This figure of a recumbent knight is probably one of the most popular objects in the Museum’s collections, but much about it remains mysterious. Known as a gisant, from the Old French for “lying horizontally,” the knight is shown by convention as being thirty-three years old, the age of Jesus at his death. Beyond this, we can know little. The style of the hat—worn in lieu of a helmet, and from a time when hat styles changed frequently—is our only source of dating. But the gauntlets—the warrior’s protective gloves—do not match. Are these meant to convey an individual knight’s actual apparel? Does the sculpture come from a Spanish noble tomb? Was the chapel in which our knight originally reclined on his bier destroyed? Deconsecrated? Absent its original context, we are unlikely to answer these questions with confidence, but his undeniably human appeal, caught as if sleeping, remains intact.
\r\nJames Christen Steward, Nancy A. Nasher–David J. Haemisegger, Class of 1976, Director, Princeton University Art Museum
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