Western/Northern Europe, probably England or France, ca. 14th to 15th century CE. One of my favorite pieces, a charming, clean-shaven face of a man wearing a crown, carved from grey limestone to serve as an architectural element of a medieval church. Roofs of churches throughout northern Europe were decorated with angels, saints, and kings, with the heavy principal timbers that supported them often rising from corbels fronted by these figures and heads peeking out from under eaves and capping the end of each beam. In part, this was to create an image of the roof as heaven, supported by religious and elite figures, but it also speaks to the whimsy that sometimes comes through in medieval art. Mounted on a custom wooden backing. Size: 4.5" L x 5" W x 6.8" H (11.4 cm x 12.7 cm x 17.3 cm); 9.5" H (24.1 cm) on included backing.

Provenance: private San Francisco, California, USA collection

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#125871

Stone surface is lightly pitted from exposure, with small loss to tip of nose and top of crown.