Bust Of Prophet - Anonymous (20th Century)

Glazed sandstone

France
early 20th century
height 42 cm

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This subject represents a famous bust representing an elderly and bearded man, a prophet, who was wrongly identified with Jacques de Lichtenberg, provost of the city of Strasbourg in the 15th century. This sculpture, leaning on a window, adorned the portal of the Chancellery of the city of Strasbourg. The bust was destroyed in 1870 in the fire of the library of Strasbourg, where it was exposed at the time. From this original, there remains only the head. However, there is still a plaster cast made before 1870, now preserved in the museum of Bouxwiller.

This old bust has had a turbulent history. After the destruction of the Chancellery by a fire, it was from the French Revolution exposed in the Municipal Library of Strasbourg. This place, bombed during the siege of the city in 1870, was reduced to ashes. The bust was then considered lost. In 1915, the Prophet's head reappears in Hesse in the collection of the Hanau History Society ("Hanauer Geschichtsverein"). Until that date, this head was considered for a satyr of antiquity. The Hanau History Society gave back the head to the Strasbourg Museum where it is still exhibited at the Œuvre Notre-Dame Museum.