Drop. A capital from the old cloister at “The Cloisters” museum in New York

The famous museum “The Cloisters” (1) (The Cloisters) in New York conceals many surprises: entire sections of medieval cloisters in the south of France, including that of Lombez! These cloisters were rescued from oblivion and rebuilt at the Cloisters as early as 1934. The museum itself, which is an annex of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, was built by sculptor John Barnard with funding from philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Junior, and the collection of George Gray Barnard, which forms its core, has been redeemed.

The cloister of Lombez: around the 10th century, a Benedictine abbey was built on the site of the current cathedral. The cloister in question was located in the courtyard of the bishopric. Few documents on this period. The existence of the capitals of the cloister shows that after the donation of the abbey to the chapter of Saint-Etienne de Toulouse (1125), a cloister was indeed built. The iconographic decoration of the capitals suggests that they were made between 1125 and 1150 (as indicated to the Cloisters). The study of a plan of 1783 (Archaeological Society of the South of France) reveals the existence of two galleries of the cloister, West and South, of about 30 meters each. We deduced that the south wall of the cathedral was built on the foundations of the abbey church. The eastern gallery of the cloister subsequently housed the kitchens and other rooms. The old cloister of Lombez has since dispersed, after having been sold in whole or in part to the Marquis de Resseguier, then established at the castle in Sauveterre. Besides the Cloisters in New York, two of these capitals are in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and another in the Musée des Jacobins in Toulouse. They all have a similar architecture. Today the monastery has completely disappeared. The only thing left is the cloister, scattered around the world …

(1) Museum built on a promontory, overlooking the Hudson, within the confines of Fort Tyron Park. Its particularity is to be composed of architectural fragments directly incorporated into all the buildings appearing on a huge abbey. This arrangement allows works of art to be seen in a way that suggests their original function.

–