at its peak.
Pre-Viking Vendel period plate Torslunda type. Man between two bears.
Early medieval. Rare plate representing a man armed with a sword and a knife between two bears. This plate is very close to one of the plates discovered in Torslunda and presenting the same scene. The Torslunda plates discovered in 1870 are bronze matrices intended to produce fine bronze plates intended to adorn helmets from the Vendel period (Vendel, Valsgarde, Sutton Hoo...). Our plate, unlike the Torslunda matrices, is made from a metamorphic stone: we are in the presence of an original model intended to produce molds for bronze matrices. It has also been demonstrated (see bibliography) that these matrices were mass-produced with copies from originals or even helmet plates. A scientific analysis of the stone by the Re.S.Artes laboratory revealed an alteration of the stone corresponding to natural alteration over several centuries.
Romanesque capital Auvergne. The three wise men.
Interesting Romanesque Auvergne capital carved on three sides and representing the three wise men. The sculpted faces represent three crowned kings on a decoration of stylized acanthus leaves. This Romanesque wall capital finds analogies in Auvergne Romanesque art from the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th century. The material used, the naivety of the faces and the treatment of the eyes bring this sculpture closer to certain capitals of the cloister of the Benedictine abbey of Saint-André de Lavaudieu, the only Romanesque cloister in Auvergne preserved and dated from the 12th century.
Modillon Romanesque sculpture. Early Romanesque art.
Limestone modillon carved in high relief representing a man's head. The features and hair are stylized with locks originating between the eyebrows, eyebrow arches in an arc, hollow pupils, long mustaches which frame the open mouth, visible teeth, goatee in wavy locks. Beautiful illustration of early Romanesque art.
Viking Norse stone slab from Normandy. Scandinavian sandstone sculpture.
Exceptional Viking stone slab from Normandy (Hattenville). This Scandinavian-style sculpture features a very stylized crosier with a bird's beak (or snake's head). Due to erosion, it is difficult to read, but in the body of the crosier we can see a figure with fists resting on his chest. Below, a horned head, probably a helmeted man. This undeniably Viking sculpture finds no comparison in France and would thus be the first known Viking stone slab or runestone on the french territory.
Late antiquity Visigoth capital. Early Middle Ages.
Marble capital from late antiquity or Visigoth. Capital with stylized acanthus leaves presenting a corded decoration on the abacus. Absence of astragalus common at this time. The base was dug at an undetermined time, perhaps to accommodate a column. This capital is part of the corpus of capitals from late antiquity with Roman remnants but already barbarian influences. The typology of this capital leads us to place it in the 5th century. Our capital would have been discovered anciently in the city of Nîmes, which places us in the Visigoth kingdom of Toulouse. The material used, a white marble from the Pyrenees, is typical of Occitanie production in the very early Middle Ages.
Merovingian late antiquity tombstone. Merovingian funerary art.
Gravestone in fossiliferous limestone representing a woman with long braids holding back a part of her dress and holding an object with the other hand, probably a crown. Feet in pointed shoes rest on a cushion. The scene presented probably evokes a high-ranking woman resting in a sarcophagus. This sculpture is a continuation of the Gallo-Roman gravestone of late antiquity, but is distinguished by the details of clothing (dress) and the general staging which leads us to place it in the 5th century, in the very high middle ages.
Romanesque capital. Paris, potentially Saint-Martin-des-Champs.
Elegant limestone corner capital. Trace of polychromy at the bottom of the basket. Our capital presents a decoration of foliage, palmettes and intertwined tori. This Romanesque capital evokes the capitals of the apse of the priory church of Saint-Martin-des-Champs dating from the years 1130-1135. The ambulatory of this church also has very similar corner capitals.
Romanesque sculpture Saint Lucy. Northern Spain.
Large romanesque statue of Saint Lucy of Syracuse is dated from the 12th century. The saint is represented veiled and diademed, she wears a long dress, with an important tie. Stone sculptures of this period and this size are rare. The origin, by the stone used, and the style of the work directs us towards the region of Castile and Leon and especially towards La Bureba. This Romanesque statue is probably an element of an archivolt or splay of a Romanesque church portal.
