The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Head of an Apostle from the South Portal of the Cathedral of Thérouanne

c. 1235–1240

Northern France , Thérouanne, 13th century

(Pas-de-Calais)
oolitic limestone
Overall: 41.9 x 30.4 x 32.4 cm (16 1/2 x 11 15/16 x 12 3/4 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1978.56
Location: 106B Romanesque & Gothic Sculpture

Description

These monumental stone heads are among the substantial known remains of the sculptural program of Thérouanne’s cathedral, which was razed to the ground by Emperor Charles V of Spain in June of 1553. These heads were found in a wall of rue Ste. Croix in the town of Saint Omer (a short distance to the north) in January 1923. This group of sculptures from the gable of the south portal of Thérouanne, which includes a stylistically related Christ as Judge, is recorded to have been moved to the Cathedral of Saint Omer in 1554. With their deeply carved wavy hair, curly beards, wrinkled foreheads, and ponderous facial features, these imposing heads--even in their now fragmentary and weathered state--attest to the powerful monumentality of the stone sculpture covering French church facades of the Gothic period.
  • found in the wall of a house in the rue Sainte-Croix in Saint-Omer in northeast France in 1923; (Audomarois dealer, France); (René Gimpel, London); (Gimpel Fils, London); (Artemis, London and New York, through Eugene V. Thaw).
  • Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1978.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 66, no. 1 (January 1979): 3–48. Reproduced: p. 8-9; Mentioned: p. 43, no. 28 www.jstor.org
    Wixom, William D. “Eleven Additions to the Medieval Collection.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 66, no. 3 (Mar/Apr 1979): 87–151. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 96-100, figs. 22-26 www.jstor.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, and Holger A. Klein. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 174-175, no. 62
    Nys, Ludovic. "Im Norden des Artois. Die Skulpturen der Portale von Therouanne und Saint-Omer." In Skulptur um 1300: zwischen Paris und Köln. Michael Grandmontagne, and Tobias Kunz, 137-151. Berlin: Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: Petersberg: Michael Imhof Verlag, 2016. Reproduced: P. 140, Abb. 6/7
  • Year in Review: 1978. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 13-March 18, 1979).
  • {{cite web|title=Head of an Apostle from the South Portal of the Cathedral of Thérouanne|url=false|author=|year=c. 1235–1240|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1978.56