The right wall of the Langon Chapel is composed of elements originally from the south wall of the choir in the church of Notre-Dame-du-Bourg, which was founded as a dependency of Notre-Dame-de-la-Grande-Sauve in 1126. These sober, spare, yet imposing elements have been installed with little variation from their Romanesque arrangement. Several original elements have been incorporated into the left wall, which was reconstructed with stonework that harmonizes with the facing wall. The large heads on the capital to the right of the altar were once thought to represent Henry II of England and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, who in 1155 visited the monastery upon which the chapel was dependent. This seems unlikely, however, as similar capitals with crowned heads are rather common in Romanesque architectural sculpture. The images on the capitals appear to have no religious or narrative significance. Shaded areas indicate original elements.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Chapel from Notre-Dame-du-Bourg at Langon
Date:after 1126
Geography:Made in Aquitaine, France
Culture:French
Medium:Limestone
Dimensions:15 ft. 4 in. × 18 ft. 8 in. × 23 ft. 10 in. (467.4 × 569 × 726.4 cm)
Classification:Installations
Credit Line:Rogers Fund,1934
Accession Number:34.115.1–.269
The Cloisters’ Langon Chapel gallery receives its name from the ensemble of medieval architectural fragments displayed there, which come from the parish church of Notre-Dame-du-Bourg in the western French town of Langon. Comprising dressed limestone ashlars (smoothly cut building blocks) as well as decorative stone sculptures, these elements from the church’s interior include a section of wall pierced by a window, two half columns, and seven carved capitals. At the time of The Cloisters’ construction during the 1930s, these medieval elements were reconstructed and integrated into the gallery’s modern building fabric. (The medieval and modern stones’ significant differences of color, texture, and treatment help visitors to discern which is which!) While the gallery does not exactly recreate the space or dimensions of Notre-Dame-du-Bourg, the medieval fragments’ placements in the room do approximate their original locations in the church at Langon.
Notre-Dame-du-Bourg was founded in 1126 as a dependency of the powerful monastery of Notre-Dame-de-la-Grande-Sauve near Bordeaux, located to the northwest of Langon. (Coincidentally, another group of sculptures in The Cloisters’ collection, accession numbers 34.21.1-.8 and 34.21.15-.16, comes from Grande-Sauve.) Surviving documentation suggests that the Langon church was consecrated sometime between 1157 and 1183, during the tenure of Abbot Peter, the head of Grande-Sauve. A church’s consecration date, which marks the moment when the space may be used to celebrate the sacraments, does not always signal its completion, and in fact The Cloisters’ sculptures have been dated on stylistic grounds to ca. 1200, suggesting that Notre-Dame-du-Bourg remained a construction site for some years after it began to be used.
The sculptures, consisting of four large capitals and three small, largely depict the human form, focusing especially on heads and faces. One of the most striking of the capitals, atop the engaged column to the right of the visitor entering the Langon Chapel gallery, depicts two very large crowned human heads. The faces are nearly identical, with long noses, pursed lips, wide eyes, arched brows, and creased foreheads. Though it has been said that the head to the right depicts Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, who passed through the area in the 1150s with her husband King Henry II of England, there is no concrete evidence for this identification. More likely, and in step with the trends of the 12th century, the two heads were meant to be understood as generalized representations of royalty, acquiring a romanticized identity only at a much later moment. Perched above the sanctuary of the church, the space dedicated to the altar and the celebration of the Mass, the crowned heads receive the sanction of the clergy. Their faces, however, both turn toward the nave, the space of the congregation, directing their earthly authority toward their subjects.
Displayed opposite the crowned heads, and also over the sanctuary, a tripartite capital represents four male youths. Shown from the waist up, they lean forward eagerly, with the two at center gripping the edge of the capital as if to steady themselves. Their eyes are wide. In fact, they appear to survey the congregation – and they are not the only ones. Lest the front-row parishioners of Notre-Dame-du-Bourg think no one was looking from further back in the church, a similar capital of vigilant youths stood watch behind them. While following the same general format, however, there are differences between the carvings. The second substitutes an unidentifiable animal for one of the youths, and the adjacent human figure’s distinctive snub nose makes him resemble the animal.
