Donor Figure

This figure is a fine example of late thirteenth-century French sculpture. Created for the hospice in Salins, in eastern France near Switzerland, it may represent one of the four evangelists or the effigy of a contemporary benefactor. The sculpture has close affinities to carved figures installed on the west façade of Reims Cathedral sometime around the years 1245 to 1255, particularly the gently smiling "Angel of the Annunciation." The sculptor of the Art Museum’s "Donor Figure" may have worked at Reims Cathedral or at a church influenced by the sculptors employed there.

The heavy drapery hangs column-like on the slender figure, concealing the body underneath. The face is generalized, but the thin lips and deep lines express character and intellect. The overall austerity is softened by the figure’s shift in weight, slight turn of the shoulders, twist of the head, and pensive gaze.

A 1994 neutron-activation analysis of the statue enabled scientific confirmation of earlier stylistic analysis. The stone is consistent with limestone quarried for Parisian monuments of the period. Traces of blue on the drapery, later overpainted with a brown or a darker red, and minute flecks of gilt and cinnabar red show that the statue was once colored. Rather than the plain figure we see today, the original decoration would have given the statue a bright and lifelike appearance.