Mosan enamel, ca.1180-90

The bronze statuette is mounted on a base, designed to look circular from the front, on which the word MARE is engraved. This base has a concave side, with beaded decoration on its top and bottom edges, and is cut off flat at the back, although the figure itself reaches further back.

Mare is depicted as a bearded elderly man seated on a seat (made out of a separate piece of bronze) with scrolled decoration. His left ankle is resting on his right knee. He turns to the right, looking at his right hand, which is bent back towards him, with the forefinger missing. He holds up his left hand bent at the wrist - the thumb of this hand is also lost. Both hands are wrinkled at the wrist, indicating gloves. His robe is pinned at the throat, and falls around him, leaving his legs bare from the knee.

Angular sharpness and precision characterize the drapery folds, which flow in broad sculptural strands and form his robe and mantle.

The figure is hollow, and the gilding is appropriately worn. There is a hole at the back of the cushion on which he sits, as well as a pin passing down through this cushion to secure the figure to the seat. A further pin, visible from the underside, secures the base to the figure.

Purchased from M.Baur of Paris in 1864.

There is a broken piece of bronze between the figure and the pedestal on which he sits - this indicates that he was originally attached to a larger object, forming one of several feet. This is likely to have been a crucifix.

The inclusion of the elements in a sculpted cross made the symbolic point that the crucifixion was a stupendous world event, that threatened to dissolve the elements into chaos and ruin the order of Creation (P. Verdier, 'What We know of the Great Cross of Suger in Saint-Denis', Gesta, vol. 9, 1970, p.13).

The base of a cross from the abbey of St Bertin, now in the Musée de l'Hôtel Sandelin, St Omer, France (inv. 2800, Springer 1981, pp.196 ff, plate K348) has four half-length figures around the capital of the pedestal which have been identified as representing the four elements. These are not however the familiar four elements of earth, fire, water and air, although one female figure holds a spade (Earth) and one a fish (Water). This base is known to be closely related to the base of the lost cross of Abbot Suger, made for his great abbey of Saint-Denis in the Ile-de-France, and we know from documentary sources that the elements here consisted of Centurio (the centurion of Calvary), Pelagus (the sea), Abyssus (the deep) and Terra (earth).

Full-length seated evangelist figures form the feet of the St Omer cross base - the presumed original position for the V&A figure on its own cross. They are similar to the Mare figure in style - the drapery is similarly stretched around the poses of the figures, and the design of their curved concave bases with double row of beading is similar, though not identical.

K Hoffmann describes the complicated movements inherent in the figure type as meeting the stylistic tendency of Mosan art of about 1160-1180, when the range of such postures was fully exploited in different iconographical contexts, though he actually dates it to 1180-90. Rhein und Maas 1973 supports a date of around 1180, comparing the figure to the evangelists at the foot of the Saint-Omer cross (see History), as well as a seated Evangelist figure from the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence (Rhein und Maas, 1973, pl.11).

This little figure was originally attached to a larger object, probably a standing cross, forming one of several feet.

The engraved word 'Mare' on the base indicates that it was one of a group of four figures representing the Elements. The inclusion of the elements in a sculpted cross made the symbolic point that the crucifixion was a stupendous world event, that threatened to dissolve the elements into chaos and ruin the order of Creation. They appear on other crosses - in particular we know from written sources that they were a feature of the famous cross of Abbot Suger from his abbey of Saint-Denis, in the Ile de France. The elements on Suger's cross were not however the familiar four elements of earth, fire, water and air. They consisted here of Centurio (the centurion of Calvary), Pelagus (the sea), Abyssus (the deep) and Terra (earth).

The style of this figure with its wrinkled gloves, twisted animated pose, and realistic drapery shows the naturalism of which the Mosan metalworkers of the later 12th century were capable.

630-1864