This dramatically carved corbel comes from a grand sculpted fireplace and would originally have been one of a pair atop slender columns on either side of the hearth and which would together have supported the lintel.  

The style of the carving, with the leaf spray fully modelled in high relief and with pronounced naturalistic veining finds its closest parallels in the many sculpted friezes of the Hotel de Cluny in Paris, the grand urban palace of Jacques d’Amboise constructed in 1485 (fig. 1). Moreover, our corbel is carved form what appears to be the same grade and type of limestone. Both features help to suggest a similar date of execution and a similar origin, perhaps one of the capital’s grand palatial residences.