Object type
capital
Culture/period
Medieval
Materials
limestone
Technique
scuplting, bevelling
Mint
Production date
911 / 937
Current location
Església de Sant Miquel
Archaeological site
Olèrdola. Església de Sant Miquel (sector 06)
Township
Olèrdola (Europa, Espanya, Catalunya, Barcelona, Alt Penedès)
Dimensions
900 x 580 x 580 mm
Description
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Column with a capital in one piece, used as a mullion. It is in the double window that dominates the west facade of the church of Sant Miquel de Olèrdola, one of the few sculptural elements of the sober Romanesque building. It was found in 1926 in very good condition when the window was uncovered during restoration work directed by Jeroni Martorell. During the Civil War, it was damaged and lost part of the volume.
The workmanship is rough, archaic in appearance, a denatured element of the Corinthian prototype. The shaft is cylindrical and decorated with three cords or ropes in relief. The capital widens from the base to the top, where four false volutes protrude in the angles, recalling the volutes of the original classic models. Two smaller false volutes emerge from the anterior and posterior faces. The entire surface of the capital is decorated: the four faces of the basket, the four angular spaces between them that allow the passage from the cylindrical shape of the column to the cubic shape of the capital and the false volutes.
The relief decoration of the basket presents highly stylized geometric and plant motifs, some of them worked with the bevel technique to highlight the volumes and often edged with ropes. In the lower part, the braids stand out, three in total, which are complemented by a highly stylized tree of life. On the main faces, the motifs are geometric and worked indistinctly in negative or positive: five-pointed stars or pentagrams, six-pointed and twelve-pointed stars; rhombuses, crosses and others. On the false scrolls, small geometric shapes are combined that adapt to the curved space.
The monolithic column and capital probably come from the ornamentation of the pre-Romanesque church, preceding the Romanesque one, which stood throughout the 10th century. We do not know its original position within the temple (altar tenant, mullion, chancel arch?). In the new Romanesque construction of the late 10th century, the piece was used as a mullion and located on the west façade, where it remains.
© Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya - Olèrdola
Omeka ID
2320