Watch a video to find out.
Stay logged in
Go to Navigation
Go to Content
Go to Search
Back to browse highlights
Doorway from Abbey of Notre-Dame at Nevers
Seated Virgin and Child
Browse current and upcoming exhibitions and events.
This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 001
According to tradition, the monastery of Moutiers-Saint-Jean was founded by the first Christian kings of France, Clovis I and his son Clothar I. They are almost certainly depicted in the standing figures presenting their charters, now installed in the embrasures on either side of the portal. The small seated figures in the flanking niches represent biblical personages believed to prefigure or foretell Christ's Crucifixion. The tympanum above the doorway depicts Christ crowning the Virgin as the Queen of Heaven. This portal, probably from the north aisle of the cloister, would have led from the monastic precinct into the abbey church. The portal suffered severe damage during the sixteenth-century Wars of Religion; the heads of the two kings may have been repaired in the seventeenth century.
From the abbey of Moutiers-Saint-Jean, near Dijon, FranceMlle. Cambillarc , Moutiers-St.-Jean, France ; Jean Peslier , Vézelay, France ; [ Brummer Gallery , Paris and New York (sold 1932)]
© 2000–2013 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. All rights reserved.