Seemingly afloat in midair, with its windblown drapery, this angel once graced the voussoir, or wedge-shaped stone, set in an arch of the portal on the north transept of the cathedral dedicated to Saint Lazarus in Autun. The angel’s attention originally was focused on the scene of Jesus raising Lazarus—patron saint of the cathedral—from the dead, depicted in the tympanum centered over the doorway. The angel is one of a handful of physical remains of the twelfth-century portal, which was replaced with a Baroque doorway in 1776. The main entrance of the cathedral is carved with the name Gislebertus, believed to be the principal author of the sculptural program.
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Title:Angel
Date:ca. 1130
Geography:Made in Burgundy, France
Culture:French
Medium:Limestone
Dimensions:23 x 16 1/2 x 11 3/8 in. (58.4 x 41.9 x 28.9 cm)
Classification:Sculpture-Architectural
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 1947
Accession Number:47.101.16
From the former transept portal of the cathedral of Saint-Lazare at Autun; Roidet-Haudaille (architect), Autun, France ; Abbé Victor Terret, Autun, France ; [ Jean Peslier, Vézelay (sold 1935)] ; [ Brummer Gallery, Paris and New York (1935–1947)]
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Arts of the Middle Ages: A Loan Exhibition," February 17–March 24, 1940.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The Middle Ages: Treasures from The Cloisters and The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 18, 1970–March 29, 1970.
Chicago. Art Institute of Chicago. "The Middle Ages: Treasures from The Cloisters and The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 16, 1970–July 5, 1970.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 14, 1970–June 1, 1971.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Grand Gallery," October 19, 1974–January 5, 1975.
Terret, Abbé Victor. La sculpture bourguignonne aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles, ses origines et ses sources d'inspiration: Autun. Vol. 2. Autun: Abbé Victor Terret, 1925. p. 50, pl. XLVIII.
Arts of the Middle Ages: A Loan Exhibition. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1940. no. 169, p. 53.
Jalabert, Denise. "L’Eve de la Cathedrale d’Autun, sa place dans l'histoire de la sculpture romane." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 35 (1949). pp. 253, 260, fig. 6.
Grivot, Denis, and George Zarnecki. Gislebertus, sculpteur d'Autun. Paris: Trianon Press, 1960. pp. 140–43, pl. VII, plan II.
Zarnecki, George, and Denis Grivot. Gislebertus: Sculptor of Autun. New York: Orion Press, 1961. pp. 146, 150–51., pl. VII, plan X.
Rorimer, James J. The Cloisters: The Building and the Collection of Medieval Art in Fort Tryon Park. 3rd revised ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1963. pp. 47–48.
Wixom, William D. Treasures from Medieval France. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967. no. III–10, pp. 64–65, 352.
Ostoia, Vera K. The Middle Ages: Treasures from the Cloisters and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1969. no. 43, pp. 96–7, 255.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries. New York: Dutton Publishing, 1970. no. 122, p. 155.
Deuchler, Florens. "The Cloisters: Ein Museum für mittelalterliche Kunst in New York." Du 32, no. 2 (1972). p. 103.
Werckmeister, Otto Karl. "The Lintel Fragment Representing Eve from Saint-Lazare, Autun." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 35 (1972). p. 1, n. 3.
Forsyth, William Holmes, and The International Confederation of Dealers in Works of Art. "Acquisitions from the Brummer Gallery." In The Grand Gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Sixth International Exhibition presented by C.I.N.O.A.. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974. p. 4.
Stratford, Neil. "Autun." Bulletin Monumental 134 (1976). p. 58.
Young, Bonnie. A Walk Through The Cloisters. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979. p. 38.
Verdier, Philippe. "A Romanesque Corpus." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 3 (1981). p. 72, fig. 13.
Little, Charles T. "Romanesque Sculpture in North American Collections. XXVI. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Part VI: Auvergne, Burgundy, Central France, Meuse Valley, Germany." Gesta 26, no. 2 (1987). no. 7, pp. 159–60, fig. 7.
Shepard, Mary B. Europe in the Middle Ages, edited by Charles T. Little, and Timothy B. Husband. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. pp. 11, 58–59, pl. 50.
Stoddard, Whitney S. Sculptors of the West Portals of Chartres Cathedral: Their Origins in Romanesque and their Role in Chartrain Sculpture; Including the West Portals of Saint-Denis and Chartres, Harvard, 1952. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1987. p. 202.
Little, Charles T. "From Cluny to Moutiers-Saint-Jean: The Origin of a Limestone Fragment of an Angel at The Cloisters." Gesta 27, nos. 1 and 2 (1988). p. 28, fig. 11.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. no. 8, pp. 33, 193.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. 75th Anniversary ed. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. p. 31.
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