Envisioning Faith and Structuring Lay Experience: The Narthex Portal Sculptures of Sainte-Madeleine de Vézelay

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ENVISIONING FAITH AND STRUCTURING LAY EXPERIENCE: THE NARTHEX PORTAL SCULPTURES OF SAINTE-MADELEINE DE VEZELAY by Peter Low

A dissertation submitted to The Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland October, 200 0

© Peter Low 2000 All rights reserved

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UMI Number: 9993148

Copyright 2000 by Low, Peter David

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Abstract This dissertation presents a new interpretation of the textual sources, content, meaning, function, pictorial sources, and influence of the narthex portal sculptures at Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. After an introductory survey of the existing literature on the sculptures, I examine the identity of the figure around whom the entire program revolves, the central deity of the main tympanum, arguing that this figure's gestures, pose, and formal articulation demand that it be understood not simply as Christ, but as a personification of the Trinity. I then propose that the primary textual source for the composition of the main portal is Ephesians 2:11-22. This passage uses a series of anthropomorphic metaphors to describe the establishment of the Universal Church through the joining of its two constituent communities, the Jews and the gentiles, in the keystone of Christ. The identification of this source enriches the main portal's meaning, in particular by revealing how tightly tied the sculptures are to their physical context, and explains the presence of the composition's many architectural details. After suggesting that the main portal was also intended to function as a portrait of the monks and their lay congregation involved in the performance of the Mass, I argue that the three portals together function as a visualization of the central text recited by the laity during this liturgical ceremony: the Nicene Creed. By giving pictorial form to Ephesians 2:11-22, ii

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the Mass, and the Nicene Creed, the monastic authors of the portal program intended to teach lay visitors the proper doctrine of the Church, to determine the nature of their experience while inside the basilica, and to emphasize the centrality of theChurch both in thisworld

and its rituals to their lives,

andthe next. The discovery

of the true

content of the sculptures also allows a number of important pictorial sources for the program to be identified, sources that suggest English involvement in the scheme's conception I conclude by arguing that the narthex portal sculptures, through their visualization of Ephesians 2:11-22, served as the primary inspiration for the first Gothic portal scheme, created at the royal abbey of Saint-Denis.

First Reader: Herbert

L. Kessler

Second Reader: Daniel

H. Weiss

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Acknowledgments When Robert Deshman wrote in 1986 that the figure of St. Swithun in the Benedictional of Aethelwold anticipated in its architectonic qualities the column statues that appeared on the facades of French Gothic cathedrals almost two cencuries later ("The Imagery of the Living Ecciesia and the English Monastic Reform," p. 262), he was much closer to the truth than he ever likely imagined. I am sad to say that he and I never had the chance to discuss this question. At the time of his death in July of 1995, when I was working for him in Toronto as a research assistant, I had not yet settled on the narthex portal sculptures at Vezelay as a doctoral dissertation topic. Moreover, although I had written a graduate seminar paper on the sculptures by then, I had no inkling that the imagery of this quintessentially Burgundian Romanesque monument had any connection whatsoever to Anglo-Saxon book illumination, let alone a fundamentally important one to the very miniatures, in the Benedictional, that Deshman dedicated so much of his professional life to explicating. When I stumbled upon the close relationship between these two disparate works of art just eighteen months ago, after several years of dissertation work, I was - and remain - utterly astonished by the coincidence. Robert Deshman introduced me to the wonders of medieval art, during my years as an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, instilling in me a belief in and a thirst for the intellectual sophistication of that art. These convictions iv

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and enthusiasms played a pivotal role in convincing me to study medieval art history at the graduate level and they have largely driven my research and teaching concerns ever since. By way of his unparalleled integrity, as a scholar and as a human being, Deshman also set a standard against which I have continued to compare my own ideas and conduct. While this experience has revealed to me all too often my own errors and inadequacies, it has also, I would like to believe, made me a more thoughtful scholar and a more decent human being. That our research has now intersected in the manner that it has seems like yet another gift, in a long list of gifts, that Robert Deshman has bestowed upon me. For all of these reasons, I take enormous pleasure in dedicating this dissertation to his memory. Since the summer of 1995, and as my engagement with the narthex portal sculptures has intensified, I have incurred many other debts that I am eager to acknowledge. I would like to thank the George Owen Scholarship fund and the Department of the History of Art at the Johns Hopkins University, as well as the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada, for their generous financial support. I am grateful to Alison 0'Grady and the Interlibrary Loan staff at Williams College for working so hard, and with such success, to answer my near-endless stream of requests for books and articles in the past fourteen months. I would also like to thank the following people, each of whom, by providing criticism of papers or lectures, by relaying

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bibliographic information, or by discussing with me my ideas in conversation or written correspondence, have in one way or another made this project better than it would otherwise have been: Martina Bagnoli, Scott Bruce, Esperanga Camara, Elena Calvillo, Isabelle Cochelin, Robert Conrath, Rachael DeLue, Brigid Doherty, Sam Edgerton, Cathleen Fleck, Veronique Frandon, Michael Fried, Frances Gage, Morten Steen Hansen, Irene Kabala, Michael Lewis, Timothy Macklem, Griffith Mann, Walter Melion, William Noel, Kirstin Noreen, Charles Palermo, Cameron Rothery, Whitney Stoddard, Willibald Sauerlander, Erik Thuno, and Rosemary Trippe. I would also like to thank my family - my mother, Gail Thorson, my father, David Low, and my sisters, Rachel and Sarah Low - for their consistent support, always moral but sometimes also financial, and for their patience in dealing with someone who is so often lost in a world so different from this one. It was during a seminar conducted by Daniel Weiss at Johns Hopkins that I first grappled with the puzzle of the narthex portal program at Vezelay. I am grateful to him for engineering this encounter, but my debt to him is in fact much larger. In addition to playing an essential role in developing my more general skills as an art historian, teaching by the example of his own work as well as through direct instruction, he has been a careful and perceptive reader of numerous drafts of this dissertation, and has conversed with me at length about all of my ideas on

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Vezelay. His comments in both of these contexts have improved the final product immeasurably. Of the many debts that I have incurred during my work on Vezelay, however, the largest is to Herbert Kessler. From the moment I arrived at Hopkins, fresh from the tutelage of his old friend Robert Deshman, he has shown me a degree of respect and attentiveness that has been unmatched in my life as a student. In addition to reading and commenting at length on everything I have written on the narthex portal sculptures, he has shared with me unstintingly, whenever I have asked, his extraordinary knowledge of all aspects of medieval art and art historical literature, an ongoing exchange that has done more to shape my attitudes and interests as an art historian than any other experience. He is a scholar and advisor of unsurpassed intelligence and generosity, without whose friendship and example this dissertation, and indeed my entire career as an art historian, would never have happened. Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to my wife,

Molly Polk, who has borne the bulk of

the stresses involved

in a project of this scale with

tremendous grace and without complaint. Her comments on the penultimate draft of this dissertation were more helpful than she can know, as

have been our countless discussions on

things medieval. Most

important, however, her love and

companionship have given me the strength and desire to pursue my convictions, art historical and otherwise.

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Table of Contents

PART I Abstract

11

Acknowledgements

iv viii

Table of Contents List of Figures

X

xvii

Abbreviations

1

Chapter One: Introduction Sainte-Madeleine de Vezelay

2

Description of the Narthex Portal Sculptures

15

Historiography

28

Chapter Two: The Central Deity

68 68

The Triune God The Son's Two Natures

100

Chapter Three: The Main Portal

142

The Two Churches

148

Ephesians 2:11-22

180

Sources

195

Chapter Four: The Three Portals

222

The Mass

223

The Creed

243

Arrival and Departure: Further Reflections

295

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Chapter Five: Conclusions

312

The Dating Evidence

314

Authorship, Motivations, and Expectations

320

Influence

345

Bibliography

359

Curriculum Vitae

386

PART IX Illustrations

390

Curriculum Vitae

523

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List of Figures 1.

Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex Portals.

2.

Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal.

3.

Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. South Portal: Tympanum.

4.

Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. North Portal: Tympanum.

5.

Viollet-le-Duc, Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex section, showing proposed restoration.

6.

Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. Nouv. acq. lat. 2246, fol. 79v. Pentecost.

7.

London, British Library, MS. Add. 49598, fol. 70r. Triune Deity.

8.

Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. lat. 6401, fol. 158v. Boethius and the Triune Deity.

9.

Gottingen, Miedersachsische Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek, MS. theol. Folio 231, fol. 136r. Triune Deity.

10 .

Udine, Archivio Capitolare, MS. 1, fol. 83r. Triune Deity.

11.

London, British Library, MS. Add. 49598, fol. 67v. Pentecost.

12 .

Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. 9428, fol. 78r. Pentecost.

13 . Abbey Church of Santa Maria, Grottaferrata. Sanctuary Arch. 14.

Abbey Church of Santa Maria, Grottaferrata. Sanctuary Arch. Detail of the Trinity.

15 .

Cambridge, Pembroke College, MS. 120, fol. 6r. The Father and the Son, and Pentecost.

16.

Narbonne, St. Just, ivory plaque. Detail from Pentecost.

17 . Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica, MS. Reg. lat. 12, fol. 90v. Illustration of Psalm 82 (83). x

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18 .

Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central portal. Tympanum. Detail of Triune Deity.

19 .

Utrecht, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, fol. 90r. Apostles' Creed.

20 .

London, British Library, MS. Cotton, Titus D. XXVII, fol. 75r. Quinity.

21.

London, British Library, MS. Add. 34890, fol. 114v. John the Evangelist.

22 .

London, British Library, MS. Add. 34890, fol. 115r. Initial Page for the Gospel of John.

23 .

Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. lat. 6401, fol. 159r. Trinity.

24.

London, British Library, MS. Cotton, Tiberius C. VI, fol. 126v. Triune Deity.

25 . Amiens, Bibliotheque Municipale, MS. 142, fol. 29v. Triune Deity. 26 .

Abbey Church of Saint-Denis. West Fagade. Detail of Central Portal.

27 .

Montpellier, Faculte de medecine, MS. 76, fol. 81v. Illustration of Expositio catholicae fidei.

28 . Cathedral of Santa Orosia, Jaca. West Tympanum. 29 .

London, British Library, MS. Add. 49598, fol. 25r. Baptism of Christ.

30 .

Basilica of Santa Sabina, Rome. Doors of West Portal. Detail of Crucifixion.

31.

Florence, Biblioteca Mediceo Laurenziana, MS. Plut. 156, fol. 13r. Crucifixion, and Resurrection Scenes.

32 .

St. Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, MS. 51, p. 266. Crucifixion.

33 .

Durham, Cathedral Library, MS. A.II.17, fol. 38v. Crucifixion.

34.

Rome, San Paolo fuori le Mura, Bible, fol. 292v. Ascension and Pentecost.

35 .

Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. lat. 9428, fol. 71v. Ascension.

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36.

London, British Library, MS. Cotton, Tiberius C. VI, fol. 15r. Ascension.

37.

Aachen, Cathedral Treasury, fol. 16r. Otto III Enthroned.

38.

Trier, Stadbibliothek, MS. 31, fol. 61r. Christ Enthroned with the Twenty-Four Elders.

39.

Autun, Bibliotheque de la Ville, MS. 3, fol. 12v. Christ Enthroned.

40.

Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. lat. 1, fol. 329v. Christ Enthroned.

41.

Rome, San Paolo fuori le Mura, Bible, fol. 117r. Christ Enthroned with the Sixteen Major and Minor Prophets.

42.

Abbey Church of Saint-Denis. West Faqade. Central Portal.

43.

Abbey Church of Saint-Pierre, Moissac. South Portal.

44.

Abbey Church of Saint-Pierre, Moissac. Porch of South Portal. Detail of East Wall.

45.

Abbey Church of Saint-Pierre, Moissac. Porch of South Portal. Detail of West Wall.

46.

Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy, Conques. West Faqade. Tympanum.

47.

Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, Autun. West Tympanum.

48.

Priory Church, Perrecy-les-Forges. West Tympanum.

49.

Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. South Jambs. Detail of Peter and Paul.

50.

Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Right Lintel. Detail of Peter and Paul.

51.

Chapel, Berze-la-Ville. Apse. Christ Enthroned with Apostles and Saints.

52.

London, British Library, MS. Cotton, Caligula A. XIV, fol. 31r. Pentecost.

53.

London, British Library, MS. Lansdowne 383, fol. 14r. Pentecost.

54.

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Laud. Misc. 469, fol. 7v. Frontispiece to De Civitate Dei.

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55 .

Florence, Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana, MS. Plut. XII.17, fol. 2v. Frontispiece to De Civitate Dei.

56.

Rome, Mausoleum of Santa Costanza. Niche. Traditio Legis.

57 . Jacopo Grimaldi. Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica, MS. Barberini, lat. 2733, fol. 158v-159r. Drawing of the Apse Mosaic in Saint-Peter's, Rome. 58 .

Basilica of Santa Pudenziana, Rome. Apse. Christ Enthroned with che Twelve Apostles.

59 . Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Detail of Left Lintel. 60 .

Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Detail of Upper Left Archivolt Compartments.

61.

Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica, MS. Barberini, g r . 372, fol. 33r. Illustration of Psalm 21:17.

62 .

Rome, Capitoline Museum. Bronze Statue. Spinario.

63 . Abbey Church of Saint-Pierre, Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne. West Tympanum. Detail of Jews. 64 .

Lyon, Bibliotheque du Palais des Arts, MS. 22. Patience Undaunted by the Vices.

65 . Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Detail of Lower Left Archivolt Compartments. 66 .

London, British Library, MS. Cotton, Nero C. IV, fol. H r . Annunciation to the Shepherds, and the Magi Before Herod.

67 .

London, British Library, MS. Cotton, Nero C. IV, fol. 34r. The Saved.

68 .

London, British Library, MS. Cotton, Nero C. IV, fol. 37r . The Damned.

69 .

London, British Library, MS. Cotton, Nero C. IV, fol. 3r. God's Command to Noah, the Ark Afloat, God's Command to Abraham, and the Sacrifice of Isaac.

70 . Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Detail of Right Lintel.

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71.

Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Detail of Upper Right Archivolt Compartments.

72 . Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Detail of Lower Right Archivolt Compartments. 73 . London, British Library, MS. Add. 19352, fol. 20r. Illustration of Psalm 18. 74.

Cathedral of Saint-Pierre, Angouieme. West Fagade.

75 . Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Chartres. West Fagade. Central Tympanum. 76.

London, British Library, MS. Cotton, Galba A. XVIII, fol. 2v. Christ Enthroned Among the Jewish Saints.

77 . London, British Library, MS. Cotton, Galba A. XVIII, fol. 21r. Christ Enthroned Among the Gentile Saints. 78.

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson B. 484, fol. 85r. Nativity.

79.

London, British Library, MS. Add. 49598, fol. 15v. Nativity.

80 . London, British Library, MS. Add. 49598, fol. 34v. Presentation in the Temple. 81.

Utrecht, Bibliotheek der Ri jksuniversiteit, MS. 32, fol. 89v. Presentation and Gloria.

82.

Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. View of East Face of West Wall of Nave.

83 . Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. View of East Face of West Wall of Narthex. 84.

London, British Library, MS. Add. 49598, fol. 97v. Saint Swithun.

85.

