MEDIEVAL SCULPTOR, French
(active 1150s at Serrabone)

Tribune for the choir

1150s
Marble
Church of Notre-Dame, Serrabone

The church of Notre-Dame in Serrabone (Western Pyrenees) belongs to the former priory of Serrabone; since the monastery complex to which it was connected was destroyed, the church has become a lonely building. Its relevance to Romanesque sculpture lies mainly in one sculptural feature - the sculptural design of the southern gallery and tribunes.

Erected around 1150 in the west part of the church, the tribunes were moved to the centre of the church in the in either the seventeenth century or the nineteenth. They consist of three arcades spanning the nave, and they form two bays and are supported by pillars, columns and coupled columns with figured capitals. The western face is covered all over with reliefs; those on the arcade arches are flowers and vines, and in the spandrels are Christian symbols.

Presumably this structure is intended for the singers in the choir. Built from a reddish-white marble, the structure forms a fine contrast to the otherwise plain interior.