Encounter: A Statue-Column at the Glencairn Museum

Abstract

Gesta v54n2 (Fall 2015). 0031-8248/2015/7703-0004 $10.00. Copyright 2015 by the international Center of Medieval Art. All rights reserved. t hose of us who study medieval architectural sculpture are aware of the multiple lives it often has, intersecting with our own lives professionally and personally. Much of this sculpture remains in situ on European buildings, but some of it has migrated to museums, where capitals, tympana, and other pieces have a new life in a modern building. in north America, not only are such carvings removed from their original settings but they have also been transferred to a geographic region that lacks original medieval buildings. Encounters with such sculpture are shaped by the nature of both its new and its original setting. A mid-twelfth-century statue-column of a queen currently in the Glencairn Museum in bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, exemplifies such complexities of reception. The work can be seen against a neutral background in a photograph that emphasizes the sculpture itself (Fig. 1). it represents a haloed female, crowned and veiled, who holds a book. The figure’s hair is parted in the middle and styled in two long braids. under a mantle she wears a bliaut, or tunic, over a chemise that currently extends to the bottom of the figure. The neck of the chemise has a high collar and is fastened with an elaborate brooch, and the bliaut is cinched with a girdle knotted below the abdomen. This garb is typical of statue-columns from the mid-twelfth century that represent women. As art historians, we want to place such a figure in its original context. investigation reveals that this statue-column of a queen came from the French church of Saint-Thibaut in Provins (Seine-et-Marne), which was largely de stroyed by the early nineteenth century. Saint-Thibaut, dedi cated to a local saint, originally had two portals of the type called “royal” or “early Gothic.” One of the defining elements of such entrances is the statue-column, a combination of abstract architectural element and human figure. The Provins church seems to have had two trumeaux of the saint, one for each of the two doors; in one he wore military garb and in the other ecclesiastical robes. (One much-battered trumeau can currently be seen at the local Musee de Provins et du Provinois.) in the upper portal, kings and queens accompanied the saint in the jambs. The Glencairn queen was one of these statue-columns. A program that pairs biblical kings and queens with a local saint in the trumeau is found at several early Gothic portals, including the church of Saint-Loup at St.-Loup-de-naud near Provins. because these royal jamb figures, including the Glencairn queen, are shown in clothing worn in contemporary courts,1 they originally represented a fusion of characters from salvation history with recent kings and queens of France. One of the defining characteristics of this queen was its identity as an architectural element. This aspect was largely lost, however, when the figure was separated from its setting and became an independent sculpture. The Provins statuecolumn was purchased by raymond Pitcairn from the dealer George demotte, who sold him the sculpture called “princess” in a bill of sale dated 6 February 1923. Further alterations of the queen probably occurred during its time with demotte. The condition of the figure when the dealer acquired it is unclear; perhaps it was similar to that of the battered trumeau still in Provins. its lower parts are missing, which suggests it was cut down at some point. it is likely that demotte, following his usual practice, had the figure recut to increase its appeal to potential buyers, and it was in this “improved” state that the queen arrived in the united States.2 The purchaser and his family were members of the Swedenborgians’ General Church of the new Jerusalem, or new Church. Pitcairn’s father, John, an industrialist who founded Pittsburgh Plate Glass, was devoted to creating a community for the church in bryn Athyn that would ultimately