London, British Library, MS. Add. 49598, fol. lr. Choir of Confessors.

86.

London, British Library, MS. Add. 49598, fol. lv. Choir of Virgins.

87.

London, British Library, MS. Add. 49598, fol. 2r. Choir of Virgins.

88.

London, British Library, MS. Add. 49598, fol. 3v. Paul and Two Apostles. xiv

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89.

London, British Library, MS. Add. 49598, fol. 4r. Peter and Two Apostles.

90.

Boulogne, Bibliotheque Municipale, MS. 107, fol. 6v. Saint Bertin.

91.

Rouen, Bibliotheque Municipale, MS. Y.7, fol. 2 9v. Pentecost.

92.

Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Derail from Righc Lincel.

93.

Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Detail from Left Lintel.

94.

Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Detail of January.

95.

Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Detail of December.

96.

London, British Library, MS. Add. 49598, fol. 45v. Entry into Jerusalem.

97.

London, British Library, MS. Stowe 944, fol. 6r. King Cnut and Queen Aelfgyfu Donating Cross to New Minster Church, Winchester.

98.

Utrecht, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, MS. 32, fol. 90v. Illustration of Athanasian Creed.

99.

Diagram of Narthex Portal Sculptures. Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Based on Drawing by Violletle-Duc.

100. New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS. 791, fol. 4v. Creation Scenes. 101. Cathedral of Gerona. Embroidered Hanging. The Creation. 102. Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris. West Fagade. SainteAnne Portal. Detail of Tympanum. 103. Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy, Conques. West Fagade. Tympanum. Detail of Sol and Luna. 104. London, Lambeth Palace Library, MS. 368, fol. 12v. Christ in Majesty. 105. Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica, MS. Barberini, 4406, p. 25. Copy of destroyed fresco of Creation of the World. Basilica of St. Paul, Rome.

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106 .

London, British Library, MS. Add. 49598, fol. 5v. Annunciation.

107 . Giacomo Grimaldi. Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica, MS. Barberini, lat. 2733, fols. 113-114. Copy of destroyed New Testament Scenes from Left Wall of Nave of Old Saint Peter's, Rome. 108 . Giacomo Grimaldi. Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica, MS. Barberini, lat. 2733, fol. 113. Copy of destroyed New Testament Scenes from Left Wall of Nave of Old Saint Peter's, Rome. Detail of Blessing at Bethany. 109 . Cathedral Treasury, Monza. Pilgrim's Flask. Ascension. 110 . London, British Library, MS. Cotton, Galba A. XVIII,

fol. 120v. Ascension. 1 1 1 . London, British Library, MS. Cotton, Caligula, A. XIV,

fol. 18r. Ascension. 112 .

London, British Library, MS. Add. 49598, fol. 64v. Ascension.

113 . London, British Library, MS. Add. 49598, fol. 9v. Second Coming. 114. Abbey Church of Saint-Pierre, Cluny. Reconstruction of Tympanum of West Portal by K. J. Conant. 115 . Cluny, Musee du Farinier. Abbey Church of Saint-Pierre, Cluny. Model of West Portal by K. J. Conant. 116 . Abbey Church of Saint-Fortunat, Charlieu. West Tympanum. 117 . Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris. West Fagade. Central Tympanum. 118 . Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Trumeau. Detail of John the Baptist. 119 . Monte Cassino, Archivio, MS. 132, p. 73. Credo. 120 . Rome, San Paolo fuori le Mura, Bible,

fol. 31v. First Frontispiece to the Book of Leviticus.

1 2 1 . Abbey Church of Santo Domingo de Silos. Cloister.

Journey to Emmaus. 122 . New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ivory plaque.

Journey to Emmaus, and Noli me tangere.

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123. Chantilly, Musee Conde, MS. 1695, fol. 30v. Journey to Emmaus, and Mary Magdalen Before the Apostles. 124. Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Plan. 125. Priory Church, Perrecy-les-Forges. Narthex. 126. Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. South Portal. 127.

Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine,Vezelay. North Aisle. View of East Face of West Wall of Nave.

128.

Abbey Church

of Saint-Denis. WestFagade.

129.

Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine,Vezelay. Nave Capital. The Mystic Mill of Paul.

13 0. Abbey Church of Saint-Denis. West Fagade. Detail of Portals. 131. Antoine Benoist, in Bernard de Montfaucon, Les Monumens de la Monarchie francoise, vol. 1 (Paris, 1739), Plate XVI. Column Figures of North Portal, West Fagade, Abbey of Saint-Denis. 132. Antoine Benoist, in Bernard de Montfaucon, Les Monumens de la Monarchie francoise, vol. 1 (Paris, 1739), Plate XVII. Column Figures of Central Portal, West Fagade, Abbey of Saint-Denis. 133. Antoine Benoist, in Bernard de Montfaucon, Les Monumens de la Monarchie francoise, vol. 1 (Paris, 1739), Plate XVIII. Column Figures of South Portal, West Fagade, Abbey of Saint-Denis.

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Abbreviations CCSL

Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina. Turnhout, 1953--.

CCCM

Corpus Christianorum, Continuato Mediaevalis. Turnhout, 1966— .

CSEL

Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum. Vienna, 1866--.

PL

Patrologia Latina Cursus Completus. Ed. JacquesPaul Migne. 221 vols. Paris, 1844-1864.

PG

Patrologia Greca Cursus Completus. Ed. JacquesPaul Migne. 161 vols. Paris, 1857-1866.

All Bible passages in English are derived from the Holy Bible. New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha (New York, and Oxford, 1989) . All Bible passages in Latin are quoted from Jerome's Biblia Sacra. Iuxta Vulgatam Versionem. 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 1969). All other translations are my own unless indicated otherwise.

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Chapter One: Introduction After walking up the quiet rue Saint-Pierre, across the Place de la Basilique, and through one of the doors that provide access into the narthex of Sainte-Madeleine, the modern visitor to Vezelay is surprised to find himself or herself all but engulfed in darkness. Only gradually, as the visitor's eyes become accustomed to the paucity of light, do the forms of the narthex portals reveal themselves, first as an abstract conglomeration of solids and voids and only later as a sequence of three coherent sculptural compositions (figs. 1 and 2). Even after the visitor is fully acclimatized to the conditions, however, the lack of light ensures that the act of viewing will remain a challenge, and that the finer details of each composition will remain hidden within the narthex1s ubiquitous shadows. This physical process of gradual and ultimately only limited revelation, a process likely experienced by every visitor since the middle of the twelfth century, has found something of a parallel in the field of art historical scholarship. That is, the considerable literature on the narthex portal sculptures, particularly in the past one hundred years, has certainly advanced our understanding of the sculptures' chronology, content, and both historical and art historical contexts. Nonetheless, many fundamental questions remain without fully satisfactory answers: What subjects, exactly,

1

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are represented across the three portals? What are the precise textual sources of the imagery? Can any important pictorial sources be identified? How does the imagery of each portal relate to the program as a whole? How was the content of the sculptures intended to relate to the activities of their original, anticipated audience? Do the sculptures speak of their physical context and, if so, precisely how? Did the sculptures exercise a direct influence on any later works of art? This dissertation will provide new and, it is hoped, convincing answers to each of these questions.

Sainte-Madeleine de Vezelay The first monastery at Vezelay appears to have been founded in 858 or 859 by Count Girard of Roussillon and his wife Bertha as a community for women on the present site of Saint-Pere-sous-Vezelay, a small village located on the banks of the Cure River 225 kilometers southeast of Paris.' ; For the primary documents concerning the history of the monastery in the Middle Ages, compiled in MS. 227 (Bibliotheque d'Auxerre, fo l s . 22-63) in the third quarter of the twelfth century, see Robert B. C. Huygens, Monumenta Vizeliacensia. Textes relatifs a 1'histoire de 1'abbaye de Vezelay, CCCM, 42 (Turnhout, 1976), pp. 195-607. For additional charters, copied into MS. Plut. XIV, 21 (Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, fols. 160-176v) in the first half of the twelfth century, see idem, Vizeliacensia II: textes relatifs a 1 ’histoire de 1 'abbaye de Vezelay, CCCAf, 42 Supplementum (Turnhout, 1980), pp. 2-34. For the founding charter, specifically, see Huygens, Monumenta, Cart. 1, pp. 243-248. The charter is translated into English in John Scott and John 0. Ward, The Vezelay Chronicle (Binghamton, 1992), pp. 97-100. For discussions of the early history of Vezelay, see Aime A. Cherest, Vezelay. Etude historique (Auxerre, 1863-1868; critical edition in Huygens, Monumenta), pp. 8-19; Francis Salet, La Madeleine de Vezelay (Melun, 1948), pp. 19-22; Rosalind K. Berlow, "Social and Economic Aspects of the Early History of Vezelay (Ninth to Twelfth Centuries)," Ph.D. dissertation (New York University, 1971), pp. 50-109; Lydwine Saulnier and Neil Stratford, La Sculpture Oubliee de Vezelay (Geneva,

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The fledgling house received papal immunity from local lay and episcopal powers in 863,2 a privilege perhaps confirmed by Charles the Bald in 868 and certainly reaffirmed by numerous popes in the centuries to follow.' This immunity secured papal protection for the abbey at crucial moments throughout Vezelay's history, but it also ensured the antagonism of the counts of Nevers and the bishops of Autun, who felt it frequently contravened their own political, economic, and ecclesiastical rights.4 In the 870s or 880s, in response to Norman attacks in the area, the abbey was reorganized as a community for men and moved to its present hilltop location, immediately to the southeast of Saint-Pere-sous-Vezelay.5 The first church

1984), p. 1-3; Eugene L. Cox, Scott and Ward, pp. 3 57-3 62.

"The Beginnings of Vezelay (858-1037)," in

' See Huygens, Monumenta, Cart. 3, pp. 255-258; Scott and Ward, Chronicle, pp. 105-106. Concerning the confirmation of Charles the Eald, see Salet, La Madeleine de Vezelay, p. 20, n. 2; Scott and Ward, Chronicle, p. 15. Information on the abbey's relations with the counts of Nevers and bishops of Autun derives in large part from the Vezelay Chronicle, written by Hugh of Poitiers at the behest of abbot Pons (1138-1161), and found in MS. Auxerre 227, fols. 64-187 (Huygens, Monumenta, pp. 395607). For an English translation of the Chronicle, see Scott and Ward, Chronicle, pp. 130-315. The Chronicle, however, was written to memorialize the abbey's struggle for independence between the years 1140 and 1167, and does not refer to earlier incidents. For discussions of the abbey's relations with the counts of Nevers and the bishops of Autun from the ninth through the twelfth centuries, see Cherest, Etude, pp. 24-37, 64-137, 153-186; Berlow, "Spiritual Immunity at Vezelay (Ninth to Twelfth Centuries)," The Catholic Historical Review 62 (1976), pp. 573588; Scott and Ward, pp. 1-28, 74-84; Kristin M. Sazama, "The Assertion of Monastic Spiritual and Temporal Authority in the Romanesque Sculpture of Sainte-Madeleine at Vezelay," Ph.D. dissertation (Northwestern University, 1995), pp. 16-25. The precise date of the abbey's move up the hill is unknown. For a discussion of the evidence, see Cox, "Beginnings,* in Scott and Ward, Chronicle, p. 3 61.

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on the hill seems to have been placed under the protection of the Virgin Mary and of saints Peter and Paul.0 It and other monastic buildings were severely damaged by fire in 907. Vezelay appears to have fallen into such a state of decline by this time that the affected buildings were not repaired until 926.

Certainly by 1026-1027, and perhaps

even as early as the first quarter of the tenth century, the monks of Cluny were participating in the abbey's reform, an involvement that became official in 1058, when a papal bull declared Vezelay a Cluniac dependency.1 Vezelay remained affiliated with Cluny until 1162,’ enjoying a particularly close alliance during the abbacies of Artaud (1096-1106) and

See the likely twelfth-century account of the founding of the monastery in MS. lat. 12602, 3ibliotheque Nationale, Paris, edited and reproduced in A. Pissier, Le culte de saince Marie-Madeleir.e a Vezelay (Saint-Pere-sous-Vezelay, 1923), pp. 201-207, partic. p. 202. See Salet,

La Madeleine de Vezelay, p. 20, n s . 6 and 3.

For accounts of Cluny's early and seemingly controversial involvement at Vezelay, see Cherest, Etude, pp. 8-23; Saulnier and Stratford, Sculpture Oubliee, pp. 1-2; Neithard Bulst, Untersuchungen zu den Klosterreformen Wilhelms von Dijon (962-1031), Pariser Historische Studien, Band 11 (Bonn, 1973), pp. 190-192; Herbert E.J. Cowdrey, The Cluniacs and the Gregorian Reform (Oxford, 1970), pp. 85-87. The central piece of evidence in this regard is a letter written by William of Volpiano, the abbot of Saint-Benign in Dijon, to Odilo, the abbot of Cluny (994-1049), likely in the year 1027 (see Scott and Ward, Chronicle, p. 317, n. 1). In the letter (PL, 141, cols. 869-872; English translation in Scott and Ward, Chronicle, pp. 317-318), William describes the recent expulsion of the presumably wrayward abbot and monks of Vezelay and the abbey's forced occupation by a group of reformist monks from Cluny, and expresses anxiety over the potentially negative repercussions of this event. For the papal bull of 1058, promulgated by Stephen IX, see PL, 143, col. 879. The abbey received its official independence in 1162 from Pope Alexander III, according to a charter of that year transcribed into Book Four of the Vezelay Chronicle. See Huygens, Monumenta, pp. 518-519, and Scott and Ward, Chronicle, pp. 234-235. For discussions of these documents, see Cherest,Etude, pp. 156-157, and Scott and Ward, Chronicle, pp. 14-26, partic. pp. 19-20.

