UNKNOWN MASTER, French
(active late 11th century in Languedoc)
1090s
Marble
Saint-Sernin, Toulouse
The Languedoc school witnessed an early revival of monumental sculpture. This apostle occupies one of seven panels that now adorn the screen around the choir of Saint-Sernin. Attributed to the sculptor of the altar, they can be dated in the very end of the 11th century. The classical type of a figure in an arched niche is here worked like a Byzantine ivory: the draperies fall stiff and straight, save for the rigid curves of the part drawn diagonally across the body; the saint's pose is static; the figure conforms entirely to the limited space defined by the frame. Transmitted by 5th-century Christian sarcophagi, by miniatures and by goldsmith work, the type became common in Romanesque sculpture.