This fragmentary but sensitively carved sculpture was for many years considered to be from a crucifix. The position of Christ’s body, however, which is bent slightly at the waist, suggests that the piece more likely was one of a group of sculptures that represented the Deposition, or the removal of Christ's body from the Cross. Despite major losses, the torso retains great sculptural power arising from the careful modeling of the body and the rhythmic patterns of the drapery. When discovered by George Grey Barnard near Lavaudieu, the piece was being used in a field as a scarecrow. The arms, legs, and (probably) head were originally separate pieces held in place by dowels in mortise-and-tenon joints. The original paint is obscured by a fourteenth-century overpainting. Examination has revealed that one layer of the loincloth was originally lapis lazuli blue studded with applied tin leaf and a brilliant red lining.
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Drapery
Green paint
Artwork Details
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Title:Torso of Christ
Date:late 12th century
Geography:Made in Auvergne, France
Culture:French
Medium:Poplar, gesso, paint, and metal leaf
Dimensions:43 x 13 3/4 x 9 1/2 in. (109.2 x 34.9 x 24.1 cm)
Classification:Sculpture-Wood
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 1925
Accession Number:25.120.221
Said to come from the abbey at Lavaudieu; George Grey Barnard American, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania 1863–1938 New York, New York (until 1925)
Paris. Musée du Louvre. "La France romane au temps des premiers Capétiens, 987–1152," March 10, 2005–June 6, 2005.
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Breck, Joseph. The Cloisters: A Brief Guide. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1926. pp. 26–27, fig. 14.
Breck, Joseph. The Cloisters: A Brief Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1927. pp. 26–27, fig. 15.
Breck, Joseph. The Cloisters: A Brief Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1929. pp. 26–27, fig. 15.
Breck, Joseph. The Cloisters: A Brief Guide. 4th ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1931. pp. 26–27, fig. 15.
Rorimer, James J. "A Twelfth-Century Crucifix." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, o.s., 30, no. 12 (December 1935). p. 239.
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. 6–9.
Mâle, Emile, Louis Bréhier, and Marcel Gromaire. Vierges romanes d'Auvergne. Le Point: Revue Artistique et Littéraire, Vol. 25. Souillac, 1943.
Aubert, Marcel. Description raisonnée des sculptures du Moyen Âge, de la Renaissance, et des temps modernes. Vol. 1. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 1950. p. 45.
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. 6–9.
Fritz, Rolf. "Der Crucifixus von Cappenberg: ein Meisterwerk französischer Bildhauerkunst." Westfalen 31, no. 1-3 (1953). pp. 211–17, fig. 82.
Pradel, Pierre. "La tête de Christ de Lavaudieu au Musée du Louvre: Étude de la polychromie." La Revue des Arts: Musées de France (1957). p. 10.
Pomarat, Michel. "Le Christ roman de La Vaudieu." Bulletin historique: Illustré et Publié par la Société Académique du Puy-en-Velay et de la Haute-Loire 37 (1958). pp. 178–79.
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. 25–26.
Solms, Elisabeth de, ed. Christs romans: Volume 1, Les Christs en croix. Collection "Points cardinaux", Vol. 8. La Pierre-Qui-Vire, Yonne: Zodiaque, 1966. fig. 75–76.
Boccador, Jacqueline. Statuaire médiévale de collection. Vol. 1. Milan: Les Clefs du Temps, 1972. p. 115.
Deuchler, Florens. "The Cloisters: Ein Museum für mittelalterliche Kunst in New York." Du 32, no. 2 (1972). p. 104.
Sauerländer, Willibald. "Zu dem romanischen Kruzifix von Moissac." In Intuition und Kunstwissenschaft: Festschrift für Hanns Swarzenski zum 70. Geburtstag am 30. August 1972, edited by Peter Bloch. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1973. pp. 315–15, n. 22.
Schrader, J. L. "George Grey Barnard: The Cloisters and the Abbaye." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 37, no. 1 (Summer 1979). p. 13, fig. 16.
Young, Bonnie. A Walk Through The Cloisters. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979. p. 120.
Verdier, Philippe. "A Romanesque Corpus." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 3 (1981). pp. 70–71, fig. 11a–b.
Barral I Altet, Xavier. Art roman en Auvergne. Rennes: Editions Ouest-France, 1984. p. 58.
Little, Charles T. "Romanesque Sculpture in North American Collections. XXVI. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Part VI: Auvergne, Burgundy, Central France, Meuse Valley, Germany." Gesta 26, no. 2 (1987). no. 4, pp. 156–57, fig. 4.
Wixom, William D. "Medieval Sculpture at The Cloisters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 46, no. 3 (Winter 1988-1989). p. 36.
Young, Bonnie. A Walk Through The Cloisters. 5th ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988. p. 128.
Baron, Françoise. Sculpture française. I, Moyen âge. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1996. p. 33.
Sapori, Giovanna, and Bruno Toscano. La Deposizione lignea in Europa: L'immagine, il culto, la forma. Catalogo Regionale dei Beni Culturali dell'Umbria. Studi e prospettive. Milan: Electa, 2004. p. 18, n. 3, fig. 2a–b.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. no. 29, pp. 62, 194.
Musée National du Moyen Âge - Thermes et Hôtel de Cluny. Sculptures des XIe-XIIe siècles, roman et premier art gothique: Catalogue, edited by Xavier Dectot. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2005. pp. 152–53, fig. 148c.
Gaborit-Chopin, Danielle, ed. La France romane au temps des premiers Capétiens (987-1152). Paris: Musée du Louvre Editions, 2005. no. 296b, pp. 386–387.
Lavaudieu: Les trésors d'une abbaye. Brioude, 2009. pp. 50–1.
Kargère, Lucretia Goddard, and Adriana Rizzo. "Twelfth-Century French Polychrome Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Materials and Techniques." Metropolitan Museum Studies in Art, Science, and Technology 1 (2010). pp. 39–65, fig. 2, 10, 22–26.
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. p. 60.
Kargère, Lucretia Goddard. "La sculpture romane polychrome sur bois en Auvergne et Bourgogne: étude technique de quatre sculptures du Metropolitan Museum de New York." Les Cahiers de Saint-Michel de Cuxa XLIII (2012). pp. 111–121, fig. 2, 5, 11, 12.
Husband, Timothy B. "Creating the Cloisters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 70, no. 4 (Spring 2013). p. 14, fig. 23.
Kargère, Lucretia Goddard, Pierre-Yves Le Pogam, Juliette Levy-Hinstin, and Nathalie Pingaud. "Un Christ roman auvergnat retrouve son unité grâce à l’étude de la polychromie." Technè 39 (2014). pp. 60–65, fig. 2.
"Local Traditions and Itinerant Artists? The Crucifixes of Auvergne and Wooden Sculpture in France during the Late Romanesque Period." Convivium: exchanges and interactions in the arts of Medieval Europe, Byzantium, and the Mediterranean IV, no. 2 (2017). pp. 62, 63 n. 32, 66, 71, fig. 14.
Kargère, Lucretia Goddard. "The Lavaudieu Corpus at The Cloisters." In Christ on the Cross: the Boston Crucifix and the Rise of Monumental Wood Sculpture, 970–1200, edited by Shirin Fozi, and Gerhard Lutz. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2020. pp. 282–301, fig. 1, 12–20.
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