Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), Saint-
Sernin, Christ in Majesty, ambulatory
relief. Photograph courtesy of Whitney
S.Stoddard.
with the altar table (ca. 1096) of the church of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, capitals in the
tribunes, and the large marble reliefs now in the ambulatory. The fullness of his forms,
suggestive of polished ivory carving, was further developed in the Porte Miègeville (ca.
1110–15); a similar style developed along the pilgrimage route in northern Spain (Jaca,
León, Compostela).
The first Moissac workshop was responsible for the cloister capitals and pier reliefs
(ca. 1100) of the abbey of Saint-Pierre, the oldest of the historiated cloisters that survives
relatively intact. There is a new spirit at work, however, in the famous south portal,
where a decorative richness suggestive of Islamic Spain is combined with Burgundian
elements and with a more dynamic treatment of the figure. The resultant visionary effect
was widely imitated; the characteristic elongated figures, in cross-legged and dancing
poses, were repeated at Beaulieu (Corrèze) and culminated in the ecstatic image of the
prophet Isaiah at Souillac (Lot). The sculpture of later Toulousan ateliers (La Daurade
The Encyclopedia 1547