PAIR OF BIRD CAPITALS ITALY, XIIth CENTURY white... Lot 9

PAIR OF BIRD CAPITALS ITALY, XIIth CENTURY white marble H. 22 cm, W. 41 cm, D. 42 cm These two capitals with a pair of birds form a pair. This type of decoration was very successful in Romanesque Europe in the 12th century. They were carved in local stone, in marble around the Mediterranean basin. Similarly contorted birds, with finely engraved plumage, their wings streaked with parallel lines on an almost fluffy body, populate Italian architecture, sometimes nestling in foliage as on the relief preserved in the Ca' d'Oro in Venice (fig. 1). The precision of the line on our capitals allows us to identify on one of them leaning crows, recognizable by their long powerful beak. We find them, with their wings spread, on the corners of the Bompierre capital (fig. 2). Familiar with death, it became the protector of corpses in Christian hagiography. On the other, pelicans face each other. They illustrate Christ's sacrifice by piercing their flanks to feed their offspring, as can be seen, for example, in the portal of Metz Cathedral (fig. 3). Here, the young are absent but the attitude is the same.