Enthroned Madonna and Child. 13th century.
Important Virgin and Child in carved wood, carved back. Sitting on a throne bench, Mary carries Christ seated on her left knee. The Virgin has a face with stylized features with semicircular eyebrow arches, almond-shaped eyes with protruding eyeballs. Marie is wearing a belted dress with a simple neckline and a coat with a flap that goes back to the front. Tiny traces of polychromy.
Carolingian capital. Pre-Romanesque marble.
Small marble capital from the Carolingian period decorated on all sides. This pre-Romanesque capital is decorated with masks with an acanthus leaf decoration on the basket.
Trephine work characteristic of the period.
Early Byzantine Marble Sculpture. Northern Italy.
This preromanesque marble frieze is probably an altar piece or a capital abacus. It presents two confronted birds pecking bunches of grapes. This theme, like the one with two birds drinking from the chalice, is typical of early Christian and Byzantine sculpture. The morphology and style of the birds link this sculpture to the first Longobard representations, before their expansion towards southern Italy.
Romanesque Cistercian marble capital. Northern Italy.
Large capital with water leaf in red Verona marble. This type of capital is typical of 12th century Cistercian abbeys and represents a transition between Romanesque and Gothic art. The sobriety and aesthetics of this capital stand out clearly from the Cluniac and Benedictine sculptures. Our capital is carved on all sides and has a lily on the basket on the 4 sides, the astragal is well marked. The sheets of water, by their rounded extremities, initiate a transition towards the capitals with balls, also well known in Cistercian architecture. This style is very well represented at the Abbey of Sénanque (South of France).
Head of a bearded man. Romanesque period.
Head of a bearded man with marked and aged features, probably an old man from the apocalypse. The hair is curly and stylized, bifid beard. Eyelids and cheekbones are well defined. The eyes and ears are worked with a trephine.
Romanesque capital. 11th century.
Romanesque capital with hooks in sandstone probably from the abbey of Chaumousey (Vosges). This capital is carved on its 4 sides, with a rosette at the start of the hooks on 3 sides and a cross on the last. Digitations (degenerate acanthus leaves) on the first crown. It does not have an astragal like many 11th century Romanesque capitals. The abbey of Chaumousey was an abbey of the order of Saint-Augustin founded in 1090. The departmental museum of Epinal preserves a capital and various Romanesque and Gothic sculptures coming from this destroyed abbey, and all cut in this same gray sandstone.
Romanesque wall capital. First Romanesque art Saintonge.
Rare and early Romanesque impost or applique capital of a Romanesque half-column. Due to its origin (Aulnay), it precedes the exceptional sculptures of the Saint-Pierre church in Aulnay-en-Saintonge, and more particularly the sculptures adorning the capitals of this church with a striking analogy with the large mask of the capital of the nave on the south side. Our capital, probably coming from the church which preceded the new construction of the 12th century, is the prototype.
Corbel depicting a crowned queen. Romanesque art Poitou.
Important corbel depicting a queen with heraldic lily crown. The features are reminiscent of the Romanesque sculptures of Poitou. A possibly depiction of Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen of France and wife of Louis VII. The corbels featuring Eleanor of Aquitaine are known in Poitou.
Pre-Romanesque capital. Carolingian Empire
Capital with large smooth stylized and cubic leaves. Abacus with a macaroon and horizontal stripes. Style of the late Merovigian period and early Carolingian period. Comes from a property on the site of the former abbey of Saint-Basle de Verzy (7th century). In 991, Hugues Capet convened the Council of Saint-Basle de Verzy at the abbey of Verzy to judge Arnoul, son of Lothaire.
Enthroned Virgin XIIIth century.
Enthroned Virgin in carved walnut, hollow back. Seated on a bench-throne, her bust erect, Mary carries the Child on her left knee in a frontal position; oval face with protruding eyes stretched towards the temples, pointed chin, thin-lipped mouth; head wearing a crown placed on a veil descending to the shoulders; she is dressed in a dress with a simple neckline, belted at the waist, and a coat with open sides. Dressed in a long tunic, the Child, with mid-length hair with curved ends, is also crowned.
