Architectural Fragment: Crowned Head [Elder of the Apocalypse or Old Testament King]

Sculpted in relief, this fragmentary bust of a male figure wears a crown and elaborate collar, distinguishing him as royalty. Turning his head to his right, the regal figure exudes a certain dignity and pathos, despite the surface abrasions that today mark the fragment, particularly on its left side. The fragment resembles contemporary sculpture of the Languedoc region in southwestern France, particularly in monasteries surrounding the celebrated twelfth-century Benedictine abbey at Moissac, a monastery once affiliated with Cluny. But beyond such stylistic comparisons, we cannot be sure where this fragment of a king or Old Testament patriarch once belonged. In its current state, the surface of the carving exhibits the scars of its journey from integral sculpture to fragment in the Smart Museum's collection. Carved out of a block of stone, and then forcibly dissected from its original architectural home, the bust as we see it today is the sum of centuries of artistic, destructive, and preservationist actions.