Cloister Arcade, probably from Espira-de-l’Agly
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for Cloister Arcade, probably from Espira-de-l’Agly
Cloister Arcade, probably from Espira-de-l’Agly
ArtistIn the style of
Cuxa Workshop
French
Place of OriginLanguedoc-Roussillon, France
Dateabout 1150
DimensionsPlinth to keystone: 91 1/2 in. (232.4 cm)
Plinth to spring of arch: 67 1/2 in. (171.5 cm)
Between columns (on center): 64 1/8 in. (162.9 cm)
Plinth to spring of arch: 67 1/2 in. (171.5 cm)
Between columns (on center): 64 1/8 in. (162.9 cm)
Mediummarble
ClassificationArchitectural Elements
Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1934.93A-E
Not on View
Collections
Published References- Sculpture
Godwin, Blake-More, "Report of the Director for 1934," The Toledo Museum of Art News, no. 70, March 1936, p. 975.
Durliat, Marcel, La Sculpture Romane en Roussillon, Perpignan, (1948-1954), t. IV, pp. 85-89. (dates capitals after 1136, but before 1200; attributes to Cuxa Workshop; suggests connection with Espira de L'Agly).
Durliat, Marcel, Roussillon Romain, (La Pierre-qui-Vire), 1958, p. 23 (suggests connection with Espira de l'Agly).
Riefstahl, Rudolf M., "Medieval Art," Toledo Museum News, New Series, vol. 7, no. 1, Spring 1964, inside of front cover, repr. (col.), front and back covers. (also published as Medieval Art (handbook)).
Weinberger, Ricki D., "The Cloister," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 21, no. 3, 1979, pp. 56-61, repr. figs. 2-10.
Horste, Kathryn, "Romanesque Sculpture in American Collections XX. Ohio and Michigan," Gesta, vol. 21, no. 2, 1982, pp. 125-130, repr. figs. 17-22.
Simon, David L., "Romanesque Sculpture in North American Collections. XXIV. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Part IV: Pyrenees," Gesta, vol. 25, no. 2, 1986, p. 247.
Diskant, eda, "Quelques sculptures romanes du Roussillon dan les collections américaines," Les Cahiers de Saint-Michel de Cuxa, no. 21, July 1990, pp. 199-209, figs. 8-11, 13, and 14. [pam file].
Putney, Richard H., Medieval Art, Medieval People: The Cloister Gallery of the Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 2002, cover + p. 6, repr. (col.), pp. 4, 7, 9, repr.
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, pp. 104-105, repr. (col.).
Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2009, p. 14, repr. (col.)
Curran, Kathleen, The Invention of the American Art Museum: From Craft to Kulturgeschitchte, 1870-1930, Los Angeles, The Getty Research Institute, 2016, p. 221-222, repr. p. 222, fig. 118.
Comparative ReferencesSee also Rorimer, James J., The Cloisters (handbook), New York, 1938, pp. 36-43 (dates Cuxa capitals to late 12th century).See also Durliat, Marcel, La Sculputre Romane en Roussillon, Perpignan, (1948-1954, t. I, p. 23 et seq., esp. 23-28, 85f. (dates Cuxa capitals to mid 12th century).
Label TextThe production of sculptural decoration in monasteries blossomed in the 12th century, the period when stonemasons carved this arcade for the monastic church at Espira-de-l’Agly (ESS-peer-ah-duh-lag-LEE) in the northeastern Pyrenees mountains. Fashioned out of various colors of marble, the capitals are carved with stylized vegetation, geometric motifs, and fantastical creatures in bold relief. Several are decorated with wild animals, and the central capital depicts pairs of fearsome, winged lions whose bodies share a single head. Some monks thought art was inappropriate for cloisters. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), the leader of a new and powerful group of monks called the Cistercians, condemned “monstrous” depictions of animals on cloister capitals, complaining: …in the cloisters, before the eyes of the brothers while they read—what is that ridiculous monstrosity doing, an amazing kind of deformed beauty and yet a beautiful deformity? What are the filthy apes doing there? The fierce lions? The monstrous centaurs? The creatures, part man and part beast? The striped tigers? The fighting soldiers? The hunters blowing horns? You may see many bodies under one head, and conversely many heads on one body. … Everywhere so plentiful and astonishing a variety of contradictory forms is seen that one would rather read in the marble than in books, and spend the whole day wondering at every single one of them than in meditating on the law of God. Despite Bernard’s passionate objections, most monasteries continued to feature sculptural decoration in cloisters and other monastic spaces.
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