Corbel with Female Figure with Clasped Hands

ca. 1150–1200
On view at The Met Cloisters in Gallery 03
Mischief and humor abound on the ten architectural supports set around the perimeter of this gallery. Naked grimacing acrobats wrestle and pull violently at each others’ beards; a snarling beast proudly claims a bone. Similar mischievous, and sometimes mystifying, motifs are often found on corbels set just under the eaves of the roof on the outside of a church.

Notre-Dame-de-la-Grande-Sauve, the church from which these corbels come, was situated on one of the routes to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. Set next to a great forest (the silva major from which its name comes) and dominating a hill overlooking the Gironde River, its community grew from seven monks at its founding in 1079 to some 300. The abbey benefited from donations from famous patrons, including a gift from Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Henry II king of England, in 1156.

In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the monastic buildings served as a prison. The church vaults collapsed in 1809, and a fire in 1910 further compromised the site. Still, some related corbels survive on the church exterior.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Corbel with Female Figure with Clasped Hands
  • Date: ca. 1150–1200
  • Geography: Made in Aquitaine, France
  • Culture: French
  • Medium: Limestone
  • Dimensions: 18 1/2 × 13 1/2 × 28 1/2 in. (47 × 34.3 × 72.4 cm)
  • Classification: Sculpture-Architectural
  • Credit Line: Gift of George Blumenthal, 1934
  • Object Number: 34.21.7
  • Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters

Audio

Cover Image for 19. Corbel with Female Figure with Clasped Hands

19. Corbel with Female Figure with Clasped Hands

Gallery 3

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NARRATOR: A corbel is a bracket projecting out from the face of a wall that is used for support. This one represents a female figure with clasped hands. The corbels here date from the same period as the St.-Guilhem cloister. They once supported the exterior cornice at the Benedictine monastery of Notre-Dame-de-la-Grande-Sauve, in Bordeaux. Now they support the cornice and ribs of the vault over the cloister walks. These corbels were often decorated with representations of fierce beasts. I encourage you to spend some time looking at the other corbels in this room, all of which come from Notre-Dame-de-la-Grande-Sauve. They display a great variety of subjects. Some are humorous or grotesque, and some are bawdy.

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Corbel with Female Figure with Clasped Hands - French - The Metropolitan Museum of Art