Limestone capital depicting the Adoration of the Magi from the cloister of Saint-Marie de Lombez, south-west France, ca. 1140-50

Limestone capital from a cloister. One one long side the Virgin is seated beneath an arch holding the Child, the Magi approach from the left, the foremost kneeling. Above are the star and a scroll of conventional foliage. Each of the other sides show one of the Magi approaching on horseback through conventionalised trees. A border of palmettes containing leaves and cone-shaped forms surround the upper part of the capital. The heads have been defaced but otherwise the capital is in fair condition.

Purchased with Art Fund support

On the long side of this capital the Virgin represented seated beneath a grand arch, holding the Christ Child in her left arm. The three Magi, whose faces have been defaced, approach from the left of the object. The first Magi kneels in adoration before the infant Jesus Christ, and above his head shines the star. The other sides depict the Magi riding on horseback to Bethlehem through stylized trees. Above each scene runs a border of plamettes containing leaves and cone-shaped vegetation.

This capital formed part of the cloister (the covered and often vaulted walk around an open courtyard or space within a religious building) of Sainte-Marie de Lombez (Gers), in south-western France. A capital is the uppermost part of a column, and in the Middle Ages these were customarily decorated with narrative scenes, generally of a religious Christian nature, or decorative foliage, carved in relief. Most capitals, like this Romanesque piece here, took the form of a trapezium carved in the round. This shape offered tremendous weight-bearing strength.

The style of this capital is 'Romanesque', a term which covers the period preceding Gothic during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In England this style is sometimes called 'Norman', to imply the post-Norman Conquest style current during the same period.

Lombez was a Benedictine abbey, which was demolished in 1820, although only sixteen bays of the cloister survived by this date. The first to identify this piece as being from Lombez was Paul Mesplé: see P. Mesplé, 'Chapiteaux du Cloître de Lombez au Musée des Augustins de Tolouse et au Victoria and Albert Museum de Londres', in La Revue des Arts, 8 (1958), pp.177-84.

From the church of Sainte-Marie de Lombez, Gers

This capital formed part of the cloister (the covered and often vaulted walkway around an open courtyard within a religious building) of Sainte-Marie de Lombez (Gers), in south-western France. A capital is the uppermost part of a column, and in the Middle Ages these were customarily decorated with narrative scenes carved in relief, generally of a religious Christian nature, or decorative foliage. Most capitals, like this Romanesque (11th/12th Century) piece, took the form of a trapezium carved in the round. This shape offered tremendous weight-bearing strength.

A.58-1935