{"id":2617224,"date":"2025-01-30T10:29:22","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T15:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.gsd.harvard.edu\/specialcollections\/?page_id=2617224"},"modified":"2025-01-30T10:30:13","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T15:30:13","slug":"the-plaster-casts-of-clunys-apse-hemicycle-capitals","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.gsd.harvard.edu\/specialcollections\/envisioning-cluny\/the-plaster-casts-of-clunys-apse-hemicycle-capitals\/","title":{"rendered":"The Plaster Casts of Cluny\u2019s Apse Hemicycle Capitals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Plaster Casts of Cluny\u2019s Apse Hemicycle Capitals<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

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Soon after Conant began his excavation, in 1929, he commissioned plaster casts to be made of the eight capitals from the apse hemicycle (figs. 78<\/a>, 79<\/a>, 80<\/a>, 81<\/a>, 82<\/a>, 83<\/a>, 84<\/a>, 85<\/a>); the limestone originals are in the Mus\u00e9e Farinier in Cluny. These were executed by M. Lerecul\u00e9 from the then Palais de Trocad\u00e9ro museum (now the Mus\u00e9e national des monuments fran\u00e7ais within the Cit\u00e9 de l’architecture et du patrimoine) which had been established in 1879 by Eug\u00e8ne Viollet-le-Duc to house casts of French architectural and sculptural monuments. The casts, paid for by the Medieval Academy of America, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and private donations, were at first displayed in the courtyard of the Fogg Museum in 1930 (fig. 86<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Capital<\/a>
Figure 78.
Capital 1. Cast of a capital from the apse hemicycle of the abbey church at Cluny (Cluny III). Corinthianesque.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Capital<\/a>
Figure 79.
Capital 2. Cast of a capital from the apse hemicycle of the abbey church at Cluny (Cluny III). Figures on the angles perhaps representing the four seasons. 2) cloaked figure holding a book. Winter? 4) Figure in a short tunic with right arm raised, perhaps sowing seed. Spring? 6) Nude figure. Summer? 8) Figure with a large fur glove, perhaps a falconer. Fall?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Cast<\/a>
Figure 80.
Capital 3. Cast of a capital from the apse hemicycle of the abbey church at Cluny (Cluny III). Figures on the angles perhaps representing the four winds (north, south, east, and west). Only the lower parts of the figures remain on 2, 4, and 8. The subject of the capital is based on identifying what the figure at 6 holds as a bellows. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Capital<\/a>
Figure 81.
Capital 4. Cast of a capital from the apse hemicycle of the abbey church at Cluny (Cluny III). Four standing figures in hexagonal mandorlas represent the three Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity) and one Cardinal Virtue, Justice. 1) only one foot remains, but the silhouette shows the figure holding something on a vertical cord, probably the scales of justice; 3) woman with an open coffer, Charity; 5) woman with bent legs and hands out, perhaps in prayer, Faith; and 7) woman holding a flowering baton, Hope.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Capital<\/a>
Figure 82.
Capital 5. Cast of a capital from the apse hemicycle of the abbey church at Cluny (Cluny III). Four standing figures in mandorlas, three of which have carved inscriptions, perhaps represent three Cardinal Virtues: 1)Prudence?; 3)Temperance?; 7)Fortitude; and one Liberal Art, 5) Grammar. These identifications do not match the inscriptions which are: 1) summer; 3)spring; 5) Prudence (this inscription was painted, not carved, and it disappeared in the process of making the casts); 7) Prudence.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Capital<\/a>
Figure 83.
Capital 6. Cast of a capital from the apse hemicycle of the abbey church at Cluny (Cluny III). Four plants on the main faces- 1) apple tree; 3) fig tree? ; 5) almond tree? ; 7) grape vine\u2014and the four Rivers of Paradise (Physon, Geon, Tigris, and Euphrates) on the angles(2, 4, 6,and 8).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Capital<\/a>
Figure 84.
Capital 7. Cast of a capital from the apse hemicycle of the abbey church at Cluny (Cluny III). Figures in inscribed mandorlas represent the first four tones of plain chant. 1) seated man playing a lute (tone 1); 3) woman with cymbals or castanets (tone 2); 5) bearded man playing a stringed instrument (?) (tone 3); young man with a tintinnabulum (tone 4).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Capital<\/a>
Figure 85.
