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Marble column with three male figures carved into its sides

A light gray marble column with three standing figures carved into it side by side, standing on a round pedestal with round decorative shapes. All three figures have medium-length hair (bangs just below the eyebrows), long robes with cloaks, sandals, and halos with their names carved into them. Inside each halo is the figure’s respective name: Mathias, Iude, and Simonis. Textural details are distinct, including the curls in the figures’ beards and the decorative trim of their robes. Matthew and Jude hold books while Simon holds a long scroll.

Gallery Text

With their backs to one another, the apostles Matthew, Jude, and Simon form a column that supported one corner of the altar at the Spanish church of San Pelayo de Antealtares. The remaining nine apostles were depicted on the other three columns. This configuration visualizes the medieval interpretation of the apostles as the pillars of the church, with their bodies seemingly embedded in the structure of the altar. The use of figures as columnar supports harks back to antiquity. In this case, however, the iconography is reinvented and imbued with Christian significance. San Pelayo de Antealtares was a Benedictine abbey next to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Site of the tomb of the apostle James, the Cathedral of Santiago was one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations of the Middle Ages.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1933.100
People
Unidentified Artist
Title
Column or Columnar Support with Three Apostles: Matthew, Jude, and Simon
Classification
Architectural Elements
Work Type
architectural element
Date
c. 1125-1150
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Spain, Santiago de Compostela
Culture
Spanish
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/231044

Location

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

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Marble
Dimensions
116.3 x 27.5 cm (45 13/16 x 10 13/16 in.)
328 lb.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Republic of Spain [through the Museum Arqueologico Nacional and Arthur Kingsley Porter], gift; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1933

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of The Republic of Spain through the Museo Arqueologico Nacional and Professor Arthur Kingsley Porter
Accession Year
1933
Object Number
1933.100
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Xesús Carro García, Os Piares do Altar do Mosteiro de San Payo de Sant-Yago, brochure, Litografía e Imprenta Roel (La Coruña, 1931), pp. 5-15
  • "Accessions", Fogg Art Museum Annual Report (1933), p. 3
  • "Column from San Pelayo Santiago de Compostela", Parnassus (October 1933), vol. 5, no. 5, p. 28, repr.
  • "Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts", Parnassus (November 1933), vol. V, no. VI, p. 14, p. 14
  • "A Gift of Romanesque Sculpture from the Spanish Government", Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum (March 1934), vol. III, no. 2, pp. 14-17, pp. 14-16, repr. as figs. 1 and 2
  • W. R. Tyler, "A Spanish Sculpture in The Fogg Museum", The Art News (March 2, 1940), p. 13, repr.
  • Arts of the Middle Ages, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA, 1940), no. 166, repr. in b/w as pl. XXII
  • W. R. Tyler, "A Spanish Romanesque Column in The Fogg Art Museum", The Art Bulletin (1941), vol. 23, pp. 45-52, pp. 45-52, repr. as figs. 1, 10, 14, and 15
  • Robert Calkins, A Medieval Treasury, exh. cat., Cornell University, Office of University Publications (Ithaca, NY, 1968), no. 53, pp. 137-138, repr.
  • Linda Seidel Field, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, exh. cat., ed. Stephen K. Scher, Thistle Press and Clarke and Way, Inc. (Providence, RI, 1969), no. 34, repr.
  • Linda Seidel, "Romanesque Sculpture in American Collections: X: The Fogg Art Museum: III: Spain, Italy, the Low Countries, and Addenda", GESTA (1973), vol. XII, no. 1/2, no. 3, repr.
  • Robert P. Bergman, "Varieties of Romanesque Sculpture", Apollo (May 1978), 107, pp. 371, 374; repr. p. 376 as fig. 14
  • Walter Cahn and Linda Seidel, Romanesque Sculpture in American Collections, volume 1: New England Museums, Burt Franklin & Co., Inc. (New York, NY, 1979), no. 53, fig. 212
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), cat. 142, p. 125, repr.
  • Serafín Moralejo, Guia de la Exposicion: "Santiago, Camino de Europa culto y cultrua en la Peregrinacion a Compostela", brochure, Fundacion Caja Madrid (Madrid, 1993), p. 62, cat. no. 100, repr.
  • Serafín Moralejo and Fernando López Alsina, Santiago, Camino de Europa: Culto y Cultura en la Peregrinación a Compostela, exh. cat., Xunta de Galicia (Santiago, 1993), pp. 392-395, repr p. 393 as fig. 100
  • The Art of Medieval Spain a.d. 500-1200, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY, 1993), pp. 93-94, cat. no. 93, repr. p. 94
  • Christine Smith, ed., Before and After the End of Time: Architecture and the Year 1000, exh. cat., George Braziller (New York, NY, 2000), no. 29 in checklist; p. 38, 52, repr. p. 42
  • Marina Chinchilla Gómez, Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Electa (Barcelona, 2003), p. 88
  • Ángela Franco, "Arte medieval leonés fuera de España", La dispersión de objetos de arte fuera de España en los siglos XIX y XX, ed. Fernando Pérez Mulet and Immaculada Socias Batet, Edicions Universitat Barcelona (Barcelona, 2011), 93-132, pp. 115-16.

Exhibition History

  • Arts of the Middle Ages, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 02/17/1940 - 03/24/1940
  • A Medieval Treasury: an exhibition of medieval art from the third to the sixteen, Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, Ithaca, 10/08/1968 - 11/03/1968; Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, 11/10/1968 - 12/08/1968
  • The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, 05/08/1969 - 06/22/1969
  • Santiago, Camino de Europa: culto y cultura en la peregrinaction a Compostela, Monasterio de San Martin Pinario, 07/01/1993 - 09/30/1993
  • Before and After the End of Time: Architecture in the Year 1000, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/26/2000 - 01/23/2001
  • 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 - 07/01/2019; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/05/2019 - 02/02/2023; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/18/2023 - 01/01/2050
  • The Nature of Things: Medieval Art and Ecology, 1100-1550, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, 03/10/2023 - 08/06/2023

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