French, Dordogne region

The RISD Museum owns two limestone sculptures of Apostles (41.045 and 41.046) that were originally part of a horizontal sequence of twelve figures positioned above the main portal of a church in southwestern France. The figures are individually posed but share distinct stylistic characteristics, including stocky torsos, prominent heads, incised drapery folds, drilled pupils, and beaded haloes. Their large, open hands and upward glances would have been perceived by viewers as gestures of dialogue among one another. Their expressions of awe would have been directed toward a central motif of Christ ascending into heaven.