LOT 0304

Romanesque Limestone Capital with Reef Knot

VISIGOTHIC STYLE, 12TH CENTURY A.D.

20 1/4 in. (74 kg total, 51.5 cm high including stand).

Pillar capital for an architectural column or pier decorated with dense vegetation motifs, tapering swags or garlands; reef-knot motif and leaves above; unworked to the reverse.

Ex French collection.
Holz Artles, 25 April 2015, no.83.
Private collection, Kensington, London.
Private collection, UK.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13383-259007.

See Toman, R., Romanesque Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Cologne, 1997, p.31, for discussion.

This finely carved capital belongs to a group of Romanesque capitals known as knotwork capitals, widespread in the South of France and North of Spain, where the influence of the architecture of the old Visigothic Kingdom was still strong. These capitals probably originate in one of the most famous sculpture workshops of Romanesque France. The base of the capital is topped by a row of abstractly sculpted acanthus leaves. The dominant section of the capital is decorated with stylised knotwork, composed of ornament that entwine and end in folded acanthus leaves. In between the entwined branches, there is more foliage forming the ‘head of a monster’ which playfully animates the sculpture.