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Renaud (1106-1128) ,10 but the relationship was always marked by a considerable degree of autonomy. Unlike most other Cluniac daughterhouses, for example, Vezelay seems to have retained the right to appoint its own abbot." The most significant event in the monastery's early history, however, was neither its securing of the right of papal immunity nor its establishment of a close relationship with Cluny, important as these developments were, but rather its acquisition of the body of Mary Magdalen. The Magdalen's relics seem to have come into the monastery's possession before the abbacy of Geoffrey (1037-1050)," but their ' Artaud and Renaud had both been monks at Cluny before becoming abbots at Vezelay. Renaud, moreover, was a nephew of abbot Hugh of Cluny (1059-1109) and wrote a glowing Vita of his uncle in the early 1120s (PL, 159, cols. 893-906; also Huygens, Vizeliacensia II, pp. 35-67). Concerning Renaud's authorship of Hugh's Vita, see Cowdrey, "Two Studies in Cluniac History,” Scudi Gregoriani XI (1978), pp.28-29. :: The precise nature of the relationship between Vezelay and Cluny in this respect is difficult to determine with certainty. The former abbey's right to elect its own leader is stated explicitly in the privilege of Pope Nicholas I of 863 (Huygens, Monumenta, Cart. 3, p. 257). The rights of this original privilege were then confirmed by several popes over the next two centuries. This is true even of Gregory VII, who confirmed the privilege in a charter of 1076 (Huygens, Monumenta, Cart. 14, pp. 294-296), the same year in which he listed Vezelay elsewhere as a possession of Cluny (document dated 9 December, 1076, in Bullarium sacri ordinis Cluniacensis, ed. P. Simon [Lyon, 1680], p. 19). In a charter of 1095, however, Pope Urban II qualified Vezelay's absolute control over its choice of abbot by stating that Cluny had the right to supervise abbatial elections at the daughterhouse (Auguste Bernard, Alexandre Bruel, eds., Recueil des charces de 1'abbaye de Cluny [Paris, 1876-1903, reprinted Frankfurt-am-Main, 1974], charter 3687). A letter written by Pope Paschal II to Abbot Artaud in 1102 (PL, 163, cols. 102-104) confirms this right. For discussions of this question, see Lucy M. Smith, Cluny in Che Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (London, 1930), p. 105; Cowdrey, The Cluniacs and the Gregorian Reform, pp. 85-87; Scott and Ward, Chronicle, pp. 17-19. The explanation for how the relics came to Vezelay seems to have gone through three distinct phases before the end of the twelfth century. Originally, the relics were described as having simply appeared miraculously in the crypt tomb below the main altar. By the middle of the eleventh century, however, the body of Mary Magdalen was said to have been brought to Vezelay from Jerusalem by an eight- or ninthcentury m onk named Baailon. During the twelfth century, the story was

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presence is reflected in the documents for the first time only in 1050, when the famed penitent sinner is mentioned along with the Virgin, Christ, Peter and Paul as a patron of the monastery.12 Mary Magdalen's renown, and the many reports of miracles occurring at her tomb, which was located directly beneath the main altar in the crypt of the basilica,14 helped to transform what had been a remote and

reconstructed yet again, this time as a theft. Badilon was said to have been sent by the abbot of Vezelay to steal the saint's remains from a monastery in Provence, which he did under cover of night and apparently with the Magdalen's blessing. This last version was told in conjunction with a separate legend, which claimed that Mary Magdalen had fled to Provence after the Ascension to escape persecution and had then lived an ascetic life there in the wilderness. See Victor Saxer, "L'Origine des reliques de sainte Marie Madeleine a Vezelay dans la tradition historique du moyen age,'' Revue des sciences religieuses 29 (1955), pp. 1-18; idem, Le culte de Marie Madeleine en occidenc des origines a la fin du moyen age (Auxerre-Paris, 1959), partic. pp. 1-227; idem, Le Dossier vezelien de Marie Madeleine. Invention ec translation des reliques en 1265-1267. Contribution a 1 'histoire du culture de la sainte a Vezelay a 1'apogee du moyen age, Subsidia hagiographica, no. 57 (Brussels, 1975), pp. 1-36, 77-82; Patrick Geary, Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages (Princeton, 1978), pp. 90-95. For a twelfth-century account of the Magdalen's travels from the Holy Land to Provence, see The Pilgrim's Guide to Santiago de Compostela: Critical Edition, Volume II: The Text, Latin text translated by Paula Gerson, Annie Shaver-Crandell, and Alison Stones, and collated, edited, and annotated by Jeanne Krochalis and A. Stones (London, 1998), Chapter VIII, pp. 44-46. For a thirteenth-century account of the theft, see Libellus Vizeliacensis de reliquiis et translations beats Marie Magdalene, in Saxer, Le dossier vezelien, pp. 236-241; translated by Scott and Ward, in Chronicle, as The Little 3ook of Vezelay about the Relics and Translation of the Blessed Mary Magdalen, pp. 33 6-341. See Huygens, Monumenta, cart. 13: "Vizeliacensis cenobii, quod est in honore domini nostri lesu Christi et veneratione eiusdem genitricis et beatorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli et beate Mariae Magdalene." The papal bull of Stephen IX (PL, 143, col. 879) suggests that a mere eight years later the abbey was being referred to by the name of the Magdalen alone. Concerning Geoffrey's apparently successful quest to have Vezelay recognized as the official site of the cult of the Magdalen, see Saxer, Le culte de Marie Madeleine, pp. 65-88; idem, Le Dossier vezelien, pp. 188-192. :4 That the relics were located in a crypt tomb beneath the main altar already in the eleventh century is indicated by a twelfth-century legend that recounts how Geoffrey attempted to unearth them from this spot, and to place them in a reliquary. The translation was stopped, the document states, because the church was immediately shrouded in darkness. Because of this miracle, no further attempts were made to move, or even indeed to look at, the Magdalen's remains. See Louis Duschene, Fastes

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humble foundation, within the span of the eleventh century, into one of the great pilgrimage sites of Western Europe.15 During this same period, Vezelay also became known as the starting point for the Via Lemovicense, one of the four French pilgrimage roads to Santiago de Compostela, itself the most revered European shrine of the Middle Ages.'6 Vezelay's importance as both a locus sanctus and a point of departure for pilgrimages farther afield made the monastery rich, directly through the donations that its elevated sacral status attracted, and indirectly through the extensive and lucrative local landholdings these donations allowed the abbey to acquire.1 The potential for profits to be made from the pilgrimage trade coupled with the monastery's expanding role as a feudal power also led to the rapid growth of the surrounding town.18 The relationship between the townspeople and the abbey, however, was not apiscopaux de 1'ancienne Gaule, 3 volumes (Paris, 1907), vol. 1, p. 330, n. 1; Saxer, Le Dossier vezelien, p. 224; Susan Haskins, Ma r y Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor (London, 1994), pp. 117-118. ' For accounts of miracles at her tomb, see Saxer, Le Dossier vezelien, pp. 33-36, 93-97, 242-243; Haskins, Mary Magdalen, pp. 115116. The Pilgrim's Guide (Critical Edition, Chapter I, pp. 10-11), probably written in the late 1130s, identifies the following abbeys as the starting points for the four roads to Santiago: Saint-Gilles-duGard, Sainte-Madeleine of Vezelay, Notre-Dame of Le Puy, and SaintMartin of Tours. ' For a list of the abbey's considerable properties around this time, found in the privilege of Pope Pascal II of 1102 (Cartulaire Generale de 1 ’Yonne, ed. Maximilien Quantin [Auxerre, 1854-1860], vol. II, pp. 3942) , see Cherest, Etude, pp. 13-14; Berlow, "Social and Economic Aspects," Appendix A, pp. 383-391. For estimates of population growth in the twelfth century at Vezelay, see Cherest, Etude, p. 45; Berlow, "Social and Economic Aspects," pp. 248-254.

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always a peaceful one. Indeed, the inhabitants, who derived their livelihood from the pilgrimage trade and the monastery, reacted violently on occasion to what they perceived to be the unfair economic burdens imposed upon them by these two concerns.19 The abbey, enabled by its newfound wealth, desiring to express in material terms its prestigious new place within Western Christendom, and needing to accommodate the everincreasing crowds of pilgrims flocking to the tomb of Mary Magdalen, set about replacing its small Carolingian church with a large and lavishly decorated new basilica, probably in the last years of the eleventh century. On 21 April, 1104, part or all of this structure was dedicated."0 Sixteen years later, on 21 July, 1120, a fire swept through the existing nave - either the old Carolingian vessel or a new Romanesque one, depending on how far construction had progressed - killing hundreds of worshippers and causing

For discussions of the abbey's conflicted relations with the town, particularly during the twelfth century, see Cherest, Etude, pp. 38-137, 165-194; Berlow, "Social and Economic Aspects," pp. 121-124, 177-187; idem, "The Rebels of Vezelay (1152-1155)," Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History 9 (1987), pp. 137-163; Barbara Abou-el-Haj, "The Audiences for the Medieval Cult of Saints," Gesta 30 (1991), pp. 7-9; Scott and Ward, Chronicle, pp. 1-4, 29-41; Abou-el-Haj, The Medieval Cult of Saints: Formations and Transformations (Cambridge, 1994) , pp. 22-25; Sazama, "Spiritual and Temporal Authority," pp. 25-32. See also below, pp. 55-57 and r.s. 81 and 82. The dedication, contained in the Annales (Huygens, Monumenta, A 1104, p. 224) states "Dedicatio ecclesie Vizeliaci ab abbate Artaldo edificate." Since the structure is characterized as having been erected by Artaud, virtually all scholars agree that construction must have begun sometime after his assumption of office, giving the project a terminus post quern of 1096.

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serious damage.21 A second building campaign, involving just the present nave (the choir seems to have escaped harm), was likely initiated immediately thereafter/' The 1132 dedication of an "ecclesia peregrinorum" at Vezelay, conducted by the bishop of Autun and attended by Pope Innocent II, must refer either to this space alone, in which the pilgrims would have congregated (as opposed to the choir, in which the monks

" The death toll of the fire, which occurred on the feast day of Mary Magdalen, is cited in one source (The Chronicle of Sc. Maxentius) as reaching 1,127, although this figure is usually interpreted as an exaggeration. For a discussion of the extant medieval accounts of the fire and their meaning, see Berlow, "Social and Economic Aspects," pp. 160-162. For the texts of these accounts, see Saulnier and Stratford, Sculpture Ouhliee, pp. 4-5, n. 23. Salet ("La Madeleine de Vezelay et ses dates de construction," Sulletin monumental 95 [1936], pp. 5-25, and La Madeleine de Vezelay, pp. 39-42) argues, first, that the dedication of 1104 concerned only the choir, crossing, and transepts (the westernmost piers of which still exist), second, that construction ceased after Artaud's assassination in 1106 (concerning Artaud's assassination, see below, pp. 55-57 and n. 81), and, third, that the Carolingian nave was thus left standing until 1120. He believes that it was this wooden-roofed structure that caught fire in 1120 and that it burned virtually to the ground. He argues that the early twelfth-century choir and transepts survived the conflagration relatively intact, and that a new nave was subsequently begun from scratch, being built from west to east, ultimately joining up with Artaud's east end constructions. It is by way of such a hypothesis that he explains the fact that the nave and transepts are not properly aligned, and thus require a series of awkward, non-orthogonal walls in the two easternmost bays of the nave and aisles to connect the two structures. While I believe that the irregularities in the easternmost bays of the nave and aisles demonstrate that that vessel was built west to east to link up with a pre-existing structure, and that the total lack of evidence of fire damage in the nave indicates that this was done after the disaster of 1120, the archeological evidence reveals nothing of the edifice that the present nave replaced. Indeed, the accounts of the fire, in which over one thousand people are said to have died while attending mass, even allowing for some exaggeration in numbers, suggest that something bigger than the old, and presumably very small Carolingian nave was involved. Moreover, as Judy Feldman Scott has noted ("The Narthex Portal at Vezelay: Art and Monastic Self-Image," Ph.D. dissertation [University of Texas at Austin, 1986], pp. 12-13), the 1104 dedication text (cited in n. 19) seems to describe a complete church. One possible scenario, given these facts, is that Artaud began to build a nave as well as a choir and transepts, and that that structure, all but destroyed by the fire (whether complete at the time or still under construction), was then entirely dismantled and replaced.

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gathered), or to the new church as a whole.23 Although the dedication cannot be taken as definitive evidence of the nave's completion,''1 scholars have estimated that such a structure, and all its carved decoration, could not have taken more than fifteen to twenty years to build, and so would have been finished by 1135 or 1140.'5 A mass of written, archeological, and stylistic evidence, which will Salet (La Madeleine de Vezelay, p. 25, n. 2) argues chat the consecration of an "ecclesia peregrinorum" mentioned in Book I of the Vezelay Chronicle (Huygens, Monumenta, pp. 402, lines 283-284, 403.342, 403.348, 404.390, 405.420, 406.448-449, 406.469) concerns only a chapel within the town. However, it is hard to imagine that the pope would have traveled to rural Vezelay for the consecration of anything less than a major church. Furthermore, the basilica undoubtedly was built to accommodate the increasing number of pilgrims visiting the site, so the epithet "ecclesia peregrinorum" would have been appropriate. Finally, there is no evidence that a consecration of the new church took place at any other time. Such an important event, if it did not occur in 1132, would surely have been recorded. Rose Graham (An Abbot of Vezelay [London, 1918], p. 43) was the first to suggest that the dedication may refer to the nave alone, a suggestion that has since been elaborated upon by Peter Diemer ("Stil und Ikonographie der Kapitelle von Ste.Madeleine, Vezelay," Ph.D. dissertation [University of Heidelberg, 1975], pp. 14-15, 19-26). The accounts of the dedication in the Vezelay Chronicle, moreover, seem to support this interpretation, for they often refer to the "ecclesia peregrinorum" in conjunction with other component parts of the main basilica at Vezelay. For example (Huygens, Monumenta, p. 402, lines 341-344): "Idem Stephanus dedicavit ecclesiam peregrinorum, existente in Virzeliaco papa Innocentio...Idem dedicavit altare de choro monachorum et altare de capella Sancti Stephani (The same Stephen [bishop of Autun] dedicated the church of the pilgrims while Innocent [II] was in Vezelay...The same [Stephen] dedicated the altar of the choir of the monks and the altar of the chapel of SaintStephen)." See also Saulnier and Stratford, Sculpture Oubliee, p. 5 and n. 26; Scott and Ward, Chronicle, p. 50 and n. 5. '4 The historical record indicates that medieval dedications, as distinct from consecrations, were usually performed when structures were at least nearing completion, although this was not universally the case. For a discussion of this issue, see Salet, "Cluny III," Bulletin monumental 126, no. 3 (1968), pp. 239-241. The estimate of fifteen to twenty years for the construction of the nave at Vezelay is based on the assumption that the structure was built all at once, which in turn is deduced from the uniformity of the nave's design. See Salet, La Madeleine de Vezelay, pp. 41, 59; and Saulnier and Stratford, Sculpture Oubliee, pp. 5, 19, 109-110. For discussions of the nave sculptures, see Salet, La Madeleine de Vezelay, pp. 181-193; Diemer, "Stil und Ikonographie," pp. 82-204, 246-383, 442-460; Saulnier and Stratford, Sculpture Oubliee, pp. 112-115; Sazama, "Spiritual and Temporal Authority," pp. 96-198.

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be evaluated in detail in Chapter Five, strongly suggests that the narthex portal sculptures were carved and installed during this second campaign, and indeed were very probably in place by the end of the 1120s.26 The present narthex and its capital sculpture likely were begun upon the completion of the nave and then finished by the mid-1150s.' The original choir and crypt were replaced by the present Gothic edifice between 118 0 and 1215, the southwest narthex tower was built between 123 0 and 1240, and the upper levels of the west facade and its sculptures were added between 1240 and 1250.'9 Several other See below, pp. 314-320. The evidence also suggests that the sculptural program was actually conceived before 1120. See below, 320-330.

pp.

