Double Capitals from Saint-Pons-de-Thomières; Moses Drawing Water from the Rock / Battle between Israelites and Amalekites / Moses Seated between Aaron and Hur / Moses Embracing Jethro with Sepphora and two sons

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Double Capitals from Saint-Pons-de-Thomières; Moses Drawing Water from the Rock / Battle between Israelites and Amalekites / Moses Seated between Aaron and Hur / Moses Embracing Jethro with Sepphora and two sons

Place of OriginLanguedoc-Roussillon, France

Dateearly 13th century

DimensionsPlinth to keystone: 112 5/8 in. (286.1 cm);
Plinth to spring of arch: 88 in. (223.5 cm);
Between columns (on centers): 63 1/4 in. (160.7 cm)

Mediummarble

ClassificationArchitectural Elements

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

Object number

1929.206

Not on View

Collections

Sculpture

Published ReferencesSahuc, J., L'Art Roman à Saint-Pons-de-Thomières, Montpellier, 1908, pp. 70-76, 81, 83f., pls. F-H, K, L. (dates late 11th to late 12th centuries).

Mâle, Emile, L'Art religieux du 12th Siècle en France, 2nd ed., Paris, 1924, pp. 375, 413. (iconography of TMA 1929.208).

Godwin, Blake-More, "The Completes Museum Building," The Toledo museum of Art Museum News, no. 64, January 1933, p. 52 (illustration).

Godwin, Blake-more, "Report of the Director for 1932," The Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 70, June 1933, p. 885 (mention only).

Godwin, Molly Ohl, "Medieval Cloister Arcades from St. Pons and Pontaut," Art Bulletin, XV, 1933, p. 174 et seq.

Godwin, Blake-More, "Le Toledo Museum of Art," Mouseion, vol. 29-30, 1935, p. 20. (illustration only).

Riefstahl, Rudolf M., "Medieval Art," Toledo Museum News, New Series, vol. 7, no. 1, Spring 1964, inside of front cover, repr. in color, 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. 62-67, repr. figs. 11-22.

"La Chronique des Arts," Gazette des Beaux Arts, vol. 96, no. 1338-1339, July-August, 1980, repr. p. 13.

Horste, Kathryn, "Romanesque Sculpture in American Collections XX. Ohio and Michigan," Gesta, vol. 21, no. 2, 1982, pp. 130-133, repr. figs. 23-24.

Durliat, Marcel, "Saint-Pons-de-Thomières," Congrès Archéologique de France, no. 108, 1950, pp. 285-289 (Omits mentioning TMA among locations of capitals).

Gillerman, Dorothy, ed., Gothic sculpture in American, I. The New England Museums, New York, 1989, p. 11.

Gillerman, Dorothy, ed., Gothic Sculpture in America, II: the Museums of the Midwest Turnhout, Brepols, 2001, p. 369-376, no. 268, repr.

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. 10, 33, 34 (fig. 27), 46, repr. (b/w).

Effros, Bonnie, "Art of the 'Dark Ages': Showing Merovingian artefacts in North American Public and Private Collections," Journal of the History of Collections, vol. 17, no. 1, 2005, p. 89, fig. 2.

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

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.).

Barat, Baldiri, "Abadía de Saint-Pons de Thomières," Monasterios, 2011, repr. (col.), Link to resource

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 Breck, Joseph, "Thre Capitals from Saint-Pons," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. XVII, no. 5, May 1922, pp. 111-113 (dates late capitals early XIIIth century.). Cf. Porter, A. Kingsley, "Romanesque Capitals," Fogg Art Museum Notes, vol. 1, no. 2, June 1922, p. 30 et seq. (dates 11th and 12th centuries). Cf. idem, Romanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads, Boston, 1923, vol. I, pp. 337-339, vol. VIII, pls. 1265-1274. (dates some capitals late 12th century, and some perhaps later). Cf. idem, "The Avignon Capital," Fogg Art Museum Notes, vol. 1, no. 3, January 1923, p. 10 et seq., (dates late 12th century). Cf. Durliat, Marcel, LA Sculpture Romane en Roussillon, Perpignan, (1948-1954), t. I, pp. 89-92, t. III, pp. 43-56. (dates some capitals late 11th century; bibliography). Cf. Mesple, "Les Chapiteaux du Cloître de Saint-Pons-de-Thomières," Revue des Arts, vol. 6, 1956, p. 111 et seq. (dates some capitals early 13th century; bibliography). Cf. Marcel Aubert, Description Rainsonnée des Sculptures..., (Musee National du Louvre), Paris, 1950, vol. I, p. 31 f., no. 19 (dates Louvre capital to last third of 12th century, & outlines dating sequence for entire cloister).Label TextThe capitals on the left depict scenes from the Old Testament and important episodes associated with the life of Saint Pontius (Pons in French), patron saint of the monastery of Saint-Pons-de-Thomières (TOM-ee-yair). Born in 3rd-century Rome, Pontius converted to Christianity at a time when several Roman emperors violently persecuted Christians. Pontius traveled as a missionary to the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis (today part of southern France), where he established a church and set about converting local people to Christianity. The Roman governor of the Gauls, Claudius, had Pontius arrested and tortured in various ways for refusing to worship pagan idols and affirming his Christian faith. On one capital, we see Claudius raising his hand to order that Pontius be thrown to two bears. Instead of attacking, however, the bears lick his feet. Finally, the governor orders his beheading, as seen directly to the left. The devotional cult surrounding Saint Pontius included much of Catalonia (today in northeast Spain) and southern France, with Saint-Pons-de-Thomières serving as an important center of the cult.