Historiated Romanesque capital. Sculpture in high relief.
Very important engaged capital from the Romanesque period depicting Saint-Thomas and the Christ between two columns. On the side faces, holy women under Romanesque arches.
Head of crowned king. Romanesque art.
An exceptional plastic in the Cluny tradition. Part probably coming from a portal or arch. Burgundy, first quarter of the 12th century, to compare with the works of the masters of Vezelay and Autun.
Carolingian sculpture. Pluteus Element
Exceptional Carolingian marble pluteus element from the San Salvatore abbey in Orvieto, Italy. The frieze shows crosses and a bird in typical 9th century tracery. Pluteus elements of this size are rare for this period and mainly kept in religious buildings or museums.
Romanesque corbel. South West of France.
Hairless and stylized mask with almond-shaped eyes and hollow pupils. Piece from the collection of Doctor Stephen Chauvet (1885-1950) and probably coming from the surroundings of Monpazier (Dordogne) where he had a residence and collected works from this period during the Second World War.
Romanesque capital sculpted on all sides. Important Romanesque capital decorated with masks.
This rare capital of the first Romanesque art presents an ox mask on one side, a monster mask on the adjacent side and two rosettes on the other sides. The basket is decorated with plant motifs and acanthus leaves.
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.
Head of an apostle or prophet Romanesque period. France.
Very beautiful head of an apostle or a prophet. Bearded with long locks of hair falling down the neck. The almond eyes, wide, have well marked pupils. Our sculpture is characterized by a high quality of execution. This work is strongly influenced by the sculptures of the cathedral of Autun, attributed for the most part to the sculptor Gislebertus around 1130. However the plastic of our sculpture already shows Gothic influences, which leads us to place it in Burgundy towards the last quarter of the 12th century, around 1180. A fine example of the period of transition to Gothic.
Romanesque Corpus Christi. Sandstone 12th century.
Romanesque sculpture representing a deposition from the cross in stone. The torso of Christ is sculpted in a relatively vigorous manner with the chest and ribs well marked. The perizonium also has pronounced folds. A curl of hair is still visible on the right shoulder. This emotiional Romanesque Christ is sculpted in Alsace sandstone and probably comes from the Strasbourg region. This sculpture has few equivalents in stone, most depositions from the cross being made of wood. Stylistic similarities can be made with the copper or bronze Christs of the second half of the 12th century, but especially with the Christ of the Deposition from the Cross in stone preserved at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Lille dated from the middle of the 12th century.
Romanesque marble capital. Occitanie.
Elegant capital in slightly veined white marble, carved on all sides. Crosses attached to the corners and stylized hooks at the bottom of the basket. The absence of an astragalus caused this sculpture to be classified in the series of small capitals from the early Middle Ages or the end of antiquity. However, the smooth leaf pattern at the top of the basket as well as the style of the hooks place us in the end of the Romanesque period with connections in Occitanie and the South of France.
Visigoth capital. Marble.
Rare Visigothic capital in marble from the Pyrenees. This pre-Romanesque capital is carved on all sides and has a very stylized decoration derived from acanthus leaves. The composition of leaves in the center of the sides of the basket evokes an extremely stylized human head. The highly stylized nature of the patterns directs us towards production from the first centuries of the kingdom of Toulouse, before the Visigoth style asserted itself with vigor. Related works: Visigoth capital from the Alcazaba Museum, Almeria, Spain.
Important pre-romanesque capital. Carolingian sculpture.
Large pre-romanesque capital with two birds facing each other turning away. Interlacing frieze on the basket.
The romanesque sculpture is mainly architectural and the works, with some exceptions as the enthroned wooden virgins , mainly come from religious buildings. Romanesque sculpture decorates capitals, corbels, columns and pillars but also porches, tympanums and arches. These often stylized works and fragments have become relatively rare on the market. The Ekinium gallery is passionately looking for these works with such a particular aesthetic.