Kapiteel van een kolom in de crypte van de Abdijkerk te Rolduc 1890

This is a photograph of a column capital in the crypt of Rolduc Abbey Church. The photo, by an anonymous photographer, was produced in the Netherlands. Architectural details, like this column capital, reveal much about the priorities of a culture. Columns have long represented support, strength, and order, both physically and symbolically. The use of them in the crypt of an Abbey church can speak to the social and religious values of its time. Consider the labor required to create these structures and the resources needed to build them. Who commissioned and paid for the work? Who had access to this crypt? Exploring sources, such as historical records of the Abbey’s construction, correspondence between patrons and builders, and theological texts of the period can shed light on the place of this artwork in the culture that created it. It can also reveal this photograph as a valuable source of cultural and institutional history.