Lamentation of Christ. Attributed to the Master of Monesties.

Important, museum-quality statues in polychrome walnut, originating from a group of the Lamentation (rather than a pure Entombment). The original polychromy is largely preserved. The holy women can be identified as the Virgin (hands joined, pointing downward) and Mary Salome (hands joined, pointing upward). The iconography is coherent: head-covering mantles, inward mourning attitudes, joined hands, and absence of individual attributes. The frontal presentation, the footing on trapezoidal bases, and the restrained gestures point to a processional scenography, intended to be read laterally around a recumbent Christ in a Lamentation. These two sculptures reprise the posture, codes, and expressions observed in the exceptional ensemble preserved at the Saint-Jacques Chapel in Monestiès (c. 1490–1491, Albi region).

This group comes from the collection of Edouard Bresset, who already attributed them to the Master of Monestiès. The guiding lines indeed match the Master’s works: life-size scale, attitude, theme, expression, and facial rendering. The faces are characteristic: heavy eyelids, eyes barely opened, high brow ridges, straight noses, full cheeks, narrow mouths with downturned corners, and a short yet marked chin. These traits perfectly illustrate the late Gothic canon of the Albi region at the end of the 15th century. Further convergences with the Master’s orbit are noted: the thick veil edge with an internal bevel, the delicate treatment of the hands, and especially the transition between eyelids and cheekbones, hollowed like a gutter, creating a broken plane at the top of the cheeks.
Full dossier available on request.
References consulted:
· Documentary file, south portal of Rodez Cathedral, Caroline de Barrau, Université Toulouse II, October 2008
· “La Mise au Tombeau de Monestiès,” M. Rascol, in Bulletin Monumental, 1934
· Marguerite de Bevotte, La sculpture à la fin de la période gothique dans la région de Toulouse, d’Albi et de Rodez, H. Laurens, 1936