' The terminus post quern of 1135-40 is based on two observations: first, that the pointed vaults of the first story of the narthex, so distinctly different from the barrel vaults of the nave, are stylistically similar to vaults built at Saint-Denis and elsewhere around 1140; second, that such a starting date would fit with the speculated completion date of the nave. The most likely scenario, then, is that the two structures were built consecutively. See Salet, La Madeleine de Vezelay, pp. 59-60; Diemer, "Stil und Ikonographie," pp. 40, 46-47; Saulnier and Stratford, Sculpture Oubliee, pp. 77-79. The terminus ante quern of 1150-55 is derived from several pieces of evidence. First, an altar dedicated to Saint Michael was consecrated somewhere within the abbey church between 1145 and 1151. This altar may well be that located in the apse of the tribune chapel of the narthex, since such chapels were almost universally dedicated to Saint Michael. Although such a consecration indicates nothing definite about the completion of the narthex as a whole, it does suggest, if the consecration refers to this chapel, that the first story, at least, was finished before 1151. Second, the ogive vaults of the narthex tribune are similar to those found in a chapel located at the northeast base of the hill at Vezelay, now known as La Cordelle, that can be securely dated to the years 1146-1147. Third, a dedication dated to 1155 of a "basilica sancti Johannis Baptistae" may perhaps concern the narthex, which is visually dominated by the figure of John the Baptist, located on the trumeau of the main door into the church. Regarding the first two pieces of evidence, see Saulnier and Stratford, Sculpture Oubliee, pp. 6-7, 97; regarding the first and third, see Diemer, "Stil und Ikonographie," pp. 16-17, 46-47. ‘s See Saulnier and Stratford, Sculpture Oubliee, pp. 8-9. For a description of the sculptures of the upper west facade, see ibid., pp. 38-42.

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monastic buildings also seem to have been constructed between the years 1135 and 1250, including the cloister, located between the fifth and tenth bays along the south wall of the church, the chapter house and sacristy, aligned along the east perimeter of the cloister and abutting the south wall of the transept, and another room, located above the chapter house, that was perhaps used as the monks’ dormitory The monastery remained an important pilgrimage site and affluent foundation for over one hundred years after the completion of the basilica's main components in the 1150s.10 Just as the abbey rose to prominence on the reputation of Mary Magdalen's relics, however, so too did it drop into relative obscurity after the authenticity of these relics was questioned in the 1260s and 1270s.u Over the following

'' Saulnier and Stratford speculate on the basis of a stylistic assessment of extant architectural and decorative elements that the cloister was built c. 1135-45, the interior of the chapter house, the sacristy, and the room above the chapter house c. 1170-75, and the facade of the chapter house c.1175-80. See Sculpture Oubliee, pp. 7-8, 19-21, 151-155. For accounts of the history of Vezelay after the abbacy of Pons (1138-1161), see Cherest, Etudes, pp. 153-194; Salet, La Madeleine de Vezelay, pp. 27-36; Cox, "Vezelay: Apogee and Decline," in Scott and Ward, Chronicle, pp. 363-375. ’■ Doubts about the presence of Mary Magdalen's body at Vezelay, which was said to be buried in the crypt and had remained out of sight since the early eleventh century (see n.14), began to be voiced in the early 1260s. In one of those fortuitous coincidences that pepper the history of the cult of relics in the Middle Ages, her relics were "re­ discovered" in 1265, miraculously collected in a metal coffer at the burial site along with a letter of authentication said to have been written by Charles the Bald. On 24 April, 1267, in the presence of Louis IX, these relics were officially translated into a new silver coffer. In August 1268, Louis sent two precious reliquaries to the abbey, in which the remaining relics of the Magdalen were to be housed (he had taken several fragments of her body for his own devotional use in 1267). In 1279, however, the real body of Mary Magdalen was claimed to have been

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centuries and with dwindling assets and patronage, the abbey gradually fell into disrepair, suffering the destructive consequences of human conflict as well as the ravages of nature. In 1458, the southwest narthex tower caught fire after being struck by lightning.

In 1569,

Huguenots occupying the town broke into the Magdalen's tomb, dispersed the relics, and vandalized the sculptures of the church.” In 1793, revolutionaries further damaged the sculptures, particularly those of the west facade portals, and portable objects within the church were removed and sold. In 1795, the monastic buildings, already partly demolished in 1760, were bought by two private citizens and razed to the ground. In 1819, another fire caused by lightning badly damaged the tower and roof of the narthex. In 1829, the town’s inhabitants, alarmed by the dilapidated state of the basilica and lacking the resources to repair it properly, sought help from the national Ministry of the unearthed in the crypt of Saint-Maximin in Provence. The legendary accounts of her life disseminated by the abbey of Vezelay itself (see also n. 12) describe the Magdalen as having received her last rites from bishop Maximinus in Provence, so the claim quickly gained support. It was officially endorsed by Pope Boniface VIII in 1295. For discussions of these events, and the rivalry between Vezelay and Saint-Maximin in Provence, see Saxer, Le culte de xVfarie Madeleine, pp. 185-242; Haskins, M a r y Magdalen, pp. 124-132. On 20 December 1458, Pope Pius II circulated a bull calling for donations to help repair the monastery, which he describes as penniless and decrepit, in return for indulgences. See Acta Pii II, MS. Reg. lat. 502, fols. 437-438 (Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica). For a French translation of the bull, see Pissier, Marie-Madeleine, pp. 214-216. For a published transcription of relevant parts of the original Latin text, see Saulnier and Stratford, Sculpture Oubliee, pp. 9-10. The abbey had already been secularized by this point, having had its resident monks replaced by canons in 1537, on the order of Pope Paul III. See Salet, La Madeleine de Vezelay, p. 30.

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Interior, a request that led Prosper Merimee, the Inspector of Historic Monuments for the French government, to visit Vezelay in August 1834. 34 Merimee, struck by the basilica's beauty as well as its poor condition, subsequently campaigned resolutely for the allotment of funds to save the structure, funds which were provided in generous installments from 1835 onward. Between 1840 and 1859, the basilica was restored by Viollet-le-Duc, who focused his attention on the vaults of the choir, the seven easternmost nave vaults," the nave capitals, the vaults and capitals of the narthex, and the masonry and sculptures of the west facade. He also refitted the chapter house and rebuilt the east arcade of the cloister.36 The narthex portal sculptures may perhaps have been cleaned, but they were otherwise left untouched.1

M For Merimee's own description of Vezelay as he encountered it in 1834, see Prosper Merimee, Motes d'un voyage dans le midi de la France (Paris, 1835; reprinted Paris, 1989), pp. 55-63, 243-244. Concerning the drastic reconstruction and, in three cases, transformation of these vaults, from Gothic into Romanesque, see Robert Vassas, "Travaux a la Madeleine de Vezelay, voutes de la nef," Monuments historiques de la France 14 (1968), pp. 56-61; Kevin D. Murphy, Memory and Modernity: Viollet le Due at Vezelay (University Park, 2000), pp. 93-98, 100-103, 112-114, 122-123. For accounts of Viollet-le-Duc's activities at Vezelay, see Salet, La Madeleine de Vezelay, pp. 3 5-36; Saulnier and Stratford, SculDture Oubliee, pp. 11-18, 27-32, 71-75, 105-108, 133-134, 147-150, and* 163164; Murphy, "Memory and Modernity: Architectural Restoration in France, 1830-1848," Ph.D. dissertation (Northwestern University, 1992), pp. 434489; and particularly idem, Memory and Modernity, pp. 84-131. Viollet-le-Duc makes clear in a letter dated 11 August 1855 that he was against restoring the nave facade sculptures. See Viollet-le-Duc a Vezelay, exhibition catalogue by Genevieve Viollet-le-Duc (Vezelay, june-sept. 1968), p. 15. That the sculptures were indeed never restored is confirmed by their damaged state, given that damages elsewhere were all repaired. Salet (La Madeleine de Vezelay, p. 35) claims that Viollet-le-Duc had only ever entertained the idea of restoring the head

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Description of the Narthex Portal Sculptures The three narthex portals provide access between a twostory nave of ten bays, flanked by single aisles, and a twostory narthex of three bays, also flanked by single aisles. The aisles of the narthex, however, are two stories, like the central vessel, while those of the nave are just one story. The narthex portal sculptures are made of a soft, light brown limestone, with the exception of the two central blocks of the upper tier of the jambs flanking the central doorway, which are made of a harder, darker brown stone. Protected from the elements, the contours of the portal sculptures have remained sharp and their details legible, except where they have been damaged by vandals. It is clear that the imagery of the significantly smaller side portals (figs. 3 and 4) was intended to be understood as integrated with the scheme of the main portal (figs. 2, 5 and 99). The tympana of the side portals (without their elaborate frames) are the same height as, and are aligned exactly with, the upper, figurated zone of the jambs and trumeau of the main portal. Moreover, a stringcourse runs across the entire width of the nave of the central deity but that he had quickly rejected even that idea. Salet identifies a plaster cast of the deity's head now in the Musee Lapidaire at Vezelay as a legacy of this aborted scheme ("Viollet-le-Duc a Vezelay," Les monuments historiques de la France 11 [1965], p. 41) . For a discussion of the different types of stone found in the basilica, and their possible sources, see Salet, La Madeleine de Vezelay, p. 49.

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facade, dividing the lowest register of ornamental columns or pilasters in each portal from the sculpture above and, at the same time, linking the three doorways together physically to create a single, visually unified composition. The stringcourse is now interrupted across the west face of the two piers flanking the main portal, but its sheered-off ends on either side of these piers indicate that this was not always the case. No doubt, and as Salet has already argued convincingly, the stringcourse was removed from these surfaces only when the narthex was built, after 113 5, presumably to allow for the addition of engaged columns that would both carry the longitudinal arches of the central, easternmost bay of the narthex and help to integrate the two nave facade piers with the piers found elsewhere in the newer structure.j9 The imagery of the side portals, which can be said to be organized in two registers, is formally less complex than that of the main doorway and considerably less enigmatic in content. The south tympanum, framed by two bands of flower and leaf ornament, constitutes that portal's upper register (fig. 3). On the left, in the lintel, Mary is shown receiving the news of the Incarnation from the angel Gabriel while the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, emerges from a cloud above Mary's left shoulder. In the next scene, Mary Salet (ibid., pp. 42-43) believed that the engaged columns are nonetheless original to the facade. He argued simply that after 1135 they were cleaned of the stringcourse, shortened, and mounted by their present capitals, so as to be able to carry the narthex vaults.

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and her cousin Elizabeth, both now with child, greet each other warmly. A building featuring a tower and two large windows, out of which peer a pair of tiny figures, simultaneously divides and unites these two standard Infancy scenes. At the right end of the lintel, within a separately delineated semi-circular space, Mary lies on a bed with the Christ Child at her feet. A bearded Joseph leans toward her while a fourth figure, apparently female, reaches out toward the newborn. Three shepherds, accompanied by a ram, approach this Nativity group from the left, while three winged angels hover above. On the far right, next to the angels, appears a star. In the upper scene, the three elaborately dressed Magi, the last two of which are decapitated, approach the enthroned Virgin and Child, their horses tethered behind them to the right. Two further figures approach from the left, the first dressed in an elaborate costume, the second naked except for a cloak. Square and fluted columns mounted on simple plinths jut out from the re-entrant angles of the jambs on either side of the doorway below. These square columns are surmounted by historiated capitals as are the inner jamb walls. All four of these capitals are badly damaged. On the outer capital on the left, a naked and bearded male with the tail of a fish emerges from foliage holding a lute. He addresses a smaller naked male to his right, also equipped with the tail of a fish, who carries what looks like a trumpet hanging from a

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strap over his right shoulder. The smaller figure also holds his hands over his ears and closes his eyes. In the next capital, an angel with arms and legs extended seems ready to fly toward the viewer. On the outer capital on the right, a human figure with the body of a horse, enclosed within a medallion, aims a bow and arrow at a naked figure located behind him to the left. On the inner capital, an angel within an aureole holds a banner in its right hand and an indeterminate object in its left. The tympanum of the north portal is similarly framed by a flower and then a leaf band (fig. 4). The lintel depicts the story concerning the resurrected Christ and two of his followers described in Luke 24:13-32. On the left, the two disciples on their way to Emmaus encounter Christ (shown on the far left), whom they mistake to be a pilgrim. In the center, within a semi-circular space flanked by towers that is reminiscent of the east end of a church, Christ reveals his true identity to the disciples seated on either side of him during their shared meal. On the right, the two rush back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples of the miracle they have witnessed. In the main scene above, the resurrected Christ stands among eleven apostles, his arms raised above their heads in an apparent gesture of benediction. The apostle just to the left of the central figure reaches out, as if to touch Christ's body. The heads of all of the figures in this tympanum are either

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fragmentary or entirely missing. The jambs of the north portal feature the same arrangement of square fluted columns and pairs of historiated capitals as do those of the south portal, and these capitals too have been badly damaged. On the outer capital on the left, a bird-like monster with a serpent's tail lurks in exotic leafery. In the next capital, an angel stands with legs and arms spread while a demon cowers below, on the left. On the outer capital on the right, two figures, each framed within a half-medallion, stand playing instruments. The inner capital again features an angel and a demon, but this angel, unlike that on the facing capital, holds a shield. The main portal, almost twice the height and width of the side portals, covers the entire wall of the central bay of the nave facade and is divided into three registers (figs. 2 and 99). The sculptures of the tympanum constitute its upper register. In the center, a large, cruciform-nimbed deity sits on an architectural throne within a mandorla. Rays emanate from the fingertips of his outstretched hands (the left of which has been broken off) onto the heads of twelve seated apostles, rendered on a scale smaller than the central deity. The apostles are arranged in two groups of six. Their bare feet rest on an undulating groundline and their garments, like those of the deity, swirl around their bodies, as if blown by wind. The figures on the right have

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been decapitated, as has been the second figure from the left on the left-hand side. The twelve nimbed apostles hold books, and gesture as if speaking. Peter sits just to the left of the deity, identifiable by the enormous keys he holds. The decapitated apostle just to the right of the deity gestures in a manner that suggests direct address to the viewer. Above the hands of the deity are two multi­ contoured masses, each made up of a series of overlapping plates. The edges of the mass on the left, and those of the far right quarter of the mass on the right, undulate gently. The edges of the rest of the mass on the right undulate more sharply. The lintel consists of two separate slabs, joined by the sculptures of the trumeau. Each of these lintels displays a procession moving toward the center. The figures in these processions gesture in an agitated manner both to each other and toward the central scene above. The procession on the left is composed of three distinct groups. The closest to the trumeau features six figures and an ox in an apparent scene of sacrifice. The first figure, facing toward the left, stands holding a spear against his shoulder. The third figure seizes one of the horns of the ox, the fourth holds the blade of an axe directly above the head of the ox, and the sixth, like the first, faces toward the left and holds a spear. The next group consists of eight figures. The figure closest to the center holds a staff

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while those behind carry offerings: the first carries a bucket full of food or liquid, the second an object that is now destroyed, the fifth a fish, the sixth a cup of some kind, and the seventh and eighth, with covered hands as in a sacred ritual, bread and grapes, respectively. Each of the nine figures in the final group either hold a bow or carry one over their shoulder. The last figure in this group, standing at the far left end of the procession, holds an arrow in his bow, as if preparing to shoot. Two oversized figures stand next to the trumeau on the right lintel. Now decapitated, they jut up into the space of the inner tympanum. Both are bare-footed and wear robes similar in their simplicity to those worn by the apostles above. The figure on the left is clearly Peter, depicted for a second time, identifiable again by way of the keys he holds. The pair faces the second procession, which begins with eight figures, all on foot. The first of these figures, dressed in chain-mail and holding a shield, hands the oversized figure a sword, blade downward. The fourth carries a round shield under his arm. The sixth, larger than the rest and also dressed in chain-mail, turns back and gestures to those in the second group. This second group consists of six figures. The first sits on a horse, dressed in chainmail and holding another round shield while the fourth, a tiny figure, whose cape blows in the wind, mounts his horse by way of a ladder. At the end of the right procession are