Capital 8. Cast of a capital from the apse hemicycle of the abbey church at Cluny (Cluny III), representing the last four tones of plain chant on the angles.  Only the legs remain of the figures at 2 and 8: for these, Conant inserted plaster upper bodies. 4) is missing his head, but his instrument, a monochord, zither, or dulcimer, remains; 6) has a right arm (perhaps a horn or flute player?)but the rest of his torso is gone. The subject of the capital is identified by the inscriptions on a horizontal band.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Casts<\/a>
Figure 86.
Kenneth Conant
Casts of the eight hemicycle capitals from Cluny III in the courtyard of the Fogg Museum, 1929.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Both the Old Fogg Museum and Robinson Hall, the latter housing the architecture school from 1902 to 1972, already had significant collections of plaster casts, now dispersed, although some few pieces can still be seen at the GSD and elsewhere at Harvard (figs. 87<\/a>, 88<\/a>, 89<\/a>). Drawing from casts was essential to the training of architects in the United States in the late-nineteenth to early-twentieth century. In this way they acquired facility working in various historical idioms while forming their taste based on models considered to be the best. And here, too, as we saw at the beginning what mattered was the telling part rather than the coherent whole. While in one sense the Cluny capital casts were quite ordinary additions to the Fogg display of great historical works, in other ways they were unusual, since most of the casts studied by American architecture students were of Greek and Roman antiquities or the Renaissance. The casts of panels from the Parthenon frieze acquired in 1895 for the opening of the Old Fogg Museum exemplify this (fig. 90<\/a>) as do Richard Morris Hunt\u2019s  pair of classicizing griffons and an anthemion of cast stone for the museum\u2019s roof  and a pair of marble Classical or classicizing columns perhaps from Robinson Hall (figs. 91<\/a>, 92<\/a>, 93<\/a>). Conant\u2019s casts of the Cluny capitals were part of a new trend at Harvard to diversify the cultural contexts of the works of art displayed in Harvard museums both geographically and chronologically. Already in 1889, the Harvard Semitic Museum, now the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, had been founded with artifacts collected for it by the Assyriologist David Gordon Lyon. And a Germanic Museum (later the Busch-Reisinger Museum) was established, again, much of the impetus coming from a Harvard professor, in this case, Kuno Francke. By 1903 casts of German medieval sculptures, donated by Kaiser Wilhelm II, could be seen at Harvard first in Rogers Hall but after 1921 in the present Busch Hall, the building having been designed by the German architect German Bestelmeyer but, because of the war, carried out by Herbert Langford Warren. This group included casts of the monumental Romanesque bronze doors and candlestick from Hildesheim (figs. 94<\/a>, 95<\/a>).  The 1920s was also the time that Harvard began to acquire original works of western medieval sculpture. Photographs of the Old Fogg Museum show how plaster casts of the Parthenon frieze were exhibited together with French Romanesque capitals donated by Arthur Kingsley Porter and others (figs. 87<\/a>, 96<\/a>, 97<\/a>). In 1933, while Conant\u2019s plaster casts were on display at the Fogg, a major example of Romanesque sculpture was donated to the museum by the Spanish government through the offices of Arthur Kingsley Porter (fig. 98<\/a>). This large columnar support from San Pelayo Antealtares in Compostela with its three standing apostles is an exceptionally fine example of Romanesque style.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Romanesque<\/a>
Figure 87.
Richard Morris Hunt (1827\u20131895), architect
Old Fogg Museum (Hunt Hall), 1893
Harvard Fine Arts Library, Special Collections, 1898L.00904 \/ 182 H267 6F(i)13<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Robinson<\/a>
Figure 88.
McKim, Mead, and White, architects
Robinson Hall, 1902 Black-and-white slide, 1904
Frances Loeb Library, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 77485<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Robinson<\/a>
Figure 89.
McKim, Mead, and White, architects
Robinson Hall, 1902 Black-and-white slide, 1904
Frances Loeb Library, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 77486<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"West<\/a>
Figure 90.
