This finely carved figure of a servant girl forms part of the expanded Presentation in the Temple ensemble on the central portal of Reims Cathedral. Added around 1252, slightly after the completion of the core group of Mary and Simeon (c. 1235), she represents the next stylistic phase within the Reims workshops, and her features reflect the evolving naturalism of mid-13th-century sculpture.

Her head is inclined gently forward, the expression soft and attentive, and her wavy hair falls in well-defined curls beneath a lightly draped veil. The face retains traces of polychromy, reminding us that these sculptures were once vividly coloured. The drapery across her shoulders is treated with fine, crisp folds gathered into a small knot at the chest, an elegant detail typical of Reims’ later High Gothic refinement.

Though introduced later, the servant girl is fully integrated into the narrative. She stands to the right of the main figures, her presence completing the domestic entourage that traditionally accompanies the Virgin in this scene. Her stylistic differences, slightly fuller modelling of the face, more animated drapery, highlight the ongoing development of the cathedral’s sculptural idiom in the decades after the initial campaign.

As one of the most expressive secondary figures on the west façade, she illustrates both the narrative sophistication and the artistic vitality of the Reims workshops during the mid-13th century.