The large, well-defined features of this King suggest that he was once displayed above eye-level on a building. In fact, he originally graced the portal, or entrance, of Notre Dame, the Gothic cathedral of Paris. The face is partially damaged, but it bears an imperious expression fitting for a King. His eyes were inlaid with black stone. And just as the Parthenon and Greek temples were once decorated with color, so too were Gothic cathedrals and their sculpture.

This 900-year old face barely escaped destruction during the French Revolution, when the figures of Kings on the façade of Notre Dame were attacked as symbols of the French monarchy. However, these statues were intended to be portraits of biblical Kings, not French rulers.