step. The animation of the body reveals the passionate nature of the
soul within. The flowing lines of the drapery folds ultimately derive
from manuscript illumination and here play gracefully around the
elegant figure. The long, serpentine locks of hair and beard frame an
arresting image of the dreaming mystic. The prophet seems en-
tranced by his vision of what is to come, the light of ordinary day
unseen by his wide eyes.
Six roaring interlaced lions fill the trumeau’s outer face (FIG. 17-1).
The animal world was never far from the medieval mind, and people
often associated the most fiercely courageous animals with kings and
barons—for example, Richard the Lionhearted, Henry the Lion, and
Henry the Bear. Lions were the church’s ideal protectors. In the Mid-
dle Ages, people believed lions slept with their eyes open. But the
notion of placing fearsome images at the gateways to important
places is of ancient origin. Ancestors of the interlaced lions at
Moissac include the lions and composite monsters that guarded the
palaces of Near Eastern and Mycenaean kings (FIGS. 2-18, 2-21,and
4-19) and the panthers and leopards in Greek temple pediments
(FIG. 5-17) and Etruscan tombs (FIG. 9-9).SAINT-LAZARE, AUTUNIn 1132, the Cluniac bishop Éti-
enne de Bage consecrated the Burgundian cathedral of Saint-Lazare
(Saint Lazarus) at Autun. For its tympanum (FIG. 17-12), he com-
missioned the sculptor Gislebertusto carve a dramatic vision of
the Last Judgment, which four trumpet-blowing angels announce.
In the tympanum’s center, far larger than any other figure, is Christ,
enthroned in a mandorla. He dispassionately presides over the sepa-
ration of the Blessed from the Damned. At the left, an obliging angel
boosts one of the Blessed into the heavenly city. Below, the souls of
the dead line up to await their fate. Two of the men near the center of
the lintel carry bags emblazoned with a cross and a shell. These are
the symbols of pilgrims to Jerusalem and Santiago de Compostela.
Those who had made the difficult journey would be judged favor-
ably. To their right, three small figures beg an angel to intercede on
their behalf. The angel responds by pointing to the Judge above. On
the right side (FIG. I-6) are those who will be condemned to Hell. Gi-
ant hands pluck one poor soul from the earth. Directly above, in the
tympanum, is one of the most unforgettable renditions of the
weighing of souls in the history of art (compare FIG. 16-9). Angels
and devils compete at the scales, each trying to manipulate the bal-
ance for or against a soul. Hideous demons guffaw and roar. Their
gaunt, lined bodies, with legs ending in sharp claws, writhe and bend
like long, loathsome insects. A devil, leaning from the dragon mouth
of Hell, drags souls in, while above him a howling demon crams
souls headfirst into a furnace. The resources of the Romanesque
imagination conjured an appalling scene.
The Autun tympanum must have inspired terror in the believ-
ers who passed beneath it as they entered the cathedral. Even those
who could not read could, in the words of Bernard of Clairvaux,
“read in the marble.” For the literate, the Autun clergy composed ex-
plicit written warnings to reinforce the pictorial message and had
the words engraved in Latin on the tympanum. For example, be-
neath the weighing of souls (FIG. I-6), the inscription reads, “May
this terror terrify those whom earthly error binds, for the horror of
these images here in this manner truly depicts what will be.”^3 The
admonition echoes the sentiment expressed in the colophon of a
mid-10th-century illustrated copy of Beatus of Liébana’s Commen-
tary on the Apocalypse.There, the painter Magius (teacher of Eme-
terius; see FIG. 16-11) explained the purpose of his work: “I have
painted a series of pictures for the wonderful words of [the Apoca-
lypse] stories, so that the wise may fear the coming of the future
judgment of the world’s end.”^4440 Chapter 17 ROMANESQUE EUROPE17-11Lions and
Old Testament prophet
(Jeremiah or Isaiah?),
trumeau of the south
portal of Saint-Pierre,
Moissac, France,
ca. 1115–1130.
This animated prophet
displays the scroll recount-
ing his vision. His position
below the apparition of
Christ as Last Judge is in
keeping with the tradition
of pairing Old and New
Testament themes.Saint Matthew’s angel, and the jerky, hinged movement of the
elders’ heads are characteristic of the nameless Moissac master’s
style of representing the human figure. The zigzag and dovetail lines
of the draperies, the bandlike folds of the torsos, the bending back
of the hands against the body, and the wide cheekbones are also
common features of this distinctive style. The animation of the in-
dividual figures, however, contrasts with the stately monumentality
of the composition as a whole, producing a dynamic tension in the
tympanum.
Below the tympanum are a richly decorated trumeau (FIG.
17-11) and elaborate door jambs with scalloped contours (FIG. 17-1),
the latter a borrowing from Islamic architecture (FIG. 13-12). On the
trumeau’s right face is a prophet identified as Jeremiah by some
scholars, as Isaiah by others. Whoever the prophet is, he displays the
scroll where his prophetic vision is written. His position below the
apparition of Christ as the apocalyptic Judge is yet another instance
of the pairing of Old and New Testament themes. This is in keeping
with an iconographic tradition established in Early Christian times
(see “Jewish Subjects in Christian Art,” Chapter 11, page 293). The
prophet’s figure is very tall and thin, in the manner of the tympa-
num angels, and, like Matthew’s angel, he executes a cross-legged
17-12A
GISLEBERTUS,
Suicide of
Judas,
ca. 1120–1135.17-12B
GISLEBERTUS,Eve,
ca. 1120–1135.