ANGEL'S HEAD in limestone carved in the round.... Lot 8

ANGEL'S HEAD in limestone carved in the round. Oval face with regular features with eyes stretched out in length, upper eyelids slightly curved, lower eyelids straight, eyeballs slightly protruding, nose long and fine, mouth well defined with lower lip set back, chin prominent and heavy; hair shared by a median parting falling into the neck; strands strongly wavy around the face, spreading out at the sides and at the temples; a small strand is at the height of the ears at the back of the cheeks. Picardy or Normandy, second half of the 13th century Height: 29,5 cm - Depth: 20,5 cm Black marble base (slight accidents and erosion) Origin: bought 52 years ago from a Parisian dealer by the collector. Works consulted: Exhibition Châlons-en-Champagne 2006, Regards sur l'art médiéval, Musée des Beaux-arts et d'Archéologie, cat.; Exhibition New York 2007, Set in Stone - The Face in Medieval Sculpture, The Metropolitan Museum, cat. Aubert, La sculpture française au Moyen Age, Paris, 1946; F. Joubert, La Sculpture gothique en France XIIe-XIIIe siècles, Paris, 2008; Exhibition Paris 2010, Paris ville rayonnante, Musée de Cluny - musée national du Moyen Age, M. Cohen and X. Dectot, cat. This angel's head, of natural size, belonged to a large statue similar to those adorning the portals of cathedrals. Its strict frontality and its expression of impassive serenity are similar to those of the imposing angel's head from the first quarter of the 13th century kept in the museum of Cluny, which comes from Notre-Dame (inv. CL. 22969, fig.a). It is indicated as having belonged to an angel from the left side of the Coronation of the Virgin's portal accompanying a statue of Saint Denis. It should be noted that this representation is very different from the expressiveness of the two angels "with a smile", around 1240, who originally framed a figure also of St. Denis at the portal of Rheims (fig. b). Finally, it may also be the head of an angel of