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two groups of three figures each, both of which are made up of an adult male, an adult female, and a child. The figures in the second group of three, on the far right, are distinguished by their enormous ears. The child in this group holds his right ankle as if in

pain, and the female is

naked above the waist. Rising from the outer edges of the lintel, a series of eight archivolt-like compartments, four on each side, are inscribed on the tympanum, framing the central composition. The compartments do not meet at the top of the tympanum, leaving a trapezoidal space into which juts the head of the deity. Each compartment contains a number of figures. In the first on the left, moving from the bottom to the top, sit two bare-footed males, both now decapitated, apparently engaged in writing on portable tablets. Above, a bearded man in an elaborate cap and costume, the right sleeve of which covers his hand and extends wellbelow his

knees, converses

with a younger figure who wears a different but equally unusual cap and points to the scene in the inner tympanum. In the third compartment, a scantily dressed male with flame-like hair clutches his right leg and converses with a bearded man who, also scantily dressed, raises his garment, apparently to reveal the upper stretches of his right thigh. To their right, a third, virtually naked male, this time beardless and with long hair, sits with his right leg crossed over his left as he looks at the sole of his right

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foot. The fourth compartment features three pairs of figures. On the left, a male with curly hair points to the central scene as he speaks to a bearded man whose eyes are closed. Beside them, another bearded man whispers to a figure of indeterminate sex that bends its head near, as if straining to hear what has been said. On the right stand two dog-headed creatures with human bodies. The cynocephalus on the left holds a sword over his shoulder while that on the right grasps at his own throat. The first compartment on the right side of the tympanum, moving from top to bottom, contains four figures. The pair on the left have been decapitated but presumably they originally had the same unusual snout noses as the pair on the right. The first and third figures within this group, who bend over and hold their backs as if in pain, appear lame, while the other two reach out to help. The next compartment contains three figures. In the center, a large male wearing a hooded cloak leans on a staff and talks to a smaller, bearded man wearing a cap who holds his own left arm close to his chest beneath his cloak, as if it were injured. The figure on the right, also bearded, turns his head toward the other two and clasps his knee. He holds his right arm up against his face, in a position that suggests the arm is lame. In the compartment below, two bearded men converse. The figure on the left appears to have his left arm bound in a sling. He holds his right arm under his

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cloak, next to his chest. The figure on the right holds a spear or staff with his left hand and makes what appears to be a gesture of refusal with his right. In the final compartment, four bearded men, each wearing shoes with thick, platform-like soles and each dressed in different but equally exotic costumes, stand holding staffs. The central composition, consisting of the inner tympanum scene, the lintel processions, and the groups of figures in the archivolt-like compartments, are then framed by two bands of real archivolts. The inner band features a sequence of figurated medallions unanimously believed to comprise a cycle of the signs of the zodiac and the labors of the month, albeit with some enigmatic additions. The cycle begins and ends with a half-rosette. Moving from left to right (and identifying in parentheses those scenes the subjects of which are not disputed), the medallions in between depict the following: a seated man, dressed in warm clothes and holding a loaf of bread (January); a figure carrying water (Aquarius); on the left, a seated man warming himself in front of a fire (to be imagined beyond the frame to the left), on the right, a man taking his clothes off, presumably to dry them before the same fire (February) ; two fish (Pisces); a man cutting vines (March); a ram with the tail of a fish (Aries); a man feeding the buds of a tree to two goats (April); a bull with the tail of a fish (Taurus); a seated male leaning on a shield (May) ; a naked, dancing

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man carrying flowers and leaves in his hands and around his head; two identical figures embracing (Gemini); a figure cutting grass with a scythe (June); a crayfish (Cancer); a long-beaked bird, perhaps a crane, squeezed within a fragment of a medallion; a dog curled so that its feet overlap its head; a male who reaches back to grasp his feet with his hands; a naked female with the tail of a fish who reaches out to hold her tail with her right hand; a lion who devours a smaller creature with a human head (Leo); a figure harvesting wheat with a sickle (July); a semi-nude female holding flowers and fruits; a figure holding a flail beside a bail of hay; a figure pouring flour into a chest (September); a woman with disheveled hair, holding a balance in her left hand (Libra); a figure picking grapes off a vine (October); an eight-legged creature with a large tail (Scorpio); a figure slaughtering a pig (November); a centaur who turns back across his body and aims a bow and arrow (Sagittarius); a man carrying an old woman on his shoulders; a goat with the tail of a fish (Capricorn); and a man wearing a miter who holds a cup in his left hand (December). Around this last medallion can still be seen the inscription: OMNIBUS IN MEMBRIS DESIGNAT IMAGO DECEMBRIS. The outer archivolt band consists of a series of rosettes. The middle register of the main portal, directly below the tympanum, is framed on the far left and right by square, fluted columns surmounted by decorative leaf capitals.

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Closer to the door on either side, within the re-entrant angles of the innermost jambs, stand pairs of apostles, flanked by pilasters, who appear to converse with each other in an agitated manner.40 The two decapitated apostles on the left, and the right-hand apostle on the right, carry books while the left-hand apostle on the right holds keys, and so once again can be identified as Peter. The lateral faces of the trumeau in the middle register feature single, equally agitated apostles, and again they abut fluted pilasters. The apostle on the left holds a book while that on the right displays a scroll. All six of these middle register figures, appropriately for apostles, are bare-footed and nimbed. On the western face of the trumeau, a much larger but badly damaged figure, identified by all scholars as John the Baptist, intrudes into the space of the lintel and stands embedded in a fluted column. Bearded, wearing a cloak embellished with a fur collar, and also bare-footed and nimbed, John holds a disc in which was depicted an object that is now destroyed. An inscription was once carved on the lower rim of the disc, of which only a single word remains legible: MUNDI. A second inscription runs along the vertical face of the plinth below: AGNOSCANT OM(NE)S QUIA DICITUR ISTE IOH(ANNE)S C(UM) RETINET POP(U)L(U)M DEMONSTRANS INDICE “ The arrangement and details on either side are not identical. The western face of the middle jamb stone on the left side features a diaper-work design with a rosette capital while the western face of the middle jamb stone on the right side is blank. The lateral faces of the innermost jamb stones on either side, however, feature identical fluted pilasters.

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XP(ISTU)M.'U The column within which this large trumeau figure is embedded is, in turn, superimposed upon what appears to be a cross. The upper vertical arm of the cross protrudes above the large figure of John the Baptist into the space of the inner tympanum while the two horizontal arms extend to either side, above the smaller trumeau figures but below the lintel. The exposed inner cavity of the vertical arm and the untreated surfaces of the two horizontal ones suggest that they were all once covered, perhaps by wood but more plausibly by painted plaster. The lowest register of the main portal features pairs of fluted and fully disengaged columns on either side of the door, within the re-entrant angles of the jambs. The outer shafts are diagonally scored and the inner shafts vertically scored. All four columns are embellished with abstractly carved plinths and historiated capitals. On the outer capital on the left, two partially damaged naked figures confront a winged figure, now decapitated, in a verdant setting. On the inner capital, a woman in a loin cloth made of hair stands next to a three-headed bird, one head of which is broken off, while a winged creature with a human head, a bird's body, and a serpent-like tail emerges out of *' I am following here the transcription produced by Calvin Kendall in The Allegory of che Church: Romanesque Porcals and Their Verse Inscriptions (Toronto, 1998), p. 298, as it most accurately matches my own reading of the inscription. It differs just slightly from the transcription first produced by Viollet-le-Duc in Monographie de l ’ancienne eglise de Vezelay (Paris, 1873), p. 17, and followed by Salet, La Madeleine de Vezelay, p. 174: AGNOSCANT OMNES QUIA DICITUR ISTE IOHANNES CUM (?) RETINET POPULUM DEMONSTRANS INDICE CHRISTUM.

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a cloud or pool of water at the same time that it peers out from behind a palm tree. On the outer capital on the right, a larger, bearded male bends toward a smaller, seated one, now decapitated. To their right, a crowned figure sits with his chin resting on his hand. On the inner capital, a large crowned figure in chain-mail sacrifices an animal with the help of a smaller, unarmed male. The trumeau, at this lowest level, features vertically fluted pilasters on its western as well as on its two lateral faces. Acanthus-leafed capitals surmount each of these pilasters.

Historiography

Scholars began to write about the narthex portal sculptures, focusing their attention on the complicated and ambiguous imagery of the main portal, in the second half of the nineteenth century. From the outset, the large central deity was interpreted as Christ, the figures in the archivolt compartments and along the two lintels as the diverse peoples of the earth, and the composition as a whole, galvanized by the rays emanating from the central deity's fingertips, as the establishment of the terrestrial Church and the evangelization of the world.42 However, the

For early analyses of the iconography of the main portal not discussed in this chapter, see Arcisse de Caumont, "Le tympan du grand portail de Vezelay," Bulletin monumental (1847), pp. 116-120; Abbe Crosnier, "Iconographie de I'eglise de Vezelay," Congres archeologique de France (1847), pp. 219-230; Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, Monographie; Pierre Meunier, Iconographie de I'eglise de Vezelay (Avallon, first e d . , 1859; fourth e d . , 1883); Anatole Perrault-Dabot, L ’art en Bourgogne (Paris, 1894), pp. 50-54; Henry Havard, "L'eglise abbatiale de la Madeleine de Vezelay,* in La France artistique et monumentale, vol. 4

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identifications of specific figures, the precise subject of and textual sources for the composition, its relation to the side portals, and the program's meaning for its original, twelfth-century audience, have continued to be debated. These debates have been characterized by a consistently high level of argumentation. They have also, however, been marked by a striking inconclusiveness as no single hypothesis concerning the primary issues of subject matter and textual sources has been able to explain all of the program's contents and, thereby, to invalidate categorically any of the other, competing hypotheses. The first reading of the subject matter of the main portal to enjoy a significant, even if delayed and virtually uncredited, impact was that of G. Sanoner, published in 1904.43 Without suggesting a possible textual basis for the scene, Sanoner argued that Christ is depicted on the inner tympanum in the act of entrusting the surrounding apostles with the mission to convert all of the earth's inhabitants. Those who will eventually receive the apostles' evangelical attention, he suggested, are represented in the archivolt compartments. He then identified the large figure on the trumeau as John the Baptist and the other six figures of the (Paris, n.d.), pp. 33-56; Paul Mayeur, "Le tympan de I'eglise abbatiale de Vezelay," Revue de 2 'Art c h r e d e n 58 (1908), pp. 103-108; idem, "Les scenes secondaires du tympan de Vezelay, " Revue de 1 ’Art c h r e d e n 59 (1909), pp. 326-332. 11 G. Sanoner, "Portail de I'abbaye de Vezelay. Interpretation des sujets du linteau et des chapiteaux de la porte centrale de la nef," Hevue de 1 'Art chretien 54 (1904), pp. 448-459.

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portal's middle register as apostles - identifications that have been accepted by all later scholars - and argued that these seven figures are here depicted in the process of disseminating the New Law. He suggested, then, that while the upper register features the charge of the apostles' mission, the middle register shows the beginnings of its enactment. Emile Male, in his encyclopedic Art religieux de Xlle siecle en France, published in 1922, rejected Sanoner's interpretation.44 Identifying the rays emanating from Christ’s fingertips specifically as tongues of fire, the twelve seated figures within the inner tympanum, upon whom the rays come to rest, as the twelve apostles gathered together in Jerusalem, and the peripheral figures in the archivolt blocks and along the lintel as witnesses, he described the composition as illustrating the Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, an event recounted in the Acts of the Apostles (2:1-12) :45

“ .Arc religieux de Xlle siecle en France (Paris,

1922), pp. 326-332.

"Et cum conplerentur dies pentecostes/ erant omnes pariter in eodem loco/ et factus est repente de caelo sonus tamquam advenientis spiritus vehementis/ et replevit totam domum ubi erant sedentes/ et apparuerunt illis dispertitae linguae tamquam ignis/ seditque supra singulos eorum/ et repleti sunt omnes Spiritu Sancto et coeperunt loqui aliis linguis/ prout Spiritus Sanctus dabat eloqui illis/ erant autem in Hierusalem habitantes Iudaei viri religiosi ex omni natione quae sub caelo sunt/ facta autem hac voce/ convenit multitudo et mente confusa est/ quoniam audiebat unusquisque lingua sua illos loquentes/ stupebant autem omnes et mirabantur dicentes/ nonne omnes ecce isti qui loquuntur Galilaei sunt/ et quomodo nos audivimus unusquisque lingua nostra in qua nati sumus/ Parthi et Medi et Elamitae/ et qui habitant Mesopotamiam/ et Iudaeam et Cappadociam/ Pontum et Asiam Frygiam et Pamphiliam/ Aegytum et partes Lybiae quae est circa Cyrenen/ et advenae romani/ Iudaei quoque et proselyti/ Cretes et Arabes/ audivimus loquentes eos nostris linguis magnalia Dei/ stupebant autem omnes et mirabantur ad invicem

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When the day of Pentecost had come, [the apostles] were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs--in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" Male's interpretation not only seems to explain the wind­ blown drapery of the inner tympanum figures, their attitudes of speech, and the agitated gestures of the peripheral figures, who appear to converse with each other and to point excitedly to the central scene, but it also seems to explain the inclusion of such a diverse and exotic array of peoples. In regard to this last feature, Male acknowledged that the range of peoples depicted is not limited to the Jewish nations listed in the text, but also includes representatives of the gentile world. The most notable of these, he argued, are the members of the so-called monstrous races, an amorphous category of beings said to live at the edges of the earth that was originally identified and dicentes/ quidnam hoc vult esse."

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described by such antique writers as Herodotus and Pliny, and that was explained to medieval audiences by Isidore of Seville, Hrabanus Maurus and Honorius Augustodunensis.40 Male saw these extra-biblical additions, following a Byzantine tradition for representing the miracle, as intended to emphasize how the apostles, after their empowerment at the moment of Pentecost, would eventually evangelize all of the earth's inhabitants.4 He saw the depiction of many of the peripheral figures as suffering from physical or psychological ailments in the same light: they are intended to speak of the thaumaturgic aspect of the apostles' immanent missionary work. The framing cycle of the signs of the zodiac and the labors of the month, he suggested, like the peripheral figures, declares the universal implications of the Pentecostal miracle. The apostles in the jambs and on the lateral faces of the trumeau, in turn, he described as conversing with each other for the last time before setting out to convert the world. John the Baptist on the west face of the trumeau, he argued, was included to emphasize that those joining the Church following Pentecost will do so by way of baptism, and to recall that the Descent of the Holy

16 For a detailed discussion of antique descriptions of the various members of the monstrous races, and their medieval afterlife, see John B. Friedman, The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1981). *' In this respect, Male (Art religieux, p. 328) cited three Byzantine images of Pentecost showing the peoples of the world: the dome mosaics at Hosios Loukos in Phokis and at San Marco in Venice, and a miniature in the homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus in Paris (Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. gr. 510, f o l . 301).

