A Short History of the Middle Ages Fourth Edition

As at many Romanesque churches, the portals and the capitals (the “top hats” on

the columns) at Autun were carved with complex scenes representing sacred stories.

The story of the “Raising of Lazarus,” patron saint of the church (Saint-Lazare =

Lazarus), was once depicted on a tympanum (a half-circle) over the north transept

door, the main entrance to the church. (For an Ottonian depiction of the scene, see

Plate 4.2 on p. 142.) Although the Autun Lazarus was destroyed in the eighteenth

century, a figure of Eve that remains today (see Plate 5.7 on p. 186) was once on the

lintel (a horizontal beam just under the tympanum), probably right beneath Christ’s

feet as he performed his miracle.

Plate 5.7: Autun, Eve (12th cent.). This relief, one of many carvings at Autun, shows a naked, snakelike
Eve reaching for the forbidden apple. No doubt she faced an equally sensuous Adam. While she typifies the
temptress, Eve’s placement beneath the feet of the miracle-working Christ nevertheless suggests that she
also represented Mary Magdalene, who, after the raising of Lazarus, anointed the feet of Jesus with oil and
wiped them with her long hair. (See John 12:1–3.) Note how the sculptor made Eve’s posture conform to
the shape of the lintel.

The plan of Autun shown in Figure 5.2 on p. 187 indicates the placement of

many of the church’s carvings. It also shows that the church was in the form of a

basilica (a long straight building) intersected, near the choir, by a transept. The chevet