After Phidias (active 5th century BCE)
West Frieze, slab II of the Parthenon, Athens, Mounted Horsemen West Frieze, slab II of the Parthenon, Athens, Mounted Horsemen
original, Harvard Art Museums\/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Museum Purchase, 1895.25. Photo \u00a9 President and Fellows of Harvard College, Image courtesy of Anita Kan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Griffons<\/a>
Figure 91.
Richard Morris Hunt (1827\u20131895)
Griffons removed from the roof of first Fogg Museum (Hunt Hall), 1895
Harvard University Graduate School of Design, HUCP56.1-3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Anthemion<\/a>
Figure 92.
Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895)
Anthemion (antefix) from the Old Fogg Museum (Hunt Hall)
Harvard University Graduate School of Design, HUCP1490<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Two<\/a>
Figure 93.
Two Classical or classicizing fluted columns
Marble, perhaps Bardiglio from Carrara, undated
Harvard University Graduate School of Design<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Replica<\/a>
Figure 94.
Gebr\u00fcder Kusthardt
Replica of the Bernward Column (ca. 1020\u20131030) from the Church of St. Michael, Hildesheim, Germany, ca. 1900 Harvard Art Museums\/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Photo \u00a9 President and Fellows of Harvard College, BR30.34<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Replica<\/a>
Figure 95.
Unidentified Maker
Replica of the bronze doors (1015) installed in the west portal of Hildesheim Cathedral, Germany
Harvard Art Museums\/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Photo \u00a9 President and Fellows of Harvard College, BR30.32<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Capital<\/a>
Figure 96.
Unidentified Artist
Capital with the Supper at Emmaus, the Journey to Emmaus, Noli Me Tangere, and a City Gate (view of the City Gate) Harvard Art Museums\/Fogg Museum, Photo \u00a9 President and Fellows of Harvard College, 1922.67<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Capital<\/a>
Figure 97.
Unidentified Artist
Capital with Four Scenes from the Story of Samson (view of Samson pulling down the Temple of Dagon),  from the cloister of Notre-Dame des Doms, Avignon
Harvard Art Museums\/Fogg Museum, Photo \u00a9 President and Fellows of Harvard College, 1922.132<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Column<\/a>
Figure 98.
Unidentified Artist
Column or Columnar Support with Three Apostles: Matthew, Jude, and Simon
Harvard Art Museums\/Fogg Museum, Photo \u00a9 President and Fellows of Harvard College, 1933.100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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In the summer of 1933, the Boston Daily Transcript<\/em> reported that the entire hemicycle of Cluny had been recreated in the recently-built Fogg Museum courtyard, an elegant space bounded by a loose copy of a Renaissance house in Montepulciano (fig. 99<\/a>).[8] Envisioned by its designers Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch and Abbott as a setting for the contemplation of Classical\/classicizing statues (or at least casts of such), one side of this Classically proportioned and culturally elite courtyard was masked by a replica of the Cluny hemicycle, a full 45 feet in height, its slender columnar supports flouting all rules of Classical proportions and its capitals peopled with a bizarre array of figures engaged in obscure activities (fig. 73<\/a>). Even this challenge did not suffice for Conant: although the Cluny hemicycle was a screen through and behind which the Renaissance loggia was now seen, in Conant\u2019s photograph the Fogg courtyard was entirely blacked out, leaving only the Cluny hemicycle. Conant himself, his academic regalia approximating the habit of a  Benedictine monk, provided the scale (fig. 100<\/a>).  But if Conant hoped thereby to rival the hegemony of the Classical, he was disappointed when the casts of the Cluny capitals were sent to the Mount Holyoke College in 1936, rather than preserved at Harvard. In 2008 they returned to us and are now housed at the Graduate School of Design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight capitals, made of local limestone, originally topped the columns of the apse hemicycle of Cluny III as recorded in drawings made before its dismantling in 1818. Six of the supporting columns were re-used sections of ancient Cipollino and Carrara marble columns, and two were of limestone painted to look like marble. The columns stood on plinths which were themselves tall, so that the capitals stood about 30 feet above the ambulatory pavement. While the visual effect was unclassically elongated \u2013 the height of the capital and columns together being eighteen times the diameter of the column \u2013 the apse hemicycle probably looked less vertical than Conant\u2019s  Fogg Museum reconstruction which, at 45 feet tall, equaled one-half the total  height of Cluny\u2019s apse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The capital casts were displayed in the courtyard of the Fogg Museum from 1929 to 1934. They were first placed directly on the floor while Conant worked to establish their correct sequence and orientation, information essential for interpreting their meaning (fig. 86<\/a>). All the capitals had fallen some 30 feet from their columnar supports to the ground in 1819 and are all damaged; the parts missing made, and make, their subjects difficult to identify. Conant\u2019s photographic prints of the casts in negative suggest how, by heightening the contrast between dark and light areas, he enhanced their legibility (fig. 101<\/a>). From the beginning, Conant intended to restore the missing parts of the capitals on the casts. In fact, he only completed one, Capital 8, as we can see comparing the original still in Cluny with the plaster cast as he displayed it at the Fogg Museum (figs. 102<\/a>, 103<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Architectural<\/a>
Figure 99.
Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch and Abbott
Architectural Rendering of the Courtyard of the Fogg Museum of Art, circa 1927
Harvard Art Museums\/Fogg Museum, Photo \u00a9 President and Fellows of Harvard College, 1927.47<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Fogg<\/a>
Figure 73.
Kenneth Conant
Fogg Courtyard with Conant\u2019s reconstruction of the apse hemicycle from the Abbey Church at Cluny made in the summer of 1933<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Kenneth<\/a>
Figure 100.
Kenneth Conant
Kenneth Conant with his reconstruction of the apse hemicycle of Cluny III in the Fogg Museum courtyard, 1934. The actual Fogg architecture is blacked out.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Casts<\/a>
Figure 86.
Kenneth Conant
Casts of the eight hemicycle capitals from Cluny III in the courtyard of the Fogg Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Photographs<\/a>
Figure 101.
Kenneth Conant
Photographs of two Cluny capital casts printed in negative, which enhances their legibility by heightening the contrast between void and solid. The column, necking, echinus, and abacus are Conant\u2019s additions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Cast<\/a>
Figure 102.
Capital 8 from the apse hemicycle of the Abbey Church at Cluny (Cluny III)
Photo courtesy of S\u00e9bastien Biay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"The<\/a>
Figure 103.
Kenneth Conant
The plaster cast of capital 8 in the Fogg courtyard, 1929\u20131933 with missing pieces added by Conant.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Reconstruction<\/a>
Figure 63.
Kenneth Conant
Reconstruction of the apse of Cluny III with liturgical furnishings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Questions abound regarding these capitals and very little can be said with certainty. They must date sometime between 1095 (the date Conant preferred), when five main altars in Cluny\u2019s apse were consecrated by Pope Urban II (the high and matutinal altars plus those in the three easternmost radiating chapels), and 1130-32 when the building was complete, and very likely before 1120 or even 1115. Although some scholars have suggested that the capitals were first installed and only later carved, Conant believed that they were certainly carved before being hoisted into place because the carving on one of the capitals extends beneath the impost block resting on it. The original sequence of the capitals is unknown, and Conant himself gave a different order to them in the Fogg reconstruction than he assigned in his 1968 publication. Seven of the eight capitals are carved with figures, some, but not all, of which can be identified, a task that might be facilitated if their relative placements were known. Another problem is establishing which is the front face of each, and therefore which eight faces were seen by a someone in the apse, for instance the priest celebrating Mass at the matutinal or high altar, and which by a spectator in the ambulatory. By extension, it isn\u2019t clear what the intended audience for the capitals was and that further complicates efforts to interpret the iconographic program. If there was one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All eight capitals are Corinthianesque in that they have (or had) volutes at the angles, an abacus, and a bell-shaped core. Most have acanthus leaves; some have a fleuron marking the center of the abacus. Three have figural decoration on the main faces; two have figures on the angles; two have figural ornament on both the main faces and the angles; and one has no figures. One capital places the figures on the main faces within hexagons, one uses almond shapes (mandorlas) to frame the figures, one shows trees and rivers with figures only on the angles; and two run horizontal bands around the middle of each capital over the figures on the faces or angles. In short, they do not share a common format and design.  Our captions identify the location of the figures on the capitals by number: the main faces are 1,3,5, and 7 and the angles 2,4,6, and 8, using the system we adopted for the 3D digital models of the casts. We follow Neil Stratford\u2019s authoritative catalogue for which is the front face of each and for their original sequence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While some of the capitals have written inscriptions, others do not. One capital had a painted inscription that was erased by making the plaster cast and is recorded only by Conant. Because the capitals are damaged, many of the figures are broken. Consequently their poses aren\u2019t clear and their attributes lost, again creating problems for identification. Further, since these