Pre-romanesque bird relief, 10th cent. or earlier, southern France/Spain

Beautifully naïve and deliciously pure.
This sculpture has all the moving charms of early art: a pre-romanesque relief with 4 birds on the side picking grapes (or dates or pinecones…) on branches and one female bird on top hatching 4 eggs. Not certain if these birds are picking grapes or pinecones or dates but the symbolism is very similar: it is a metaphor for abundance, for knowledge and/or fecundity. The fecundity theme is quite obvious here as a female bird is sitting in the upper part of the tree in a nest with four eggs while four male birds are active below. The delightful naïve style is extremely touching. Almost outsider art. It has that marvelous charm of very early art. The whole scene is depicted as child would paint it. We think this relief is from 10th-11th century (maybe even earlier) and from the south of France or North of Spain. The stone is yellowish sandstone. The previous owner has (disrespectfully) straightened the corners of the sculpture by applying some mortar to them, allowing it to stand upright.

Provenance: from the estate of Gustave Fayet (1865-1925), painter, ceramist and one of the first to collect works of Degas, Monet, Manet, Pissarro and especially Gauguin and Odilon Redon. In 1908 he sold a part of his Gauguin and Degas paintings in order to acquire the 11th century monastery ‘Abbaye de Fontfroide’ and in 1916 he bought the 10th century monastery ‘Abbaye Saint-André de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon’ – both had been founded by Benedictine monks in the south of France.

“Representations of vineyards and birds raiding the orchards seem to originate in the Orient or the Levant: the earliest examples are to be found in Pharaonic Egyptian art (…) The scenery of a bird threatening the berries of vine grapes occur first in the Orient during the late Hellenistic period and contemporarily in late Republican Italy on monumental architectural decoration. To date, it cannot be decided whether the motif has been invented independently from each other in the East and in the West. The massive Roman presence at that time in the East gives no clue as to whether they brought the picture of the vine- pecking bird from Italy or whether they adapted it in the Arabian realm. In the Nabataean area it is frequently attested, in architectural sculpture, mural paintings, and on pottery.
During the rule of the Roman emperors, the motif spread widely over the empire, not only in sacral, but also in secular and funeral contexts. Hence, Christian art adapted it to a great extent for the decoration of churches and tombs, predominantly on polychromic mosaic floors, paintings and stone carvings (…)” (Prof. Dr. Thomas Maria Weber “Vine Grape picking birds in Nabataean Art” p 99-100).