Conques Treasury - reliquary statue of St. Faith
This reliquary, the collection's prize possession, is made of wood covered with gold leaf and encrusted with precious stones. The body and the goldwork of the saint's gown belong to the Carolingian period, but the head, in solid gold, is much older. It comes from a post-classical statue, possibly from that of a Byzantine emperor, but is without doubt the head of a man. The throne, finally, was made after 985. Considered a prototype of Romanesque "figures in majesty", this statue also embodies the extreme heterogeneity of the Romanesque style, which draws on elements from Roman, Ottonian, Byzantine, and Islamic decorative practices.