About

Title of the work: Male allegorical figure: knight
Associated sculptor: Not identified
Dimensions: Height: 114cm x Width: 33.5cm x Depth: 33.5cm x Diameter: 17cm
Material: limestone

The Middle Ages saw the development of a social class of nobility tied to warfare: the knights. Indirect heirs of the Roman aristocracy of the Equites who fought on horseback, knighthood established itself as an institution in Christian Western Europe, embodying a set of martial values, but also moral ones. They held an important position within feudalism, with an oath of loyalty binding them to their lord. To pay for the often costly equipment of a knight, lands and revenues were made available to him.

In the 11th century, the Crusades took a prominent place in the imagery of the knight, at the crossroads of piety, the submission of this warrior class to the imperatives of the Church, and the figure of the protector of Christian Western Europe. The Crusades saw the emergence of powerful orders of soldier-monks, such as the Templars and the Hospitallers.

On the shaft of the column, a knight is depicted in armor, armed with a sword and protected by a large shield in the shape of a escutcheon. His chainmail is finely crafted, and his shield bears an emblematic rose, a motif found almost identically on other contemporary works. It is likely that this represents one of the warrior companions of the canons who went on the Crusades. The significant presence of sculptures representing allegories of knighthood in the cloister, rare for the period, demonstrates the importance of this order to the city of Châlons-en-Champagne.

State of Preservation

The statue is fragmented, with parts such as the tip of the sword missing. Nevertheless, the column-statue and its simple capital with a foliated motif remain relatively complete overall.