Arcade with Double Capitals and Columns, possibly from Notre-Dame-de-Pontaut

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Arcade with Double Capitals and Columns, possibly from Notre-Dame-de-Pontaut

Place of Originpossibly Aquitaine, France

Dateabout 1400

DimensionsPlinth to keystone: 107 in. (271.8 cm)
Plinth to spring of arch: 73 3/4 in. (187.3 cm)
Between columns (on centers): 62 in. (157.5 cm)

Mediummarble and limestone

ClassificationArchitectural Elements

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1931.81

Not on View

Label TextThe arcade of arches to your left contrasts sharply with the Cloister Gallery’s other medieval architecture. The arches have been constructed in the Gothic style, which used pointed arches to connect the openings between columns, as opposed to the Romanesque style that employed rounded arches, following the model of ancient Roman architecture. Likely adopted from Islamic architecture, the pointed arch reduced the pressure on the supporting columns, making it possible to span greater areas, reach greater heights, and reduce the size of the structural components. While we use the term “Gothic style” today, people in medieval Europe referred to it as ars nova, the “new art,” underlining the change this style represented. “Gothic” was coined as a term of ridicule during the Italian Renaissance, when art and culture from the Middle Ages was seen as backward and crude. The Goths were one of the Germanic invading groups who contributed to the gradual collapse of the Western Roman Empire. When acquired by the Museum in 1931, this arcade was believed to have come from a cloister in the Cistercian abbey of Notre-Dame at Pontaut (pon-TOE) in southwestern France (the Cistercians are a religious order of Christian monks and nuns). This attribution has more recently been questioned. The imagery on the capitals—including figures in contemporary dress dancing and playing instruments, monks, and fanciful creatures such as a unicorn and dragons—would have been unusual for a Cistercian monastery, which typically opposed unnecessary artistic embellishment. Nevertheless, the imaginative carvings epitomize the creativity of 14th-century craftsmen who used stone to insert allegorical scenes into contemporary life. [262]Published References

Abbé Joseph Légé, Las Castelnau-Tursan, Aire-su-l'Adour, 1886-1887, (1889?) 2 vols. (?) (contains "Notice sur l'Abbaye de Pontaut).

Le Grand, Michel, "L'Abbaye de Pontaut..." Bulletin de La Société de Borda, vol. 60, pt. 1, pp. 17-40.

Godwin, Blake-More, "Report of the Director for 1932," The Toledo Museum of Art News, no. 65, June 1933, p. 885.

Godwin, Molly Ohl, "Medieval Cloister Arcades from St. Pons and Pontaut," Art Bulletin, XV, 1933, pp. 174, 185-189, figs. 11-14, (dates 14th-15th century).

Godwin, Blake-More, "The Completed Museum Building," The Toledo Museum of Art News, no. 65, Jan. 1933, p. 852. (mention only).

Rorimer, James J., The Cloisters, New York, 1938, p. 31f. (dates 15th century).

Durliat, Marcel, La Sculpture Romane en Roussillon, Perpignan, 1948-1954, t. IV, p. 86. (dates 14th century).

Riefstahl, Rudolph M., "Medieval Art," Toledo Museum News, New Series, vol. 7, no. 1, inside cover, repr. in color, cover (also published as Medieval Art).

Weingerger, Ricki D., "The Cloister," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 21, no. 3, 1979, pp. 68-71, repr. figs. 23-29.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 56 repr. (col.).

Gillerman, Dorothy, ed., Gothic Sculpture in America, II: the Museums of the Midwest, Turnhout, Brepols, 2001, p. 376-380, no. 269, repr. p. 377. [as from eastern France.].

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.) fig. 1, pp. 8 (fig. 2), 29, 37, 44, repr.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 104-105, repr. (col.).

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2009, p. 14, repr. (col.)

Curran, Kathleen, The Invetion 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 Aubert, Marcel, L'Architecture Cistercienne en France, Paris, 1947, 2nd. ed., vol. II, Chapter 1, esp. pp. 14-21.