Spanish(?), possibly late 12th/13th century

Mathias Komor

The present lot recalls the Romanesque heads of Spanish stone sculpture, particularly in the region of Catalonia. The treatment of the hair, shorn high on the head (in this case tonsured), and the large almond-shaped eyes with well-defined upper and lower lids crowned by a prominent brow, are features of a number of heads also seen on capitals and reliefs in churches along the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, in the towns of Frómista, Lieda, and also north of the Pyrenees in Moissac. 
The distinct form of St. John's beard which curves steeply below the cheekbone and is incised with wriggle-work, is evident on figures on capitals in Saint Martin, Frómista (Durliat, op. cit. nos. 85, 198-9). 

RELATED LITERATURE
Marcel Durliat, La Sculpture romane de la route de Saint-Jacques: de Conques à Compostelle, Mont-d-Marsan, 1990, no. 85, 298, and 299;
Ángela Franco Mata, 'Imagen del yacente en la Corona de Castilla (ss. XIII-XIV)' in Boletín del Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid, no. 20, 2002