Cleveland Museum of Art

Head of an Apostle from the South Portal of the Cathedral of Thérouanne

Date

c. 1235–1240

Medium

oolitic limestone

Culture

Northern France (Pas-de-Calais), Thérouanne, 13th century

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

These monumental stone heads are among the substantial known remains of the sculptural program of Thérouanne’s cathedral, which was razed by Emperor Charles V of Spain in June 1553. These heads were found in a wall of rue Ste. Croix in the town of Saint Omer (a short distance to the north) in January 1923. This group of sculptures from the gable of the south portal of Thérouanne, which includes a stylistically related Christ as Judge, is recorded to have been moved to the Cathedral of Saint Omer in 1554. With their deeply carved wavy hair, curly beards, wrinkled foreheads, and ponderous facial features, these imposing heads—even in their now fragmentary and weathered state—attest to the powerful monumentality of the stone sculpture covering French church facades of the Gothic period.

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