Daniel in the Lions' Den
Unknown · Sixth century, recut 1100-1125
A block of white Carrara marble carries a compact scene of the prophet Daniel crouching between two lions that turn their heads towards him, the Old Testament story of a righteous man thrown to wild beasts and left unharmed. Look closely and you will notice that the block has led two lives. The acanthus leaves on its sides belong to a capital carved in the sixth century in Aquitaine, in the late antique manner. In the early twelfth century a Romanesque sculptor recut the stone, keeping the old foliage where he could and hacking away the front face to carve the new figures.
The capital first stood in the basilica of the Merovingian abbey of the Holy Apostles in Paris, later rededicated to Saint Genevieve, and was reused in the abbey church rebuilt in the Romanesque period. The abbey became national property at the Revolution and the church was demolished in 1807. Alexandre Lenoir salvaged the capital for his Museum of French Monuments, from which it passed to Saint-Denis after 1816 and to the Louvre in 1881. Few stones show so clearly how medieval builders recycled the antique past.
Did You Know? The same block of marble was carved twice, six hundred years apart, first with acanthus leaves and then with Daniel and his lions.
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