Head of a Prophet (Saint-Denis)

Prophet's Had
Ile de France, before 1140
Stone
Saint-Denis abbey
Cl. 23415

In the middle of the 12th century, as Romanesque art blossomed in Europe, a new style emerged in Ile-de-France. Abbot Suger, friend and counsellor to King Louis VI, then Louis VII, appeared as a pioneer of this style, with the large projects he undertook for Saint-Denis abbey. The façade's portals were created in the 1140s. Man-sized sculptures, figures from the Old Testament, were carved into the sides and embrasures. These statues were damaged in the 18th and 19th centuries; the museum has only the heads of some of them: a prophet, Moses, the Queen of Sheba. The prophet's head has some Romanesque features, such as the bonnet's decoration or the outline of the beard and locks of hair, but the execution of the embossed detail and the design of the face indicate a movement away from Romanesque style to a new preoccupation with realism.