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A gray stone head of a man with curly hair and a curly beard

Head of a man with chin-length curly hair and a curly beard that extends just below his chin. His eyes are open, but details are faint except for a slight darkening around the pupils. He has fairly thin, dark eyebrows as well as upper and lower eyebrows. He has a bony nose and fairly thin lips. The hair has carved wave details. The surface of the head is mostly gray, with chips in the hair and the middle of the forehead revealing a tan underlayer. The back of the head features more curly hair and more tan coloring.

Gallery Text

By the fourteenth century, Paris was a large urban center with artists organized in guilds working for the royal court, the clergy, and bourgeois patrons. Guillaume de Nourriche is known from the tax rolls of the city, where he is listed as a sculptor paid to make two figures of apostles for Paris’ Hôpital Saint-Jacques-aux-Pèlerins (Hospital of Saint James of the Pilgrims). The hospital was an infirmary for returning pilgrims, many of whom had gone to the popular shrine of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. One of the figures made by Guillaume remains in Paris, and stylistic similarities suggest that this head belonged to the other figure. With its softly molded face, flesh beneath the eyes, and slightly open mouth, this head attests to the increasingly naturalistic and delicate style developed by Gothic sculptors of the fourteenth century.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.1031
People
Attributed to Guillaume de Nourriche, French (active c. 1297-1330)
Previously attributed to Unidentified Artist
Title
Male Head
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
head, sculpture
Date
c. 1319-1324
Places
Creation Place: Europe, France, Ile-de-France
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230070

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2440, Medieval Art
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Limestone, biomicrite
Dimensions
30 x 22.5 x 19.8 cm (11 13/16 x 8 7/8 x 7 13/16 in.)
with base: 49.8 x 22.5 x 19.8 cm (19 5/8 x 8 7/8 x 7 13/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Jules-Marie Jeuniette, Paris, France, sold [through Galerie Manzi-Joyant, Paris, 1919, no 208]; to [Demotte, Inc., New York, NY], sold; to Grenville Lindall Winthrop, New York, NY, 1919, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.1031
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Hartmut Krohn, "Die Skulptur der Querhaus fassaden an der Kathedrale von Rouen", Aachener Kunstblätter (1971), vol. 40, pp. 130-131, ill. 88
  • "Gothic Sculpture in American Collections: The Checklist: I: The New England Museums", GESTA, ed. Dorothy W. Gillerman (1980), vol. XIX, no. 2, no. 25, repr.
  • Anita F. Moskowitz, Gothic Sculpture in America, I: The New England Museums, ed. Dorothy W. Gillerman, Garland Publishing, Inc. (New York, 1989), no. 98 pp. 130-132, repr.
  • Paul Williamson, [Review of "Gothic Sculpture in New England I"], The Burlington Magazine (June 1990), vol. CXXXII, no. 1047, pp. 418-419, p. 418, under no. 98
  • The Limestone Sculpture Provenance Project, website, 2004

Exhibition History

  • Re-View: S422-423 Western Art of the Middle Ages & Renaissance, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/16/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • 32Q: 2440 Medieval, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu