Architectural Fragment: Pilaster Capital

The leafy acanthus motifs and beads carved on this fragment of a capital resemble the decoration of Cluny’s choir screen, but the small scale of the object suggests it served an ornamental rather than functional purpose. Scholars have argued over its original siting: recent research recognizes that its decorative motifs strongly resemble those carved on a circular structure, perhaps a lavabo (a special basin for the ritual washing of hands) within the choir at Cluny. At present this fragment of Cluny’s past remains a mystery, provoking more questions than answers. What can be seen at first hand, however, is the care sculptors took with the surface and the richness of the carving: sure signs that even if we no longer know how it fit into the church’s interior, its medieval makers considered it an important element in that sacred space.