Innovation in Stone Medieval Sculpture from the van Horne Collection

The stone sculptures presented in this catalogue were gathered together over several decades by the New York collectors Charles and Alexandra van Horne. The works reflect van Horne's fascination with objects that bear a resemblance to modern art of the early 20th century. Accompanying the Romanesque ‘Picassos’, Celtic ‘Modiglianis’ and ancient ‘Henry Moores’ is a wealth of research material amassed by the collector to visualise the links between modernism and medieval art. This spirit is all the more interesting because most of the pieces date to the 12th century, a time when innovation and curiosity dominated the architectural and sculptural world. The sculpted heads and architectural fragments reproduced here originate in some of the most innovative and influential sites of 12th- and 13th-century Europe: Cluny, Toulouse, Parthenay and Bourges. Having been separated from their context, they invite us to imagine the extraordinary sites in which they were invented and the innovative sculptors who created them.