A fourth large, tripartite capital shows two more wide-eyed figures staring out into the room below. Yet these figures do not stand idly by. Kneeling and hunched over, they raise their arms to the capital’s upper edge, appearing to carry on their backs the blocks of stone directly above. Seeming to heft the full weight of the building on their shoulders, these figures have roots in ancient art. Their long beards, which trail to the capital base, also suggests that these two men are significantly older.
In addition to the four large capitals, there are three smaller examples set into the chapel walls. These also depict youthful, male human faces, all as watchful as those of the larger capitals. Together, all seven of the Langon capitals present a gallery of spectators in stone, observing the viewer as she in turn observes them. The carved figures’ eagerness to get a good look at the activity below them is evident. The two crowned heads’ craned necks and wide-open eyes suggest they strain to see, almost as if searching among the congregation that would have sat before them. The many other faces also peer outward as if seeking to meet worshippers’ gazes. Though most of the faces betray no strong emotional expression, and in this respect they are typical of the art of this period, they still seem to look out with palpable curiosity. Why do they watch so intensely?
Sculpted faces of all kinds were very popular in medieval architectural decoration, whether in ecclesiastic or in civil structures, and their ubiquity indicates that their significances varied by setting. The significances held by the sculpted Langon figures, though surely known to their original viewers, likely shifted over time, and there is little evidence surviving to clarify what Langon’s medieval churchgoers might have thought about them.
It is worth noting, however, that the capitals convey no obviously sacred content, such as the biblical or saintly imagery that many mondern viewers expect to find inside a church. This was not unusual for the time. Twelfth-century churches, and especially those from the French region of Aquitaine, where Langon is located, frequently displayed images from folklore or daily life that may seem extraneous or even irreligious to modern viewers. This does not mean, however, that such images were without spiritual weight, even if their original meaning has been lost to time.
The remains of the church of Notre-Dame-du-Bourg still stand in Langon.
Selected references:
Marquette, Jean-Bernard. "La ville de Langon au début du dix-huitième siècle (Deuxième partie)." Les Cahiers du Bazadais 13, no. 24 (1973). pp. 34-41, fig. 11-14.
Gardelles, Jacques. "Notre-Dame-du-Bourg à Langon: État des questions." Les Cahiers du Bazadais 17 (1977). pp. 27-42, fig. 3-8.
Durliat, Marcel. "Précisions sur l'église Notre-Dame-du-Bourg à Langon." Bulletin Monumental 136, no. 2 (1978). p. 186.
Entry by Julia Perratore, Assistant Curator, Department of Medieval Art and The Met Cloisters
[2020; adapted from draft Barnet Sculpture Catalogue]
From the choir of the church of Notre-Dame-du-Bourg at Langon, near Bordeaux
; Dubois, Langon ; [ C. Joret, Paris (sold 1934)]
Cirot de la Ville, Jean-Pierre-Albert. Histoire de l'abbaye et congrégation de Notre-Dame de la Grande-Sauve, ordre de Saint Benoît, en Guienne. Vol. 2. Paris, 1845. no. 21, pp. 34–35, 373–74.
Drouyn, François Joseph Léo. La Guienne anglaise: Histoire et description des villes fortifiées, forteresses et chateaux, construits dans la Gironde pendant la domination anglaise. Bordeaux, 1900. pp. 80–82, pl. 79.
Rebsomen, André. La Garonne et ses affluents de la rive gauche, de La Réole à Bordeaux. Bordeaux: Féret et Fils, 1913. pp. 172–73, fig. 146, 148.
Eylaud, Jean-Max. Langon. Villes du Sud-Ouest 1, Vol. 17. Hassegor: Librairie D. Chabas, 1933. p. 35.
Cottineau, Laurent Henri. Répertoire topo-bibliographique des abbayes et prieurés. Vol. 1. Mâcon: Imprimerie Protat Frères, 1935. col. 1554.
Frankfurter, Alfred M. "The Opening of The Cloisters." Art News 36, no. 7 (May 1938). pp. 9–14.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Sixty-Ninth Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year 1938." Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 69 (1938). p. 25.
Rorimer, James J., and Margaret B. Freeman. The Cloisters: The Building and the Collection of Mediaeval Art, in Fort Tryon Park. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1938. pp. 21–24, fig. 10, 11.
Rorimer, James J. "New Acquisitions for the Cloisters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 33, no.5, part 2 (May 1938). pp. 4–6, fig. 2–3.
Kramer, Herbert George. "La disparition de Notre-Dame-du-Bourg de Langon." Revue Historique de Bordeaux et du Département de la Gironde 34, no. 3-4 (July-December 1941). pp. 94–95.
