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Sedes Sapientiae (fragment)
Description‘Une douce dame du douzieme…’ Sedes Sapientae (Fragment) The role of the Sedes Sapientae or Seat of Wisdom figure in the High Middle Ages is well-known and it had perhaps become the most popular devotional figure in Christendom by 1200, found from Spain to Sweden. In France this may have been helped by the decision around 1150 at Chartres, a Cathedral dedicated to Mary, to show a Sedes on the tympanum (Royal portal south door), followed soon after by Notre Dame in Paris (St Anne Portal) modelled on it and other works such as the Crespieres group in the Louvre. This unique head has the half-length veil and large crown type also seen in examples from Cerdagna in the Pyrenees (Virgins of Hix and Ger (Barcelona MNAC) but the oval face and greater refinement of the northern figures. The collar type, here beautifully preserved, is one current in the second half of the twelfth century, in all regions, the most famous examples again found on some figures of the Royal Portal st Chartres, and this latter’s Visitation group on the south door tympanum also features the wavy hair and scooped folds. CommentaryExcepting a number of famous manuscripts, vanishingly few works from the twelfth century have come down to us intact or unaltered. Again, among the fragments vanishingly few posses what ultimately remains the sole quality, - often hard to define and fleeting as a glimpse, - that gives its value to a work of art: beauty. If styling this head as the Nefertiti of the Middle Ages would err on the side of hyperbole, it would also be a mistake to underestimate its quiet attractiveness, which no photography can convey, for it is without doubt among the most accomplished and arresting heads from the surviving 12th century Sedes groups. Most importantly, being in a virginal state, without any restoration or intervention, it is also an important witness to canons of feminine beauty at the time. As with all early sculpture this partly relied on the painted finish, as can here be seen on the polychrome remains of hair strands on the true left side. Nevertheless, it is a beauty perfectly captured by the still Romanesque delicacy and refinement of the sculptural treatment, undiminished by its fragmentary state, and one that brings us closer to understanding why the faithful were prompted to prayer when in the presence of the douce dame par excellence, most blessed of women. ProvenancePrivate collection French Pyrenees. |
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