This head of a tonsured figure, which has also been called ‘monk’s head’ (‘munkehodet’), is one of the few wooden sculptures from the late twelfth century preserved in Norway. In terms of style, the head can be compared to the angel from an Entombment group now in the Bode-Museum in Berlin (inv. no. 2969), which was probably created in a Cologne/Rhenish workshop. The stylistic parallels with sculptures from the Rhineland and the Meuse Valley do not necessarily point to a West-German origin, however, as they are also found in Scandinavia around the same time; for example, in the St Michael in Haverö (Medelpad, Sweden) and the Virgin from Viklau (Gotland, now Stockholm, Statens historiska museum, inv. no. 18951). Tobias Kunz conjectured that the latter sculpture was created by a Cologne workshop that had settled on Gotland.

The head from Urnes was secondarily used to crown a font cover that is still in the church, but it probably belonged originally to a sculpted figure, possibly a deacon saint. From the same stave church, other important furnishings from the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries are also preserved, including a Virgin and Child, two enamelled candlesticks of Limousin origins, and an early triumphal cross with flanking figures (the latter objects still in situ). The church of Urnes was erected as the private church of a local nobleman (in Norwegian ‘lendmann’), who seems to have had overseas connections. The notable furnishings of the church, of which the decorated capitals seem to imitate Central European stone architecture, reflect the high ambitions of the donor and commissioner, which makes it possible that one or more sculptures were imports from leading European art centres of the period.

Rhineland/Mosan region or Norway, 1170-1200
From Urnes (Luster, Sogn), in the museum since 1868
Softwood, remnants of polychromy
H 30 x W 13 x D 16.5 cm
Inv. no. MA 77