Head of Bearded Man from the north portal of the Notre-Dame of Paris

Bearded Man's Head
Paris, 1220-1230
Stone
H. 0.65 m
Cl. 23606

This head belonged to one of the 28 statues of kings placed over the portals on the entrance side of the Notre-Dame of Paris. Each statue had a height of approximately 3 metres 50. They represented kings of the Bible, ancestors of the Virgin Mary, patron of the cathedral. They were broken during the Revolution. At the time, they were believed to be statues of kings of France. By extraordinary chance, repair work being done in the basement of a Parisian bank in 1977 led to the discovery of more than 300 sculpture fragments, including 21 heads. In November 1998, one last sculpture, the Bearded Man's Head, was donated by the bank.