LOT 0376

Medieval Stone Capital with Prophet Daniel and Lions

SPAIN OR SOUTHERN FRANCE, 12TH CENTURY A.D.

14 in. (25.7 kg, 36 cm).

From an architectural column with a square upper face developing to a rounded base; a decorative frieze carved in the half-round depicting two seated lions, each with its tail looped around its lower body, supporting a pedestal on which a facing bust of a young boy is resting. [No Reserve]

with Piasa, 7 June 2013, lot 17.
Ex central London gallery.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11738-202062.

Cf. Durliat, M., La Sculpture Romane de la Route de Saint Jacques, Dax, 1990, fig.295, p.293; Igarashi-Takeshita, M., ‘Les lions dans la sculpture romane en Poitou’ in Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 23e année (n°89), Janvier-Mars 1980, pp.37-54, fig.8, pl.1.

The form of the capital and the shape of the beasts are similar to those sculptures that survive in churches on the pilgrimage route to Santiago da Compostela – namely in Southern France and Northern Spain, but the bodies of the lions have many correspondences with the capital sculptures of Poitou. The lions were considered to be guardians against evil and the image of the young boy is probably a representation of the prophet Daniel. There is a similar capital in the Church of d'Airvault (Deux-Sèvres) also ornamented with lions and a human head.