are among the earliest Romanesque figural capitals few comparisons with related, earlier models are possible . In some cases their iconography seems to be based on manuscript texts and\/or illustrations, but small scale sculptures have been suggested as sources for others. About their authorship, some scholars believe them to be by a single sculptor with an identifiable oeuvre, others think there were two masters, and some believe no such determinations can be made. The two most fundamental open questions about their iconography are 1) what does each capital represent; and 2) does the group have a common theme or subject. As Conant also concluded, there was probably never a coherent, unified iconographic program for the capitals. There are some quaternities: the four seasons (capital 2, fig. 79<\/a>); the four winds (capital 3, fig. 80<\/a>); the four rivers of paradise (capital 6, fig. 83<\/a>); and the four cardinal virtues (capitals 4 and 5, figs. 81<\/a>, 82<\/a>). In addition, there are the three theological virtues (capital 4), one of the seven liberal arts (capital 4) and the eight tones of plainchant (capitals 7 and 8, figs. 84<\/a>, 85<\/a>). Conant suggested tha the subjects could be thought of in three groups: 1) human virtues, placed in the center of the apse (capitals 4 and 5); 2) capitals about nature ( capitals 2, 3, and 6); and 3) a group about divine praises (capitals 7 and 8).[9] That may be as close as we can get to a solution. As Stratford recognized, you have to consider the entire apse context of painted and mosaic apse conch, the black, white, and red marble and glass pavement, colored marble and marbleized columns.[10] One supposes the capitals, too, were originally painted. The capitals were integral parts of this splendid whole, much as we see it and Conant saw it in his mind\u2019s eye (fig. 63<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chronologically, this exhibition begins with Richardson\u2019s photograph collection and his presentation drawings for Trinity Church, 1872 and ends with the 3D digital models created in 2022 of plaster casts made  of twelfth-century capitals in 1929.  Photographs, drawings, casts, digital images, and animations are all representational media by which architecture can be studied, taught, and designed. Not all these means were simultaneously available: we see how technology advanced and also how each medium fostered or hindered certain kinds of historical knowledge and creativity. This brings to the fore thoughts about the use of \u201cprecedents\u201d for architectural design and in architectural education. It was my intention to celebrate the continuity but also the progress in the study and teaching of architectural history at the Graduate School of Design, especially through the career of my predecessor, Kenneth Conant. The exhibition\u2019s narrative is told entirely through visual materials from repositories at Harvard University, most of which I have used in my classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christine Smith<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert C. and Marion K. Weinberg Professor of Architectural History, Graduate School of Design<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

footnotes<\/p>

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[1] P. xxv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2] See especially, Trachtenberg, M., Building in Time. From Giotto to Alberti and Modern Oblivion<\/em>, New Haven, 2010<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3] Conant, K., \u201cA Replica of the Arcade of the Apse at Cluny, \u201dBulletin of the Fogg Art Museum<\/em>, 3.1, 1933, pp. 5-8, p.6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4] A still controversial matter. Most recently Anne Baud argued that, contrary to Conant, construction began in the south arm of the major transept and proceeded eastward in horizontal slices. \u201cArchaeology and the Abbey of Cluny, in Bruce, S.G., and Vanderputten, S., A<\/em> Companion to the Abbey of Cluny in the Middle Ages<\/em>, Leiden, 2021, pp. 146-72, p. 162.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5] See Armi, C. Edson, \u201cThe Context of the Nave Elevation of Cluny III,\u201d Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians<\/em>, 69.3, 2010, 321-51<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6] Conant, K., Cluny: les \u00e9glises et la maison du chef d’ordre<\/em>, M\u00e2con, (Mediaeval Academy of America) no. 77.), 1968, fig. 67<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7] Shortly before his death Conant was asked if the rainy weather reminded him of Cluny. He replied with that quotation. In P. Fergusson, Necrology — Kenneth John Conant (1895-1984), Gesta<\/em>, 29, 1985, pp. 87-88, p. 88.