Head Saint Apotre

This head is made of limestone carved in a round hump.
Face of rather square shape, with a hair with wicks forming crossed clusters, two wicks return to the top of the forehead masking the baldness.
The eyes are tapered, almond and hemmed, the nose is round, the mouth delicately fleshy.
The bottom of the face is framed by a bread whose end of the wicks is wrapped in a snail.
Paris or France, mid-14th century Provenance collection Alain Gabriele (Sarthe)
The expression of this face is probably what strikes first.
Without coldness, without severity, without abuse of sensuality, this head presents itself to us with a perfect balance of dignity and presence.
According to the analysis of the stone carried out by Madame Annie Blanc, this sculpture is a Lutetian limestone, made of so called Saint Leu stone from Saint Leu d'Esserent.This stone was abundantly used as cut stone to build Paris in the 14th century, but also used by image cutters.
The revolution that the Renaissance brings to sculpture is, among other things, the shaping of the feeling that is visible, more sensitive.
The stylistic characteristics of this face are truly impregnated with this, return to the ancient, towards humanism so present in the art of the renaissance