Saint Valerie Carrying Her Head, Accompanied by Two Angels
Unknown · 1475-1500
A young woman in elegant late medieval dress stands calmly holding her own severed head in her hands, while two small angels attend her. She is Saint Valerie of Limoges, who according to legend was beheaded for her faith and then carried her head to the bishop Saint Martial, one of the saints known as cephalophores, head-carriers. The sculptor treats the gruesome miracle with complete serenity: the neck is neatly cut, the face in her hands is composed, and the angels look like courtly pages. Traces of paint survive on the limestone, which was carved in the Nivernais in the last quarter of the fifteenth century.
Her exact origin is unknown, but it must be a church in Nevers, most likely the Benedictine priory of Sainte-Valiere, handed to the Capuchins in 1601 and destroyed after the Revolution. Nevers has long confused Saint Valerie with Saint Solange, another beheaded local saint, and in 1990 the statue was mistakenly identified as Solange. The Louvre bought it in 1911 with income from a bequest.
Did You Know? For a while the museum thought the head-carrying saint was somebody else, because Nevers has two beheaded saints and tends to mix them up.
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