MEDIEVAL SCULPTOR, French
(active 1120-1135 at Souillac)

Trumeau

1120-35
Stone
Sainte-Marie, Souillac

The former abbey church of Sainte-Marie at Souillac (Lot), built between about 1075 and 1150, had suffered extensive damage during the Huguenot wars. The extensive figured portal was affected extremely badly, and the remaining pieces were put back in position in the seventeenth century. Nowadays these fragments are on the inner western wall.

The picture shows the trumeau (now against the inner western wall). The former trumeau of the lost portal has intertwined griffin-like creatures depicted on its outer side, and lions fighting other animals. It can be considered the prototype of bestial columns.