A misericord from the Château of Pierrefonds, showing two workmen wringing wraps of fabric
c. 1490-1500
Northern France, Oise?
16.5 x 31.8 x 13.3 cm; Oak, with a single iron fixing hoop let into the reverse. The seat ledge cut down on both sides.
Carved from a single panel of oak, this misericord (a moveable seat used by the clergy to relieve leg aches during long periods of enforced standing in church) depicts two men dressed in thigh-length tunics, cloth caps and broad-toed ‘bec-de-cane’ shoes flexing twists of fabric over their right knees. Their hands bend at the wrist to grasp and grapple with the bundles, and they sit with closed mouths – evidently silent in concentration.
Provenance
The remains of a nineteenth-century paper label adhered to the reverse, documenting the finding of the object at the Château of Pierrefonds.
