Lintel
Unknown Artist
ca. 1130–40
Medium
Marble
Dimensions
Overall: 8 1/2 x 17 7/8 x 9 1/2 in. (21.6 x 45.4 x 24.1 cm)
Classification
Sculpture-Architectural
Culture
Catalan
Department
The Cloisters
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Cloisters Collection, 1925
Accession Number
25.120.979
Art Historical Context
Step into the Romanesque world of medieval Catalonia with this striking marble lintel, crafted around 1130–40 by an unknown artist. Measuring about 8½ by 17⅞ by 9½ inches, this architectural sculpture once crowned a doorway in a church or monastery, serving both structural and decorative purposes. Housed in The Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it exemplifies the robust stonework of the era, where lintels bore intricate reliefs to inspire awe and devotion among worshippers. In 12th-century Catalonia, Romanesque art flourished amid a vibrant cultural crossroads of Christian, Islamic...