id:			96269
accession number:	1916.1983
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/1916.1983
updated:		2023-03-03 07:01:13.363000

Capital with Addorsed Harpies, 1200s. Southwest France, Languedoc, Toulouse (?), 13th century. Limestone; overall: 23.5 x 28 x 23.2 cm (9 1/4 x 11 x 9 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1916.1983

title:				Capital with Addorsed Harpies
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			1200s
creation date earliest:		1200
creation date latest:		1299
current location:		
creditline:			Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust
copyright:			

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culture:	Southwest France, Languedoc, Toulouse (?), 13th century
technique:	limestone
department:	Medieval Art
collection:	MED - Romanesque
type:		Sculpture
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

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measurements: Overall: 23.5 x 28 x 23.2 cm (9 1/4 x 11 x 9 1/8 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		Medieval Monsters: Terrors, Aliens, Wonders
	opening date:   2019-07-07T04:00:00
	<i>Medieval Monsters: Terrors, Aliens, Wonders</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 7-October 6, 2019).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

	Mrs. Chauncey J. Blair, Chicago, IL
	date: 
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: 1916-
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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fun fact:
A harpy is part bird and part woman featured often in Greek mythology.

digital description:


wall description:
Monstrous images were prevalent in the decoration of religious buildings during the Middle Ages. Such images must have impressed, perhaps even terrified, the monks and visitors who spent much of their time within the cloister or church, a place of prayer, contemplation, and reflection. Scholars have speculated how such images would have been received by the people given the ubiquity of monsters in medieval society. The carved monsters, often symbolizing vice and retribution for sin, were possibly designed to provoke a range of emotional responses including laughter, wonder, surprise, fear, and shock. This striking imagery must have had a strong impact, which in turn led Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), the spiritual head of the Cistercian order, to admonish their use as distracting from prayer.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Cahn, Walter, and Linda Seidel.<em> Romanesque Sculpture in American Collections.</em> New York: B. Franklin, 1978.
	page number: 	Vol. III, no. B III 9, 158-59
	url:		

	Mikolic, Amanda. <em>A Field Guide to Medieval Monsters.</em>Cleveland; The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2019.
	page number: 	Reproduced: p. 9
	url:		

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1916.1983/1916.1983_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1916.1983/1916.1983_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1916.1983/1916.1983_full.tif