Column Statue of a King

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The royal abbey at Saint-Denis housed the shrine of this national saint. It possessed many of the regalia of the kings of France, and the abbey served as their burial site. Under the energetic Abbot Suger (1122–51) the abbey was rebuilt in a new style that was hailed in the Middle Ages as “the French style” and subsequently called Gothic. This column figure of an unidentified king is the only complete statue to survive from the now destroyed cloister. The jeweled crown and halo distinguish the royal and saintly nature of the figure whose identity may once have been inscribed upon the scroll. Integrating a standing figure with a cylindrical column is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the new Gothic style.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.

Metropolitan Museum of Art