The Cuxa cloister was built in the twelfth century. At the beginning of the twentieth century, George Grey Barnard acquired approximately half of the dispersed capitals for his collection, which forms the core of The Cloisters today. This dictated that the dimensions of the Cuxa cloister be smaller than the original cloister at Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa-the original was four times the size you see here. The sequence in which the capitals are presented here is hypothetical.

The columns and capitals are all carved from the pink-veined marble taken from quarries near Cuxa. When the museum was ready to install the Cuxa cloister, these quarries were reopened, so that the same pink marble could be used to make the new architectural elements as in the original twelfth-century elements. Some of the capitals are carved with designs evoking palmettes, vine scrolls, pine cones, or acanthus leaves. Figurative capitals show lions rearing and gnashing their teeth or devouring humans, ribald apes and mermaids, men grasping eagles or blowing horns, and several varieties of infernal beasts.

Learn more about The Cloisters.

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