Image: Girona Museum of Art
The Museu d’Art de Girona is highlighting a Gothic sculpture of ‘Santa Coloma’, a religious image carved from a single block of alabaster and dated by the museum to between 1340 and 1370. The work is attributed either to Aloy de Montbray or Jaume Cascalls, two royal sculptors whose activity in the Girona region is documented by the museum’s collection record.
The sculpture, catalogued as MDG0271, depicts the saint standing with her left hand gathering part of her tunic. Her long, wavy hair falls over her shoulders to the chest beneath a mantle. The museum describes the face as both beautiful and composed, with a firm, serene expression. Parts of the figure’s extremities are missing, but the record suggests that the right hand would originally have held a martyr’s palm and a dove, an attribute associated with the saint’s name.
The work is made of polychromed Beuda alabaster and measures 123 by 42 by 36 centimetres. Its material connects it to a wider sculptural tradition in the Girona area during the mid-14th century. According to the museum, Beuda and Segueró, two parishes near Besalú at the eastern edge of the present-day Garrotxa region, were important sources of alabaster for artists working in the area.
The museum places the sculpture within a period when images and altarpieces were produced either directly by leading masters or in imitation of their works. Aloy de Montbray and Jaume Cascalls are described as royal sculptors whose activity in the lands around Girona was sustained during this period. The artistic context also coincided with the rule of the royal-descended counts of Empúries, who frequently commissioned works from such craftsmen.
The sculpture is associated with the church of Santa Coloma de Siurana, first mentioned in 1231 and formerly part of the County of Empúries. The museum identifies the image as part of that regional artistic and historical setting, while keeping its authorship open between the two proposed attributions. Its classification is religious object and cult image.
The Museu d’Art de Girona records the work as part of the Girona Bishopric collection, with the Bishopric of Girona listed as its source of acquisition. ‘Santa Coloma’ is currently displayed in the museum’s permanent exhibition at Pujada de la Catedral, 12, in Girona. The museum’s collection includes sections devoted to Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and later art.