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Spirit was prophesied by John, when he told a group of followers gathered on the banks of the Jordan River: "I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit" (Mark 1:8). Male, then, implicitly agreed with Sanoner that elements of the mission of the apostles are present in the tympanum, but he refined and altered Sanoner's hypothesis by associating those elements with the specific subject, and thus the biblical description, of Pentecost. Finally, he explained away the presence of Christ in the tympanum who, according to the Bible, ascended to heaven ten days before Pentecost, as part of a twelfthcentury formula frequently used for the representation of the Pentecostal miracle.49 Abel Fabre, in an article published in 1923, supported Male's analysis of the peripheral figures, for the most part, but questioned his interpretation of the real subject represented.49 He suggested, first, that Male misread the comparative material used to posit the existence of a twelfth-century formula for the depiction of the Descent of the Holy Spirit and, second, that he misread the meaning of the central scene itself. Concerning the comparative material, Fabre dismissed Male's interpretation of a ‘i In this respect, Male (ibid., pp. 326-327) cited two works of art: an apsidal fresco in the chapel of Saint-Gilles at Montoire, and the miniature on fol. 79v of the so-called Cluny Lectionary (MS. Nouv. acq. lat. 2246, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; my fig. 6). ” " L 'iconographie de la Pentecote: le portail de Vezelay, les fresques de Saint-Gilles de Montoire et la miniature du 'Lectionnaire de Cluny'," Gazettes des Beaux-Arts 2 (1923), pp. 33-42.

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miniature found in the early twelfth-century manuscript known as the Cluny Lectionary (fig. 6)50 - that includes a cruciform-nimbed deity, rays emanating out from beneath the deity, and twelve seated apostles - as a rendering of Pentecost, although he agreed that the central deity should be interpreted as Christ. Correcting Male’s transcription of the titulus below this figure to read "Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, "Sl a correction that turns the titulus into a paraphrase of Luke 24:49, Fabre argued that the picture actually represents Christ's promise of the Paraclete, articulated to the apostles after the Resurrection but before the Ascension, rather than the Pentecostal event itself/' These conclusions provided the basis for his analysis of the main portal. He argued that like the Lectionary miniature, the tympanum pictures Christ's promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit - which explains the Savior's presence - but in this case with references also being made to the miracle's promised evangelical implications - which explain the presence of the See above, n. 48. :: Male had transcribed the titulus as "Ecce ego mittam Spiritum Patris mei in vos" ("Behold, I send the Spirit of my Father upon you") rather than as "Ecce ego mitto promissum Patris mei in vos". " Regarding the other comparative work cited by Male as an image of Pentecost, namely, the apsidal fresco in Saint-Gilles at Montoire, Fabre noted that the composition is actually one of three showing enthroned divinities that decorate the east end of Saint-Gilles. He then argued a) that they together constitute an image of the Trinity, b) that within this context the fresco cited by Male in fact displays a personification of the Holy Spirit, and not Christ, c) that streams of water rather than fire emanate from the d e i t y ’s fingertips, and d) that the scene depicts not Pentecost but the Holy Spirit as the source of grace for all the faithful.

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peoples of the world around the main scene. More specifically, Fabre suggested that the tympanum visualizes Christ's post-Resurrection Mission to the Apostles according to Matthew 28:18-19 (to "make disciples of all nations") and Mark 16:15 (to "proclaim the good news to the whole creation"). Fabre proposed, furthermore, that the articulating of this Mission specifically on the day of the Ascension may also be referred to, through the depiction of Christ in a manner common to Ascension imagery, that is, with His feet hovering just off the ground, and as enthroned in a mandorla that breaks through clouds into the heavenly realm above. To this end, Fabre identified the masses to each side of Christ's shoulders as clouds, an identification that virtually all subsequent scholars have accepted.'3 Fabre, then, revived Sanoner's Mission thesis but, in the hope of explaining more of the tympanum's diverse details, provided it with precise textual sources (Matt 28:18-19 and Mark 16:15). He never suggested, however, how the figures of the middle register, including John the Baptist, or the framing cycle of the signs of the zodiac and the labors of the months, might be explained within this new interpretative framework. Adolf Katzenellenbogen, in an influential article published in 1944, followed Fabre in rejecting Pentecost as “ The only scholar to my knowledge who has disagreed with this interpretation is Crosnier ("Iconographie de 1'eglise," p. 227), who argued unconvincingly that at least one of these masses should be understood as waves.

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the portal's main subject, because of the presence of Christ, and in arguing instead that the scene shows Christ's Mission to the Apostles.54 He refined Fabre's interpretation, however, in an attempt to explain what he perceived to be all, and not just some, of the portal's contents. Katzenellenbogen began by reiterating Fabre's claims concerning the presence of Ascension imagery and like Fabre used it to argue that the event depicted takes place on the day of the Ascension, rather than on the day of Pentecost. He then argued that Christ's articulation of the Mission in fact described three separate activities, all of which would be made possible by the powers conferred upon the disciples at Pentecost - hence the Pentecostal core of imagery - and all of which are referred to visually on the tympanum, often by way of prophecies contained in the Old Testament Book of Isaiah. By showing the apostles on Christ's right holding open books and those on His left holding closed books, he proposed, and by complementing that contrast by presenting the clouds on Christ's right as calm (that is, with gently undulating contours) and those on His left as stormy (with vigorously undulating contours), the composition emphasizes the apostles' abilities to save and condemn (Matt 18:18; Mark 16:16; John 20:23). Through the presentation of the different peoples of the world on the lintel, both monstrous and otherwise, the composition alludes to the apostles' ’« «i>he central Tympanum at Vezelay: its Encyclopedic Meaning and its Relation to the First Crusade,” Art Bulletin 26 (1944), pp. 141-151.

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Mission to preach the Gospel to all nations and creatures (Matt 28:19; Mark 16:15). In this respect, he interpreted the two large figures at the beginning of the right lintel as Peter and Paul, an interpretation that has been followed by all subsequent scholars, and suggested that they here symbolize the apostles as a group, receiving the newcomers into the faith. By depicting the peoples of the world in the upper four archivolt blocks as suffering from a variety of physical and psychological afflictions, he proposed, the composition refers to the apostles' ability to heal the sick and to drive out demons (Matt 10:1,8; Mark 16:17-18; Luke 9:1). The figures in the bottom four archivolts, finally, which do not suffer from any visible maladies, have already, according to Katzenellenbogen, received the Word of God and are thus evidence of the salvific and curative effects of the apostles' evangelical efforts. He agreed with Male that John the Baptist on the trumeau is there to recall the Precursor's prophecy of Pentecost, the miracle that inaugurated the apostles' Mission, and suggested that the six apostles of the middle register, located close to the viewer, were intended to emphasize that it is through the apostles' evangelical work that all Christians enter the Church. The framing cycle of the signs of the zodiac and the labors of the month, he suggested, again following Male, then declares how the consequences of Christ's Mission to the Apostles will reverberate across all time and all space.

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Like Sanoner, then, but in a more nuanced fashion, Katzenellenbogen proposed that the tympanum, trumeau and jambs together show the conversion of the world as both a promised and present endeavor, validated already by a certain degree of success, but still with much work to be done. Stefan Seeliger, in a short but important article published in 1956, provided the first substantial challenge to the Mission interpretation proffered by Sanoner, Fabre and Katzenellenbogen." Reviving Male's hypothesis, but supporting it by way of a more compelling argument, Seeliger suggested that Christ's presence at Pentecost, although not justified by the Acts narrative, has its origins in the liturgy for the Sunday preceding the miracle’s feast. The Gospel reading for the day is John 15:26, in which Christ states, "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father...he will testify on my behalf." Seeliger argued that this passage explains the inclusion of Christ, shown in the act of sending the Holy Spirit, in both the Cluny Lectionary miniature and at Vezelay. He asserted, furthermore, that there is a broad tradition of Pentecost imagery that contains allusions to various biblical promises of the event, in addition to John 15:26, through the inclusion of Christ - just as there is a tradition that contains allusions to the event's implications, as Male had " "Das Pfinastbild mit Christus: (1956), pp. 146-152.

6.-13. Jahrhundert," Das Munster 9

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first noted, through the inclusion of the peoples of the world - and that this second tradition, in which the Cluny Lectionary miniature and the Vezelay tympanum participate, simply depicts the miracle as it was re-experienced by the faithful in the liturgy. Michael Taylor, in an article published in 1980, agreed with Seeliger's identification of the subject depicted and built on the latter's conclusions.50 He began by pointing out, following Male, that the tongues of fire landing on the apostles' heads, the windswept draperies and agitated gestures of the apostles, and the presence of the peoples of the world, hinting at the event's evangelical implications, are all standard elements in images of Pentecost. He claimed that these elements are complemented, moreover, rather than contradicted, by the presence both of John the Baptist on the trumeau, in his role as the great prophet of Pentecost, and of the six "teaching and disputing" apostles flanking the Baptist on the trumeau and jambs, who are shown in the moments before they embark on their post-Pentecostal mission of conversion.5. He then suggested that the key to understanding Christ's presence at Vezelay is to be found in the same Cluny Lectionary miniature previously discussed by Male, Fabre, and Seeliger. Acknowledging that the "The Pentecost at Vezelay," Gasca 9 (1980), pp. 9-15. ’ Taylor (ibid., pp. 9-10) cited Acts 1:5 ("for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit") to explain the meaning of John the Baptist, and Acts 2:18 ("in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophecy") to explain the significance of

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inscription below Christ in this miniature paraphrases Luke 24:29, as Fabre had suggested, by telling of Christ's promise to send the Holy Spirit, Taylor argued that two other factors are more important to the picture's overall meaning: first, that the illumination is the only one located in the section of the manuscript devoted to the feast of Pentecost; second, that it prefaces, specifically, Augustine's seventy-fourth homily on the Gospel of John. The first factor, Taylor suggested, demonstrates that the picture does indeed illustrate Pentecost, as understood through the liturgy. The second explains the precise significance of Christ's presence. In the seventy-fourth homily, Augustine asserted that the Holy Spirit is always in Christ because "in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead." By showing the tongues of fire radiating out from beneath Christ, Taylor argued, the makers of the miniature were attempting to visualize this claim. At Vezelay, he continued, the same claim is visualized again, but far more effectively, through the presentation of the tongues of fire as issuing directly from Christ's fingertips. Taylor suggested, however, that this combination of motifs at Vezelay may have been included for a slightly different purpose: to validate the doctrinal manifestation of Augustine's ideas, known as the filioque clause, rather than the specific assertions made by Augustine himself in the the apostles in this middle register.

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Johannine homily. As Taylor noted, the filioque clause, which states that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son as well as from the Father, had been officially added to the Western Niceno-Constantinapolitan Creed, the declaration of faith recited during the Mass in the West, only in 1098, at the Council of Bari. Its visualization on the tympanum, therefore, would originally have been understood as a reference to, and endorsement of, an important recent doctrinal decision. Since 1980, Peter Diemer and Judy Feldman Scott have agreed with Male, Seeliger and Taylor in seeing the tympanum as a depiction of Pentecost, and in particular have embraced Seeliger's liturgical explanation for the presence of Christ.” Diemer has argued, furthermore, that the apparent liturgical content of the main portal is the key to understanding the imagery of the narthex portals as a whole and that the three tympana in fact present a brief feast cycle, with the south tympanum representing Easter, the center Pentecost, and the north Christmas. In this regard, Diemer has agreed with virtually all other scholars in seeing the south tympanum (fig. 3) as featuring an abbreviated Infancy cycle and the north tympanum as showing a series of post-Resurrection scenes (fig. 4).” In arguing

"* Peter Diemer, "Das Pfingstportal von Vezelay - Wege, Umwege, und Abwege: einer Diskussion, * Jahrbuch des Zentralinstituts fiir Kunscgeschichte 1 (1985), pp. 77-114; Feldman Scott, "Art and Monastic Self-Image," partic. pp. 17-145. ” Diemer ("Das Pfingstportal," pp. 97-98)

identified the main

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for such a scheme, Diemer was the first to offer a sophisticated interpretation of how the three portals might function together as a coherent and unified program.°u The debate over the subject matter of the main portal, then, has ultimately involved the positing of just two points of view. On the one side are those like Sanoner, Fabre and Katzenellenbogen who, although they might acknowledge a Pentecostal emphasis to much of the imagery, have felt compelled by the presence of Christ to describe the main portal as depicting not Pentecost but an event that occurred before Christ's departure at the Ascension, ten days previously. For this reason they have identified the scene of the north tympanum neutrally as an "Appearance of Christ to the Apostles." For a different interpretation, see below, pp. 276-277. A few other scholars have also attempted to connect the content of the side portals to that of the main portal but their analyses have always been brief and their conclusions ultimately vague. In two short paragraphs Katzenellenbogen suggested that the two side portals "stand in close relation to the central one" ("The Central Tympanum at Vezelay,* pp. 146-147), by depicting events preparatory to the Mission of the Apostles. He focused his attention in this regard on the Adoration of the Magi in the south tympanum, which was understood as Christ's first encounter with the gentiles and thus as a prefiguration of the apostles' post-Pentecostal missionary work, and the depiction of the resurrected Christ among the apostles in the north tympanum, which he interpreted as a visualization of John 20:19-23 and thus as a prophetic first articulation of the apostles' Mission. In two sentences, Taylor suggested only that the south portal scenes may relate to the special veneration of the Virgin at Cluny and that the post-Resurrection scenes of the north portal may be intended to emphasize the doctrine of Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist ("The Pentecost at Vezelay," p. 13). Millard F. Hearn championed the scheme at Vezelay as the first to feature three portals that are both formally and iconographically related. However, after endorsing Katzenellenbogen's Mission interpretation of the main portal, and identifying the tympanum scene in the north portal as the Ascension, he posited only that the essentially narrative imagery of the side portals refers to the life of Christ, that it thus stands in contrast, both in style and content, to the iconic image of the divine Christ in the main tympanum, and that as such the side portals "justify the mystical import of the central portal's theme." See Romanesque Sculpture: The Revival of Monumental Stone Sculpture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Ithaca, 1981) , pp. 16566, 172-73.