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8] Cochrane, A.F., \u201cTall Columns of Cluny at Fogg Museum,\u201d Boston Evening Transcript<\/em>, Saturday, August 5, 1933, p. 8<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[9] Conant, Kenneth J., \u201cThe Iconography and Sequence of the Ambulatory Capitals at Cluny, Speculum<\/em>, 5, 1930, pp. 278-87, p. 285.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[10] Steatford, N., \u201cThe Apse Capitals of Cluny III,\u201d in Studies in Burgundian Romanesque Sculpture<\/em>, London, 1998, pp. 77-90, p. 82.\\<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Cluny Collection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exhibition<\/strong>: Envisioning Cluny: Kenneth Conant and Representations of Medieval Architecture, 1872\u20132025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curator<\/strong>: Christine Smith, Robert C. and Marion K. Weinberg Professor of Architectural History
Collaborators<\/strong>: Matthew Cook, Digital Scholarship Programs Manager, Widener Library; Ines Zalduendo, Special Collections Curator at the Frances Loeb Library, M.Arch ’95
Animation<\/strong>: Clayton Scoble, Media Lab Director, Lamont Library
Assistants<\/strong>: Kian Hosseinnia, M.Arch ’24; Hayley Eaves, Ph.D Candidate
Exhibition Design<\/strong>: Dan Borelli, Director of Exhibitions, GSD, M.Des ’12
Online Exhibition Design<\/strong>: Ashleigh Brady, Archival Collections Website Editor, M.Arch ’26<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Soon after Conant began his excavation, in 1929, he commissioned plaster casts to be made of the eight capitals from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"parent":2616993,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2617224","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Plaster Casts of Cluny\u2019s Apse Hemicycle Capitals - Special Collections |Frances Loeb Libra<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Plaster Casts of Cluny\u2019s Apse Hemicycle Capitals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Soon after Conant began his excavation, in 1929, he commissioned plaster casts to be made of the eight capitals from […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.gsd.harvard.edu\/specialcollections\/envisioning-cluny\/the-plaster-casts-of-clunys-apse-hemicycle-capitals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Special Collections |Frances Loeb Libra\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-30T15:30:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.gsd.harvard.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/01\/79-1.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"43 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.gsd.harvard.edu\/specialcollections\/envisioning-cluny\/the-plaster-casts-of-clunys-apse-hemicycle-capitals\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.gsd.harvard.edu\/specialcollections\/envisioning-cluny\/the-plaster-casts-of-clunys-apse-hemicycle-capitals\/\",\"name\":\"The Plaster Casts of Cluny\u2019s Apse Hemicycle Capitals - Special Collections |Frances Loeb Libra\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.gsd.harvard.edu\/specialcollections\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.gsd.harvard.edu\/specialcollections\/envisioning-cluny\/the-plaster-casts-of-clunys-apse-hemicycle-capitals\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.gsd.harvard.edu\/specialcollections\/envisioning-cluny\/the-plaster-casts-of-clunys-apse-hemicycle-capitals\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.gsd.harvard.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/01\/79-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-30T15:29:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-30T15:30:13+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.gsd.harvard.edu\/specialcollections\/envisioning-cluny\/the-plaster-casts-of-clunys-apse-hemicycle-capitals\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sites.gsd.harvard.edu\/specialcollections\/envisioning-cluny\/the-plaster-casts-of-clunys-apse-hemicycle-capitals\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.gsd.harvard.edu\/specialcollections\/envisioning-cluny\/the-plaster-casts-of-clunys-apse-hemicycle-capitals\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.gsd.harvard.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/01\/79-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.gsd.harvard.edu\/specialcollections\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/01\/79-1.png\",\"width\":749,\"height\":686,\"caption\":\"Figure 78. 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