Two Columns, 400–600
French; Toulouse, from the Church of Notre-Dame de la Daurade
Marble
Technical Glossary
French; Toulouse, from the Church of Notre-Dame de la Daurade
Marble
H. 74 1/4 in. (188.6 cm)
Purchase, Rogers Fund, and Henry Walters and George Blumenthal Gifts, 1921 (21.172.1-2)
These columns, along with some twenty others, are all that remain of the "Golden Church" of La Daurade. The church was famous for the gold mosaics that covered the niches and walls of its seven-sided sanctuary, hence its name, derived from deaurata, Latin for "gilded" . Rows of elegant columns framing the niches contributed to its lavish interior. Founded as a nunnery around 399, it was converted to a male monastic house by the 800s and destroyed in 1761.
