Apostle

Bordeaux Cathedral, which underwent reconstruction and renovation several times, was consecrated in 1096. Only one of the walls of the nave survived from the Romanesque cathedral. The reconstruction that began in the early thirteenth century was already carried out in the Gothic style, originating in Île-de-France. The north side-portal – the so-called royal portal – built around 1250 and originally painted according to medieval tradition, conforms in its style to French High Gothic sculpture. The tympanum relief depicts the Last Judgement with the Enthroned Christ in its centre, while the haloed male jamb figures depict the Apostles. The Museum of Fine Arts commissioned a plaster cast of one of these. Commissioned by the museum in 1909, the cast was made by August Gerber in Cologne. It was exhibited in the Romanesque Hall in 1910.