Torso of a Bearded Man, Haloed and Crowned
Unknown · c. 1150
The second of two crowned and haloed torsos from the same facade, this bearded figure turns slightly, his hands raised before his chest. Compare him with his neighbour: the same broad face, the same beard combed into ropes, the same heavy crown sitting on a halo, and the same tunic gathered in deep grooves. The pair are usually read as Elders of the Apocalypse, the crowned figures who praise God around his throne in the Book of Revelation, a favourite subject for the upper facades of Romanesque churches in western France, where they appear in rows beneath arcades.
The torso comes from the top storey of the facade of Notre-Dame-de-la-Couldre at Parthenay in Poitou. The church was sold as national property at the Revolution and fell into ruin; the sculptures were taken down after 1806 and stored in the garden of the adjoining property, later a convent of Ursuline nuns. Before the Louvre acquired the two torsos in 1914 and 1915, the dealer Georges Joseph Demotte had the sculptor Boutron complete them with new legs, a common practice at the time. The additions were removed in 1947, which is why the figures stop so abruptly at the waist.
Did You Know? Rows of crowned elders like this one once looked down from the top of a church facade in Parthenay, where they could be seen from the street below.
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