Engaged capital with vine rinceau, palmette leaves, and rosettes / Anonymous French
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About this Item
Record Details
- Accession Number
- 1982/1.273
- Title
- Engaged capital with vine rinceau, palmette leaves, and rosettes
- Artist
- Anonymous French
- Artist Nationality
- French
- Medium and Support
- sandstone
- Object Creation Date
- 1100-1125
- Object Creation Place
- Europe (continent)
- France (nation)
- Languedoc (historical region)
- Creation Place 1
- Europe (continent)
- Creation Place 2
- France (nation)
- Creation Place 3
- Languedoc (historical region)
- Credit Line
- Museum Purchase
- Style/Group/Movement
- Romanesque
- Dimensions
- 34 cm x 24.5 cm x 33 cm (13 3/8 in. x 9 5/8 in. x 13 in.)
- Century
- First quarter of 12th century
- Primary Object Classification
- Sculpture
- Primary Object Type
- relief
- Secondary Object Classification
- Decorative Arts
- Secondary Object Type
- architectural element
- Physical Description
- Engaged capital carved in grayish, coarse sandstone (arkose). The bell-shaped drum is decorated with a pattern of vine rinceau that encircles palmette leaves in a roughly symmetrical arrangement on each face of the capital. These ornamental plant forms are deeply undercut to highlight the pattern in sharp relief. A pair of volutes decorated with vertical striations springs from the vine rinceau in the upper portion of each face of the capital. A rosette enclosed in a circle appears at the top edge of the center of each face of the capital, above the point where the branches of the volutes diverge.
- Subject Matter
- This capital, carved on three sides, would have been attached directly to a wall on its uncarved fourth side and would have surmounted a similarly engaged column. While the original context of the capital is unknown, its relatively small size indicates that it might have framed a window as part of an embrasure. In such a role the capital would have served a structural function in which it would have supported a projecting molding or rib as well as an equally important expressive function in which the capital would have articulated the mass of the wall and the transition between different architectural elements. The decorative vocabulary of the capital, which derives ultimately from the classical Corinthian order, has close parallels in the church of St.-Sernin in Toulouse and the cloister of the abbey of Moissac in the Languedoc region of southwestern France. The capital also bears a more general resemblance to sculptures found throughout southern France and northern Spain, testifying to the broad diffusion of such forms through trade and pilgrimage.
- Secondary Keywords
- architectural elements
- capitals and capital components
- column components
- columns and column components
- components
- components and systems
- components by specific context
- descriptors
- design elements
- inorganic material
- materials
- materials by composition
- motifs
- object-making processes and techniques
- objects we use
- patterns (design elements)
- patterns by specific type
- plant-derived motifs
- processes and techniques
- processes and techniques by specific type
- relief
- rock
- rock by form
- scrollwork
- sculpture techniques
- structural elements
- structural elements and structural element components
- supporting and resisting elements
- Rights
- If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/about/services/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Technical Details
- Collection
- University of Michigan Museum of Art
- Image Size
- 869 x 955
- File Size
- 45 KB
- Record
- 1982/1.273
- Link to this Item
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1982-sl-1.273/1982_1.273.jpg
Rights and Permissions
Related Links
Portfolios
- In public portfolios
IIIF
- Manifest
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/api/manifest/musart:1982-SL-1.273:1982_1.273.JPG
Cite this Item
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- Full citation
-
"Engaged capital with vine rinceau, palmette leaves, and rosettes; Anonymous French." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1982-sl-1.273/1982_1.273.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 18, 2024.
