Pair of carved Gothic beams from Brittany

Bourdelle spent the summer of 1920 on the Côtes d'Armor. In a notebook, he recorded the contact details of antique dealers in the region and the works that he found. He bought two Gothic beams from an antique dealer in Saint-Brieuc, as mentioned in a letter he wrote on 17 October to Jules Quercy, his great friend from Montauban: “In Brittany, I bought a statue, some carved Gothic beams and some beautiful antique furniture, at a very good upon.” (Translated from French)

One is carved with two angels holding phylacteries (banderoles); the other depicts a monk fighting a dragon, which he pierces with a lance adorned with an oriflamme (long, tapering ceremonial banner).

Bourdelle installed them in the sculpture studio, attaching them to the balustrade of the mezzanine, to the left of the large Christ on the Cross (MBCO643). On the mezzanine, he set out two medieval busts in polychrome wood, a Virgin (MBCO514) and a Bishop (MBCO515), as well as a plaster cast of a Romanesque tympanum entitled Christ Blessing Between Two Thurifer Angels (now held in the Jardin-Musée Bourdelle in Égreville). This layout can be seen in several photographs from 1922, when Bourdelle was making the bust of Marcelo de Alvear (e.g. MBPV1914) and in a photograph of the sculptor seated at the large table in his studio, circa 1925 (MBPV4028). 
The two beams have formed part of the workshop’s setting since that time.

Valérie Montalbetti Kervella