The Figure- Sculpture : Annunciation and Visitation 261 



angel at the left, facing the Virgin. In the Visitation, the Virgin 

 is at the right, wearing a royal crown, and with a nimbus. The left 

 arm of Elizabeth is passed round the Virgin, and the hand clasps 

 Mary's arm above the elbow, while her right hand clasps the Virgin's 

 left wrist, the latter's right hand being invisible. These statues must 

 probably be dated ca. 1150— 60. ^ 



Perhaps more important for the dating of the Ruthwell Visitation 

 is that, or rather those, at St. Benoit-sur-Loire. At the left, just 

 as one passes through the doorway leading from the narthex, the 

 capital of the pillar bears an Annunciation, a Visitation, and a figure 

 of Christ wearing a cruciform nimbus, and blessing with the right 

 hand, while with the left he holds a book resting on his thigh. ^ Here, 

 as at Chartres, the Annunciation is at the left of the spectator. In 

 the Visitation, as in that at Ruthwell, the figure at the left has her 

 right forearm extended horizontally, with the hand touching the 

 other figure near the waist, while the left forearm of the figure at 

 the right is nearly parallel to the other's, but above. The right arm 

 of the figure at the right is passed round the figure at the left, and the 

 hand clasps the other's right shoulder, whence I conclude that the 

 figure at the right is Elizabeth, who would naturally be extending 

 a welcome to Mary (see the Visitation of the west front of Chartres, 

 above). Mary's sleeve is very wide above the wrist, and both Mary 

 and EHzabeth wear long tunics and veils (compare Moissac and 

 Chartres). This capital, it will be remembered, is to be dated by the 

 narthex of which it forms a part — about 1170, according to Marignan.^ 

 There is another Visitation on the capital of the last pillar of the choir 

 at the left, as one faces the west."* The two figures seem to be kissing, 

 and the face of Mary, in particular, is therefore much more nearly 

 in profile than in the Visitation of the narthex. The arms of Elizabeth 

 (for so I interpret the figure at the left) are passed about the waist 

 of Mary, with the hands nearly touching (in the other the}^ approach 

 each other at Marv's shoulder), while the left forearm of Mary is 



1 Cf. Marriage, pp. 14, 70. 



2 Cf. Bulletin Momimental 22. 115-6. 



^ ' Une Visite a FAbbaye de Fleury a Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire,' Revue de 

 VArt Chretien 45 (1902). 84, note 2. For an engraving of this Visitation, 

 see Bull. Mon. 22. 116. 



* Cf. Bull. Mon. 22. 130; and Caumont, Abecedaire d" Archeologie 1. 176. 

 Baum, Rumanesque Architecture in France, p. 231, would date this and 

 the preceding from about the beginning of the 12th century. 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. XVII 18 (49) 