Kelly, Amy. Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1950. frontispiece.
Rorimer, James J. The Cloisters: The Building and the Collection of Mediaeval Art in Fort Tryon Park, New York. 11th ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1951. pp. 22–25, fig. 10, 11.
Rorimer, James J. The Cloisters: The Building and the Collection of Medieval Art in Fort Tryon Park. 3rd revised ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1963. pp. 51–52, fig. 20.
Hoving, Thomas. "The Thread of Patronage: The Medieval Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters." Apollo 82, no. 43 (September 1965). pp. 179–80, fig. 6.
Gauthier, Marie-Madeleine. "Le goût Plantagenet." In Stil und Überlieferung in der Kunst des Abendlandes: Volume 1, Epochen europäischer Kunst. International Congress of the History of Art, Vol. 21. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1967. p. 142.
Couzy, Hélène. "Les chapiteaux de la Sauve-Majeure." Bulletin Monumental 126, no. 4 (1968). p. 371, n. 3.
Cahn, Walter. "Romanesque Sculpture in American Collections IV. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston." Gesta 8, no. 2 (1969). p. 51.
Rorimer, James J. Medieval Monuments at The Cloisters: As They Were and As They Are, edited by Katherine Serrell Rorimer. Revised ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1972. pp. 36–37, fig. 38–40.
Gauthier, Marie-Madeleine. "Les chapiteaux de Notre-Dame-du-Bourg de Langon." In Langon Sauternais-Cernès: Actes du XXIIe Congrès d'études régionales tenu à Langon les 2 et 3 mai 1970. Bordeaux: Imprimerie P. Fanlac, 1973. pp. 17–43, fig. 1–10.
Marquette, Jean-Bernard. "La ville de Langon au début du dix-huitième siècle (Deuxième partie)." Les Cahiers du Bazadais 13, no. 24 (1973). pp. 34–41, fig. 11–14.
Barral I Altet, Xavier. "La sculpture de l'église de Notre-Dame-du-Bourg de Langon (Gironde)." Bulletin Monumental 132, no. 1 (1974). p. 91.
Gardelles, Jacques. "Un élément de la première sculpture gothique en Bordelais: Le chapiteau à têtes." Études de civilisation médiévale (IXe-XIIe siècles): Melanges offerts à Edmond-René Labande (1974). p. 330, 331, 333.
Gardelles, Jacques. "La sculpture monumentale en Bordelais et en Bazadais à la fin du XIIe et au début du XIIIe siècle." Bulletin Monumental 132, no. 1 (1974). pp. 36, 43.
Musée d'Aquitaine Bordeaux. Sculpture médiévale de Bordeaux et du Bordelais. Bordeaux: Musée d'Aquitaine Bordeaux, 1976. no. 99–106, pp. 105–113, fig. 99–106.
Erlande-Brandenburg, Alain. "Les chapiteaux à têtes dans la première sculpture gothique en Bordelais." Bulletin Monumental 135, no. 2 (1977). p. 167.
Gardelles, Jacques. "Notre-Dame-du-Bourg à Langon: État des questions." Les Cahiers du Bazadais 17 (1977). pp. 27–42, fig. 3–8.
Vermeule, Cornelius C., Walter Cahn, and Rollin van N. Hadley. Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1977. p. 78.
Durliat, Marcel. "Précisions sur l'église Notre-Dame-du-Bourg à Langon." Bulletin Monumental 136, no. 2 (1978). p. 186.
Cahn, Walter. Romanesque Sculpture in American Collections: Volume 1, New England Museums. New York: B. Franklin, 1979. p. 83.
Young, Bonnie. A Walk Through The Cloisters. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979. pp. 31–34.
Mormone, Jean-Michel. "Les fouilles de Notre-Dame du Bourg à Langon." Les Cahiers du Bazadais 21 (1980).
Gardelles, Jacques. "La première architecture gothique dans la Gascogne des Plantagenet." Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale 29 (1986). p. 80.
Young, Bonnie. A Walk Through The Cloisters. 5th ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988. pp. 31–34.
Owen, D.D.R. Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen and Legend. Oxford: S. Blackwell, 1993. pl. 2.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. 75th Anniversary ed. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. pp. 44–45.
Bolton, Andrew, ed. Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. Vol. 2. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018. p. 258.
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