Head of a Youth

This head of a young man is all that remains of a larger relief sculpture. Originally, the head was meant to be seen in profile or in three-quarter view, as only the front and proper right side of the head emerge fully carved from the marble slab. Though obviously a fragment and missing its nose, most of the head’s other features are well preserved, including the high cheekbones and smooth, youthful skin, full lips, wavy hair, and large eyes (the deeply drilled holes would have been filled with material of a contrasting color). A folded cloth cap swoops from the crown of the head to the nape of the neck.

The modern viewer may wonder at the head’s very long, narrow face and close-set eyes. It is important to understand that this head, and the entire relief to which it once belonged, originally decorated the façade of a building, and that medieval viewers had to look up in order to see it. Standing several feet below, the figure would appear foreshortened. The elongation of the face was, in fact, a sculptor’s trick, a deliberate exaggeration of proportions planned to prevent forms from appearing squat and compressed. The degree to which the Met head was lengthened suggests the sculpture’s original placement was quite high above viewers’ heads. The face’s narrowness, which resulted in part from the restricted depth of the relief sculpture format, may have been another deliberate optical adjustment accounting for the viewer’s low vantage point, since the face’s squeezed appearance is less pronounced from below.

At the same time, the head’s distinctive features – the long, narrow face, as well as the deeply drilled eyes, high cheekbones, and full cheeks – seem to be stylistic characteristics shared by the sculptors of a specific workshop responsible for decorating the Basilica of Saint-Sernin in the southern French city of Toulouse. In particular, the head compares favorably with an early-12th-century relief now in the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse that depicts two women, one holding a lion and the other a ram. The strong stylistic similarities suggest that the same group of affiliated sculptors produced both.

Saint-Sernin is an important pilgrimage church built between the late 11th and early 12th centuries, and a key monument in the development of an artistic style known as the Romanesque. Pilgrimage, the act of traveling to be in the presence of the sacred, experienced a resurgence in popularity during this time period, and massive churches such as Saint-Sernin welcomed multitudes of pilgrims each year. Inside the church, pilgrims sought to pray at the tomb of the third-century martyr saint who gave the church its name (Saturninus in Latin). For many, Toulouse was but one stop along a more extensive itinerary of holy sites on the way from France to northwestern Spain. This route, known as the Camino de Santiago (still traveled today), eventually led pilgrims to the shrine of the apostle St. James the Greater in the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela.

It seems likely that the Head of a Youth once decorated the exterior of Saint-Sernin, though its specific placement on the building is less certain. Just as some scholars have suggested that the relief of the women with a lion and ram once decorated the church’s western facade, the location of its principal entrance, it is possible that The Met’s head also came from this part of the church, which lost most of its medieval sculpted decoration during the tumult and iconoclasm of the French Revolution. While the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse eventually became the home of some of the dispersed west façade sculptures, many more were lost.

Saint-Sernin’s west façade is now empty of relief sculpture. Yet eyewitnesses writing before the French Revolution described a series of narrative carvings above the façade’s pair of tall, arched doors. These reliefs depicted the martyrdom of Saint Saturninus. If the Head of a Youth does come from the west portal, then it may well have formed part of a scene depicting the patron saint’s torture and violent death at the hands of Roman authorities.

As headgear can signal identity in medieval art, the figure’s distinctive cap may provide a clue as to who he represented. This hat resembles the so-called Phrygian cap, a soft, folded head covering that early medieval artists, following ancient tradition, sometimes used to identify people coming from far-off (generally eastern) places, such as the Magi, or wise men, who traveled a great distance to adore the infant Jesus. Yet head coverings, as with other signifiers, need not have universal, fixed meanings, and it is often instructive to look to other local examples for guidance. In this respect, a similar hat is found on the carved figure of Simon Magus, displayed on another entrance to the church of Saint-Sernin nicknamed the Porte Miègeville. Simon Magus was understood as an opponent of the faith for his attempt to buy power from Jesus’s disciples. His representation on the Porte Miègeville, in proximity to several images of the apostles, serves to condemn his actions. It is possible that the hat worn by The Met’s sculpture similarly identifies him as an opponent of Christianity – perhaps as an accomplice in the persecution of Saint Saturninus. Given the complete lack of other sculpture fragments from the west portal of Saint-Sernin, however, at present it is not possible to read too deeply into the figure’s identity.

Selected references:

Little, Charles T., David L. Simon, and Leslie Bussis Tait. "Romanesque Sculpture in North American Collections. XXV. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Part V: Southwestern France." Gesta 26, no. 1 (1987). no. 4, pp. 63-64, fig. 4.

Little, Charles T., ed. The Art of Medieval Spain, A.D. 500–1200. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. no. 87, pp. 206-207.

Little, Charles T., ed. Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture. New York, New Haven, and London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006. no. 1, pp. 21-22.

Cazes, Quitterie. Saint-Sernin de Toulouse: De Saturnin au chef-d'œuvre de l'art roman. Graulhet: Éditions Odyssée, 2008. pp. 292-93.

Entry by Julia Perratore, Assistant Curator, Department of Medieval Art and The Met Cloisters


[2020; adapted from draft Barnet Sculpture Catalogue]

From the Church of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse (Haute-Garonne); [ Lucien J. Demotte, Paris and New York (sold March 26, 1938)]; [ Brummer Gallery, Paris and New York (from March 26, 1938–1949)]; Ernest and Ella Brummer, New York (1949–until 1976)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Culture," September 26, 2006–February 18, 2007.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. "One Hundred and Sixth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Fiscal Year July 1, 1975 through June 30, 1976." Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 106 (1976). pp. 51–52.

Gazette des Beaux-Arts. "La Chronique des Arts: Principales acquisitions en 1975." Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 6th ser., 89 (March 1977). p. 40, fig. 165.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. Notable Acquisitions, 1975-1979 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) (1979). pp. 22–23, ill. p. 23.

Little, Charles T., David L. Simon, and Leslie Bussis Tait. "Romanesque Sculpture in North American Collections. XXV. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Part V: Southwestern France." Gesta 26, no. 1 (1987). no. 4, pp. 63–64, fig. 4.

Little, Charles T., ed. The Art of Medieval Spain, A.D. 500–1200. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. no. 87, pp. 206–207.

Little, Charles T., ed. Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture. New York, New Haven, and London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006. no. 1, pp. 21–22.

Cazes, Quitterie. Saint-Sernin de Toulouse: De Saturnin au chef-d'œuvre de l'art roman. Graulhet: Editions Odyssée, 2008. pp. 292–93.