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Fragment of a Capital, Abby of Coulombs
Fragment of a Capital, Abby of Coulombs

Fragment of a Capital, Abby of Coulombs

Former TitleThe Story of Daniel
CultureFrench
Dateca. 1150
MediumLimestone
DimensionsOverall: 14 1/2 × 18 1/8 × 9 1/2 inches (36.83 × 46.05 × 24.13 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number55-44
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 105
Collections
Exhibition History

Treasures from Medieval France, Cleveland Museum of Art, November 15, 1966-January 29, 1967, no. III 18, as Capital Fragment with Scenes from the Story of Daniel (?).

Songs of Glory: Medieval Art from 900-1500, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, January 22-April 29, 1985, no. 5, as Capital with Scene of Daniel in the Lions’ Den.

Tempus Fugit: Time Flies, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 15, 2000-December 31, 2000, no. II.3, as Fragment of a Capital.

Gallery Label
This carved fragment was originally half of a four-sided capital which crowned a massive, twisted column in an abbey near the famous cathedral of Chartres in northern France. Inspired by the Old Testament Book of Daniel, it depicts a scene from the story of Daniel in the Lions' Den. The figure at the far left is King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. He is shown dreaming in his bed as Daniel confronts a circle of contorted lions whose entwined bodies create a dynamic, interlaced pattern. The visual intricacy and bold carving of this and other Romanesque sculpture stimulated the imagination and thus fostered the religious education of a largely illiterate public.
Provenance

Abbey of Coulombs, France [1];


With Paul Mallon, Paris, by 1955;


Purchased from Paul Mallon by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1955.


NOTES:


[1] Robert Branner, “A Romanesque Capital from Coulombs,” The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum Bulletin 2, no. 3 (January 1960): 3.

Published References

L. Merlet, “Histoire de l’abbaye de Coulombs,” Mémoires de la société archéologique d’Eure-et-Loire 3 (1863): 24-52.

L. Merlet, “Histoire de l’abbaye de Coulombs,” Mémoires de la société archéologique d’Eure-et-Loire 4 (1867): 52-104.

“Accessions of American and Canadian Museums: July-September 1955,” Art Quarterly (Spring 1956): 72, 75, (repro.), as Capital.

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 49, (repro.), as Limestone Capital.

Robert Branner, “A Romanesque Capital from Coulombs,” The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum Bulletin 2, no. 3 (January 1960): 1-6, 6n1, (repro.).

Art de France 1 (1961): 267.

William D. Wixom, Treasures from Medieval France, exh. cat. (Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966), 80-81, 355, (repro.), as Capital Fragment with Scenes from the Story of Daniel (?).

Marilyn Stokstad, “Romanesque and Gothic Art,” Apollo 96, no. 130 (December 1972): 20, (repro.), as Fragment of a cloister capital [repr. in Denys Sutton, ed., William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City (London: Apollo Magazine, 1972), 486, 488].

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 61, (repro.), as Historiated Capital.

Marilyn Stokstad, “Romanesque Sculpture in American Collections. XV. Kansas City, Missouri and Lawrence, Kansas,” Gesta 16, no. 1 (1977): 49, (repro.), as Capital.

Richard Hamann-Mac Lean, “Die Anfänge des Monumentalen stils,” À travers l’art français, Archives de l’art français 25, nouvelle période (1978): 64-65, (repro.), as Chapiteau provenant de Coulombs.

David Mickenberg, Songs of Glory: Medieval Art from 900-1500, exh. cat. (Oklahoma City, OK: Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 1985), 76-77, (repro.), as Capital with Scene of Daniel in the Lions’ Den.

Walter Cahn, ed., Romanesque Sculpture in American Collections: New York and New Jersey, Middle and South Atlantic States, the Midwest, Western and Pacific States (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepol, 1999), 212-13, (repro.), as Fragment of a capital. Abbey of Coulombs.

Jan Schall, ed., Tempus Fugit: Time Flies, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2000), 223-27, 349, (repro.), as Fragment of a Capital.

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


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