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scene as the so-called Mission to the Apostles, articulated by Christ on the day of the Ascension and promised to begin with the Pentecostal miracle. On the other side are those like Male, Seeliger, Taylor, Diemer and Feldman Scott, who, although they acknowledge the inclusion of Mission elements, have felt compelled by the preponderance of Pentecostal features to see the tympanum as depicting the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, albeit (except in the case of Male) through a liturgical lens that allows for the participation of Christ. Both points of view, however, are not without their weaknesses. The Mission to the Apostles hypothesis is compromised not only by the abundance of Pentecostal details, but also by the fact that the presence of both Christ and Mission elements within the context of Pentecost can be convincingly justified.'11 The identification of the

Katzenellenbogen1s interpretation, furthermore, which has been accepted as the standard Mission reading of the portal, has a number of its own specific shortcomings. Katzenellenbogen identified the peripheral figures, for example, and shaped his entire Mission hypothesis, on the basis of a series of prophecies from the Book of Isaiah, but he was unable to identify Isaiah as represented anywhere on the narthex portal sculptures. Moreover, his division of the apostles' mission into three component activities is difficult to support, either visually or theologically. Katzenellenbogen asserted that the six seated apostles on the left side of the inner tympanum are involved in the act of saving, because each holds an open book, while those on the right are involved in the act of condemning, because each holds a closed book, and that this distinction is echoed in the clouds above each group, which are calm on the left, signifying salvation, and stormy on the right, signifying damnation. As Diemer ("Pfingstportal," p. 87) was the first to point out, however, both the outer and inner apostle on the left in fact hold closed books. Katzenellenbogen's notion that the apostles' power to save and condemn is depicted in the inner tympanum, therefore, must be rejected. The very idea that the apostles' power to save and condemn might be represented as something separate from their power to heal the sick and cast out demons, furthermore, contradicts medieval conceptions of thaumaturgy. Throughout the Middle Ages, physical and psychic ailments were deemed to be co-terminous with spiritual ones and

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main portal as depicting Pentecost alone, in turn, is unsatisfactory because it does not really allow for an adequate explanation of the presence of the second group of apostles in the jambs and trumeau. The archeological and visual evidence indicates that these six figures are part of the original program. Nonetheless, Seeliger simply never mentioned them, Male and Taylor referred to them only briefly, Diemer discussed them but admitted that they did not fit within his overall scheme, and Feldman Scott, without much conviction, and with no supporting evidence, suggested only that they may stand as personifications of the contemplative life/" In addition to the shortcomings particular to each of the two principal hypotheses, moreover, none of the extant interpretations, regardless of whether they identify the main portal's subject as Pentecost or the Mission to the Apostles,’3 have been able to account for several further details. First, John the Baptist on the trumeau has been explained either as a symbol of baptism or as intended to as such were thought to require the same abilities for treatment as were involved in the act of saving and condemning, that is, the ability to remit sin. Indeed, the Bible itself describes Christ's acts of healing in precisely these terms, as a passage from Luke (4:24-25) illustrates: ' ...that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive s i n s ’ - [Christ] said to the one who was paralyzed - 'I say to you, stand up and take your bed and go to your home. ' Immediately, he stood up before them, took what he had been lying on, and went to his home, glorifying God. For Diemer's discussion of these figures, see "Pfingstportal," pp. 99-100; for Feldman Scott's, see "Art and Monastic Self-Image," pp. 118-

120 . ” I include among this group Katzenellenbogen’s purportedly comprehensive explanation.

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recall John's prophecy of Pentecost. The Lamb of God depicted within the disk John holds, however, and the inscriptions located on the rim of the disk and along the vertical face of the plinth below the Baptist, suggest a very different primary meaning for this figure. The plinth inscription states, "Let all realize that this is meant to be John when he holds the attention of the people, pointing out Christ with his finger, "“4 while the presence of the Lamb within the disk indicates that the disk inscription, of which only the word MUNDI is now legible, must originally have referred to the Baptist's description of Christ at the moment of their first encounter (John 1:29): "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world."65 These details demonstrate that the Baptist was primarily intended to stand here as a prophet of the Son of God in his incarnate, sacrificial aspect. The figure's significance in this respect, in turn, begins to explain why a cross, an important detail that has gone all but unnoticed in the literature on Vezelay, would be depicted directly behind it.56 The cross's meaning within the program as a whole,

Translation from Kendall, The Allegory of Che Church, p. 299. For the original Latin, see above, pp. 26-27 and n. 41. Kendall argues convincingly (ibid., p. 58) that the verb agnoscant ("realize") in the plinth inscription was intended as a pun on agnus ("lamb"), and that it was included to emphasize that the Christ of the inscription is also the lamb in the disk. ”6 Only Feldman Scott ("Art and Monastic Self-Image," p. 121) has observed that the three slabs of stone, one vertical and two horizontal, emerging from behind the Baptist, look like a cross. However, after suggesting that the trumeau may once have carried a processional cross, before what she considered to be the later addition of the Baptist

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however, still needs to be assessed. Second, if the narthex portal sculptures were put in place just after 1120, as all the evidence suggests, then the framing cycle of the signs of the zodiac and the labors of the month is the first of its kind on a French Romanesque portal. Surely such a dramatic innovation has a more specific and complex meaning than simply to indicate the universal character of the central scene, as was initially suggested by Male, and as has subsequently been proposed by all other scholars who have mentioned the cycle. That this framing sequence has a more complicated significance is further suggested by the presence in the midst of the cycle of three strange creatures, above the head of the central deity. Each of these creatures, a dog, a siren, and an acrobat, holds its tail or feet to create a circle. Neither their inclusion in the cycle nor the significance of their poses has ever been explained. Third, none of the extant interpretations of the main portal has ever even attempted to explain the presence of so much architectural imagery. Not only are all seven figures of the middle register shown merged with architectural supports, with John the Baptist being depicted embedded in a column and the six apostles being depicted as emerging out of pilasters, but the peoples of the world are arranged on the tympanum within archivolt-like compartments and the head figure, she did not attempt to make further sense of the cross in terms of her reading of the portal's overall program.

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of the central deity is rendered within a trapezoidal space shaped like a keystone. These are unique details within the corpus of Romanesque portal sculpture and undoubtedly carry specific meaning.07 The inability of every interpretation up until now to accommodate these various details, finally, leads to only one conclusion: the subject and textual sources of the main portal have not yet been properly, or at the very least, completely, identified. *

The meaning

*

★

ofthe narthex portalsculptures for their

original twelfth-century audience has been as contested a question as has been that of the sculptures' subject and textual sources, and again attention has focused on the main portal. This second debate, of course, has been strongly dependent on the first and thus, despite its many significant contributions to our understanding of the monument, is also inconclusive. From the beginning of the twentieth century, attempts have been made to link the portals' imagery to the Crusades, and in all but one of these the Mission

cases the claim hasbeen that

tothe Apostlesis presented on the

tympanum as

a type for the activities of the crusaders.’8 Sanoner was the ' Scholars have perhaps been blinded in this respect by the ubiquity of such architectural motifs in Gothic portal sculpture, but it must be remembered that all of the Gothic material post-dates the narthex portal program at Vezelay. ” The thesis of Eugene Lefevre is the exception. He attempted to link the Crusades to an unconvincing interpretation of the tympanum as an

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first to articulate this hypothesis, in his 1904 article.69 He argued that the archivolt blocks depict the peoples of the world to whom the apostles will carry the Gospel while the lintels feature more recent local events. On the left, he suggested, the faithful are shown presenting offerings for the effort of the Second Crusade, which was fought from 1147 to 1148 but which was originally preached at Vezelay by Bernard of Clairvaux in 1146. On the right, close to the trumeau, he argued, crusaders are depicted preparing for departure to the Holy Land. At the end of the same procession are then shown those whom the Christian warriors will convert through the sword. The composition as a whole, Sanoner proposed, was intended to emphasize that just as the apostles made Christianity triumphant by way of the Word, so too would the knights of the Second Crusade, by way of arms. Sanoner's interpretation was hampered by his misdating of the monument: following Viollet-le-Duc, he believed the sculptures to have been carved during the abbacy of Pons (1138-1161), and, more specifically, around the year 1155. 0 Salet's cogent arguments for a date of 1120-113 5, first presented in 193 6 and to be discussed in Chapter Five, invalidated Viollet-le-Duc's chronology and in the process

image of the Diffusion of the Word of the Spirit to the Seven Churches of Asia, according to the Book of Revelation. See "Le symbolisme du tympan de Vezelay," Revue de 1 'Arc chretien 56 (1906), pp. 253-257. "Portail de 1'abbaye de Vezelay," pp. 453-456. Ibid., p. 453.

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made it impossible to see the sculptures' contents as somehow celebrating Vezelay's participation in the Second Crusade. 1 Katzenellenbogen,

in his article of1944, accepted

Salet's dating of the sculptures but still

tried toforge an

association between the purported Mission theme of the tympanum and the activities of the crusaders. ' To this end, he used a number of contemporary documents relating to the First Crusade, which describe the tasks of the crusaders in terms reminiscent of the terms used in biblical and patristic texts to describe the missionary work of the apostles, to suggest that the main portal imagery itself interprets the Mission as a prefiguration of the Crusades. As visual evidence of the makers' intentions in this regard, he pointed to the fact that

the procession onthe right

lintel is led by a group of knights. Christian Beutler, in an article published in 1967, endorsed Katzenellenbogen's Mission interpretation as well as his attempt to invest the portal with crusading significance. ; However, Beutler quite rightly questioned the notion that sculptures carved in the 1120s would have been made to celebrate the Crusades. By the third decade of the twelfth century, the First Crusade was an event of the past,

' See Salet, pp. 5-25.

"La Madeleine de Vezelay et ses dates de construction,"

' "The Central Tympanum at Vezelay," pp. 148-150. ! "Das Tympanon zu Vezelay: Programm, Planwechsel und Datierung," Wallraf-RicharCz-Jahrbuch 29 (1967), pp. 7-30.

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having been organized, embarked upon and successfully completed over twenty years before (1096-1099), one moreover that had had no real connection to the abbey at Vezelay, even at the time,74 while the Second Crusade was as yet both unimagined and unimaginable, being an enterprise conceived of only as a consequence of the unexpected fall of Edessa in 1144. As a result of these problems, Beutler posited a different context for the program's creation. He noted a number of oddities in the main portal and argued they indicate that the present scheme is not the original one. He suggested that initially the main portal was much smaller and featured a relatively standard representation of Pentecost that included the apostles depicted below the dove of the Holy Spirit in the tympanum as well as a lintel composition, now lost, that was narrower than the present one, and a framing cycle of the signs of the zodiac and the labors of the month. When the narthex was built, he proposed, the tympanum was made wider and the portal higher, 1 Katzenellenbogen ("The Central Tympanum at Vezelay," p. 148 and n. 47) argued for such a connection, citing as evidence a passing comment made by William of Tyre, in his Historia Rerum in Parclbus Transmarinis Gescarum (lib. 1, cap. 14, PL, 201, col. 231), that in 1095 Urban II had initially considered both Vezelay and Le Puy as possible sites for a council at which the mounting of a crusade was to be declared, but had ultimately decided on Clermont. This hardly constitutes evidence of the monastery’s participation in the enterprise. William, who was writing seventy years after the event, is the only one of the chroniclers of the First Crusade, many of whom were eye-witnesses, unlike William, to suggest Vezelay was ever considered as a site for the famous council. Moreover, even if it had been, first, the fact is that the council was held elsewhere, and second, the abbey would most likely have been entertained as a site because of its central location within France, not because of its politics. In this respect, it is significant that no other evidence of the involvement of any m onk from Vezelay in the preparation, execution, or rationalization of the First Crusade has ever been found.

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to fit the dimensions of the new space. He suggested that the present lintel, the archivolt compartments, the enthroned Christ and the three creatures above the central deity were all added at this time, as was the portal's lowest register, which pushed the John the Baptist figure on the trumeau up to its present location, and that it was these changes that transformed the scheme into a depiction of the Mission of the Apostles as a type for the Crusades. Proposing a date between 1140 and 1151 for the narthex, he suggested (to a degree reviving Sanoner's hypothesis), that the new program was created as part of Vezelay's effort to promote the Second Crusade, an effort of which Bernard's 1145 sermon was another manifestation. Salet, Diemer and others have subsequently, and convincingly, rejected Beutler's hypothesis of an expanded portal.'5 Not only have they noted that many of the oddities cited by Beutler can be attributed to the difficulty of carving such a complicated composition in pieces on the ground, before installation, 6 but they have also pointed out that the hands of Christ are carved from the same block as

See Salet's review of Beutler's article, in Bulletin monumental 126 (1968) pp. 185-188; Diemer, "Pfingstportal," p. 91; Feldman Scott, "Art and Monastic Self-Image," p. 21 and n. 56. The oddities cited by Beutler in this regard include the different circumferences of the inner tympanum and the lower perimeter of the archivolt compartments, the presence at the far right edge of the right cloud mass of a section featuring gently undulating contours rather than the vigorously undulating contours of the rest of that cloud mass, and the gaps between the two groups of three seated apostles on the right side of the inner tympanum and between the outer of these two groups and the lowest archivolt compartment.

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are the apostles, and with the same level of relief, and thus must be part of the original scheme. The invalidation of Beutler's idea of an expanded portal necessarily also involves the rejection of his theory concerning the program's connection to the Second Crusade. Thus, on the basis of chronology alone, any association of the imagery with crusading is difficult to support. There are yet further, more conceptual problems, however, with the crusading thesis. As Diemer pointed out, even if crusaders were occasionally and always only in isolated contexts described in terms reminiscent of the apostles, there is not a single example of crusader propaganda of the twelfth century in which the Crusades as an enterprise is compared to the Mission of the Apostles.

This is because, before the

thirteenth century, the Moslems were seen only as enemies of God, to be killed rather than converted, while the Crusades were seen as reconquests of Christian territory, not as searches for new souls. Reflecting this fact, crusader imagery of the twelfth century, whether visual or verbal, is everywhere strongly militaristic in tone and, when it delves into biblical typology, relates the crusaders not to the apostles preaching peace but to the Israelites of the Old Testament, waging holy war against their heathen adversaries. a The Vezelay portal stands in marked contrast

"Pfingstportal," pp. 91-92. '* For a bibliography of this imagery,

see ibid., p. 91, n. 73.

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to this body of imagery, not only in terms of its conciliatory subject matter, moreover, but also in terms of its details, which are in places actively pacifistic. The group carrying bows and arrows on the left lintel, for example, has been placed at the end of the procession, at the furthest possible distance from the sacred center of the tympanum, and only the very last of these figures actually holds the bow and arrow in an aggressive pose. This symbol of violence, as it were, seems to be carefully expressed as a negative exemplar, not only by way of its marginal location but also by way of the fact that it is mirrored at the end of the right lintel by another negative exemplar, a naked female member of the monstrous races who, surely, in the context of this abbey church doorway, was intended to be understood as a symbol of lasciviousness. Finally, the right lintel procession may well be headed by a group of knights, as Katzenellenbogen himself pointed out in support of his ideas, but their gestures indicate that they were positioned there precisely in order to emphasize the procession's peaceful intentions. The first knight, after all, hands his sword to Peter and Paul blade downward while the second (actually the fourth figure in the procession) carries his shield under his arm, as if preparing to surrender it also to the two apostles. The notion that the imagery of the main portal is in any way invested with allusions to the Crusades, then, a

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notion tightly tied to the Mission interpretation of the portal, which as we have seen is itself deeply problematic, is without historical, conceptual or even visual foundation and must be dismissed. There are other hypotheses concerning the composition's meaning for its original twelfth-century audience, however, all of which are built on a claim that the portal's primary subject is Pentecost, that offer greater possibilities for inquiry. Taylor was the first to venture in this new direction, suggesting that the inner tympanum constitutes an image of the monastery at Vezelay itself. 9 He proposed that the apostles, gathered together in the inner tympanum as they receive the Holy Spirit, are to be understood as the resident monks, involved in reading or prayer (depending on whether the books they hold are open or closed, respectively), the two activities that most concisely characterize the monastic profession. But the composition does much more, he argued, than simply present the monks in the midst of the opus Dei. To this end, Taylor noted that Pentecost was extremely important to the Romanesque world as a source of ideal images of the Church. The Pentecostal moment itself was seen by eleventh- and twelfth-century reformers as the quintessential model of ecclesiastical perfection, for it was at this instant that the divine sanctioning of the Church was most evident and that the ’ "The Pentecost at Vezelay,” pp. 11-13.

