MEDIEVAL SCULPTOR, English
(active c. 1250)

Centaur Fighting a Dragon

c. 1250
Stone
Westminster Abbey, London

This is a stone roof boss in Westminster Abbey.

Capitals, so important a feature of early Romanesque, still continued in the 13th century, but with new soaring architecture their sculpture becomes unimportant. It is the bosses and the corbels that become the chief site for decorative carving, and in these the new, simple, naturalistic treatment replaces the more decorative stylizations of earlier artists. Though there may still be some stylization akin to that of the gaming pieces, as in this example from Westminster Abbey, the whole composition is more freely conceived.