Romanesque marble head Saint-Michel de Cuxa Abbey

Rare and significant Romanesque marble sculpture with pink and yellow veins, representing a female head in almost full-round. The oval-shaped face exhibits fine chisel work in the eyes and the corners of the lips. The eyes, with lead inlays in their cavities, give the sculpture a unique intensity, emphasizing the sober and hieratic expression of the face. The hair, combed into stiff strands, falls asymmetrically over the forehead. These formal characteristics, combined with the material used, a marble from the Pyrenees probably extracted from the Bouleternère quarries, confirm the prestigious origin of this piece, undoubtedly from the choir screen of the Abbey of Saint-Michel de Cuxa or that of the Priory of Serrabona in Occitania. XIIth century.