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institution existed in its purest possible form. This was true in the sense both that its members were not yet corrupted by the temptations of the world and that it was still entirely free of secular interference. The immediately post-Pentecostal community, in turn, was seen, particularly within the Cluniac sphere, as the perfect model for cenobitic monasticism, for the life lived in common, both spiritually and physically, close to God. As Acts 4:32 states, "Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common...and great grace was upon them all." In discussing this passage in his Occupatio of approximately 93 0, abbot Odo of Cluny, the most important formulator of his Order's ethos, wrote, "This way is for monks, whom life in common bonds together. Taylor suggested, then, that these ideas are implicitly expressed in the main tympanum, and furthermore argued that the composition was conceived in response to recent local events. As he noted, by 1120 the abbey at Vezelay had been embroiled in conflict for over two decades with both the inhabitants of the town and the local great landlord, Count William II of Nevers. In 1106, the townspeople, resenting what they perceived to be an overly burdensome system of

4C "Hie modus esc monachis quos vica ligat socialis." From Odonls abbatis Cluniacensis Occupatio, Anton von Swoboda, ed. (Leipzig, 1900), Book VI, p. 583.

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tithe payments, rebelled against the abbey and killed its abbot, Artaud.31 In 1119, William, angry at the monastery's refusal to allow him a voice in the running of its affairs, a refusal stemming on the part of the brethren from the foundation's status of papal immunity, seems to have sponsored a group of local men who stormed the abbey, damaged its walls, vandalized relics and assaulted the monks.32 Under these circumstances, Taylor argued, the depiction of Pentecost would have served in a general sense to emphasize to all the monastery's foes that the abbey was a foundation sanctioned by God whose motives, as a result, were pure. Additionally, however, the composition would have communicated a particular message to each group of adversaries. On the one hand, as an image of the Pentecostal moment, it would have served to remind the Count and his followers that ecclesiastical autonomy has its origins in sacred events. On the other hand, through its references to the Pentecostal community, the tympanum composition would have demonstrated to the townspeople that their refusal to pay tithes was a contravention of biblical law and apostolic precedent. Taylor argued, then, that the monastery, through the Pentecost composition, presents an image of itself See Che letter of 25 October 110 6 written by Pope Pascal II to the bishops of France, in which the pope demands that the killers of Artaud be found and either exiled or excommunicated; printed in Huygens, Monumenta, as Cart. 19, pp. 302-303. See the letter of February 1119 written by Conon, papal legate and Bishop of Preneste, to Hugh, Bishop of Nevers, in which the details of this episode are recounted; printed in Huygens, Monumenta, as Cart. 57, pp. 362-365.

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directed at the town's inhabitants and at the local nobility, a justificative image, moreover, that speaks not only of the community's character, but also of its rights and privileges. Although Diemer agreed with Taylor that the main portal depicts Pentecost, he argued that there is little evidence for reading the tympanum either as a theologically-charged self-portrait of the monastery or as a political manifesto directed against the abbey's earthly enemies.” He suggested, instead, that the imagery should be understood in terms of the use of the narthex, the space in which the sculptures are located. He noted, as have many other scholars, that although narthexes were a common feature of Burgundian churches of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, their specific function in each instance remains largely a mystery. Using the Cluniac customaries of the late eleventh century as his guides, however, he argued that the narthex at Vezelay was used primarily by the monks for liturgical processions. He then suggested that the three portals, recalling from south to north the feasts of Easter, Pentecost and Christmas, together stand as a kind of monumental liturgical calendar, one that was designed not only to echo the activities taking place within the narthex, and thereby to merge representation with reality, but also to emphasize the regular, cyclical nature of monastic

” "Pfingstportal," pp. 94-104.

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liturgical life.84 Feldman Scott subsequently brought the hypotheses of Taylor and Diemer together, in a sense, although not without considerable adjustments.85 For example, she endorsed Taylor's notion of the main portal as a self-serving image of the monastery, but criticized him for not attempting to make sense of the peripheral figures within such a scheme; and she commended Diemer for suggesting that the sculptures may speak of the liturgical function of the spaces they inhabit, but questioned his conclusion that the narthex was used primarily by monks. In regard to this last point, she noted quite rightly, first, that there is no evidence that the narthex and the cloister were ever connected to each other, second, that the present church was built first and foremost to accommodate the ever-increasing crowds of pilgrims at Vezelay and, third, that the narthex portals provided the only lay access into the basilica. These factors, she argued convincingly, all but confirm that the main users of the narthex, and the primary anticipated audience for its sculptures, would in fact have been pilgrims and local townspeople, and not the monks themselves. In an attempt to reconcile the best of Taylor's 14 Diemer also attempted to make sense of the imagery of the west facade portal within this scheme. As he himself admitted, however, the p o r t a l ’s virtually obliterated state, and the fact that it was carved approximately thirty years after the nave facade portals, and indeed as the culmination of a separate narthex building campaign, renders any such attempts highly questionable. See ibid., pp. 95-97. 45 "Art and Monastic Self-Image," pp. 21-30,

47-147.

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and Diemer's claims and at the same time to correct their individual shortcomings, she proposed a new reading. The inner tympanum composition, she suggested, in conjunction with the peoples of the world represented in the archivolt blocks and the framing cycle of the signs of the zodiac and labors of the month, is to be read as an idealized or symbolic image both of the Universal Church and of the monastery at Vezelay within its pilgrimage context. In this regard, she proposed that the depiction of many archivolt figures as suffering from physical and psychological ailments should be understand not in terms of the Mission of the Apostles but in terms of the curative powers of the shrine at Vezelay. The lintels, she argued, then depict the abbey's more particular, historical constituencies. On the left, she suggested, the townspeople are shown rushing forward to present their tithes while on the right, the pilgrims coming to visit the site are depicted being welcomed by Peter and Paul, the patron saints of the monastery.’6 Feldman Scott suggested, furthermore, that these processions might reflect real liturgical ceremonies conducted at Vezelay during the feast of Pentecost. Although she was unable to specify what that ceremony might have been in regard to the right lintel, she suggested that the left lintel may depict the offertory procession of the feast day

48 This interpretation has most recently been accepted by Barbara Abou-el-Haj, "The Medieval Cult of Saints,* pp. 3-15; idem. The Medieval Cult o f Saints, pp. 22-25.

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Mass. Feldman Scott proposed that the composition as a whole was thus intended not only to declare the abbey's temporal and spiritual authority, as Taylor had asserted, and to speak of its liturgical life, as Diemer had suggested, but also to celebrate the monastery's role as a center of pilgrimage and to emphasize the harmony that (ideally) existed between the abbey, the townspeople, and its pilgrim visitors. The narthex portal sculptures have most recently been studied by Kristin Sazama, in a doctoral dissertation completed in 1995/

Sazama has revived Salet and Adhemar's

compromise theory, first ventured in 1948, that the main portal depicts both Pentecost and the Mission to the Apostles/3 arguing that the inner tympanum shows the former while the archivolt compartments and lintels show the latter. In this way, she has suggested, the composition implies not only the movement of the peripheral figures toward the center, as the foreigners converging on Jerusalem to witness the Pentecostal miracle, but also the immanent movement of the apostles in the center, as they begin their missionary work following their empowerment, out toward the exotic peoples of the periphery. Endorsing Taylor's notion that the inner group of apostles stands as an ideal image of "Spiritual and Temporal Authority," partic. pp. 58-95. In making their claim, Salet and Adhemar asserted that the tympanum does not illustrate any particular biblical passages but rather functions as a kind of synthesizing, extra-textual theophany. See La Madeleine de Vezelay, pp. 116-118.

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the monastic community at Vezelay, she has argued that the composition as a whole was meant to be understood, in this regard, on two levels. First, reconciling to some degree the ideas of Diemer and Feldman Scott, Sazama has argued that the composition was intended to speak of the narthex's function, as she has described it, as a space of convergence, where the monks processed out from the basilica to show themselves to the incoming laity. Second, she has posited, the composition was intended to speak of the monastery's more general movement out from the cloister into the world and, in particular, of their involvement in the cura animarum. In this respect, she has proposed that the imagery of the narthex portal sculptures works in conjunction with the sculptural imagery elsewhere in the church to emphasize the monastery's right to baptize, to judge, to perform the sacrament of penance, and to preach, both at the basilica and in the surrounding parishes. In addition to leaving much of the main portal's imagery unexplained,3 Sazama's analysis suffers from two methodological difficulties. First, the most important documents she used to argue for the monastery's

Like most scholars before her, Sazama did not attempt to explain, for example, why John the Baptist holds the Lamb of God, why a cross appears behind him, what the function of the six middle register apostles is, why all middle register figures are likened to architectural supports, why the peoples of the world are depicted in archivolt blocks, why the head of the central deity is depicted within a space shaped like a keystone, why the cycle of the signs of the zodiac and the labors of the month has been included in the program, and why this cycle is interrupted above the head of the central deity by the three strange creatures.

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preoccupation with its temporal rights and its involvement in pastoral activities at the time the narthex portal sculptures were erected were all written after 1137, and either under very particular, politically-charged circumstances, or for an exclusively internal monastic audience/0 They are problematic, therefore, as an index of the monastery's concerns in 1120, or earlier, when the abbey was ruled by a different abbot, with demonstrably different allegiances and interests, in a monastic world that had markedly different priorities/1 They are especially

Sazama has based her arguments primarily on the contents of three documents: an accord of 1137 between the townspeople and abbot Alberic, who ruled from 1130 to 1138 (Quantin, Cartulaire I, pp. 313-323; English translation, with notes, in Scott and Ward, Chronicle, pp. 319-331) ; the Vezelay Chronicle, written by Hugh of Poitiers after 1156 for abbot Pons (1138-1161; see n. 4 above); and a collection of sermons produced by Julian, a resident at Vezelay, also at the behest of Pons (Sermons, Sources chretiennes, vols. 192 and 193; edited and translated by Damien Vorreaux [Paris, 1972]). The Accord addresses the grievances of the townspeople during the specific period of A l b e r i c 's abbacy. The Chronicle was written, very likely for an exclusively ecclesiastical audience, and in the wake of a rebellion of the town in 1155, to recount for posterity Pons1 struggles to protect the independence of the monastery. These struggles, as the Chronicle itself states in its opening paragraph, were much more vigorous and more persistently waged than those under any previous abbot. The sermons, finally, as the prologue of the collection states, were recited during chapter, to the community of monks alone. In particular, there is no evidence that the Benedictine "black" monks of Vezelay were extensively involved in the cura animarum, that is, pastoral work, in the 1120s. This lack of evidence complements the findings of recent historical studies, which suggest that the Benedictines did not begin to accept the evangelical model of the vita apostolica, which espoused pastoral work, as a possible monastic ideal until the late 1120s and 1130s, and even then that the process of acceptance was a slow one. Indeed, as Giles Constable has demonstrated {The Reformation of the Twelfth Century [Cambridge, 1996], pp. 156-159), such prominent French Benedictines of the first half of the twelfth century as Guibert of Nogent, Hugh of Rouen and Peter the Venerable remained throughout their lives strong proponents of the common life model, w h i c h emphasized monastic stability and isolation from the world. Peter the Venerable's opinions are particularly significant in this context, for he was the claustral prior at Vezelay perhaps up to 1120, was abbot of Cluny from 1122 to 1153 and, as is discussed in detail in Chapter Five, may have been involved in the very conception of the narthex portal program. Abbot Pons, by contrast, and as Sazama has

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undependable as sources for determining which concerns of the 1110s and 1120s would have been articulated, and in what manner, to a largely illiterate lay audience upon the permanent surfaces of the basilica. Second, Sazama has all but ignored the pilgrim population in her discussion of the imagery's meaning, despite the bulk of evidence indicating that pilgrims were the primary anticipated audience of the sculptures. Nevertheless, her idea that the mix of Pentecost and Mission elements imbues the tympanum with a kind of double directionality, from the periphery to the center in the case of Pentecost and from the center to the periphery in the case of the Mission, is perceptive and is certainly borne out by the visual evidence. The debate over the original meaning of the narthex

convincingly demonstrated, accepted the evangelical model with enthusiasm. This may well be one of the reasons why relations between Peter and Pons were often strained during the latter's tenure, despite the fact that the two were brothers. Concerning the changing attitudes of traditional Benedictines in the first half of the twelfth century to the issue of monastic engagement with the world, see Marie-Dominique Chenu, "Moines, clercs, laics au carrefour de la vie evangelique," Revue d'hiscoire ecclesiastique 69 (1954), pp. 59-89; Hayden V. White, "Pontius of Cluny, the Curia Romana and the End of Gregorianism in Rome," Church History 27 (1958), pp. 195-219; Constable, "The Monastic Policy of Peter the Venerable,* in Pierre Abelard, Pierre le Venerable (Paris, 1975), pp. 119-138; and John H. Van Engen, "The 'Crisis of Cenobitism' Reconsidered: Benedictine Monasticism in the Years 10501150," Speculum 6 (1986), partic. pp. 283-284. Concerning the tensions between Peter and Pons, see Graham, An Abbot of Vezelay, pp. 102-105; Berlow, "Social and Economic Aspects," pp. 188-191, 203-24. The Vezelay Chronicle, Book 2 (Monumenta, pp. 441-442; Scott and Ward, Chronicle, pp. 194-195) gives a particularly vivid sense of the difficulties between the two. During attempts in 1152 to resolve disputes between Pons, the townspeople and the count of Nevers, Peter is recounted to have said to his brother: "What do you think you are doing? Why do you so rudely dishonor me? Do you think I am mad - or a child? I work day and night for your peace and quiet; I watch over without hesitation your interests and success, but you, for your part, destroy what I have accomplished; what I accumulate, you dissipate, what I collect, you disperse, and what I acclaim openly for the sake of bringing you peace, you secretly undo by vilifying me."

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portal sculptures, then, has produced important insights. Taylor was right to have interpreted the inner tympanum composiuion in the main portal as an image of the monks themselves, Diemer to have attempted to locate the sculptures' significance in relation to the liturgical life of the abbey, Feldman Scott to have focused attention in this regard on the liturgical life of the abbey as it concerned the sculptures' primary anticipated viewers, visiting pilgrims and local inhabitants, and Sazama to have seen the composition as intentionally invested with a double directional emphasis. As I have attempted to demonstrate, however, each of these scholars, as well as all others who have written on the sculptures, have ultimately been restricted in their analyses, at the very least, by an unsatisfactory identification of the program's subject and textual sources. ★

★

★

In the following study, I will argue that there are five principal keys to determining the sculptural program's subjects, textual sources, and broader network of meanings. First, all of the details found within the three portals must be made sense of together. The archeological evidence, which indicates that the portals were built all at once, as well as the aesthetic evidence, that is, the visual and even physical integration of the three portals, demand that the narthex portal sculptures be considered as together

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constituting a coherent and unified program. Second, the details of the main tympanum must be examined more carefully in terms of the sculptures' physical location, around a doorway and within the actual walls of a church. Third, the program should be assessed not in terms of the spaces in which the sculptures are found, but rather in terms of the spaces which they announce, for it must be remembered that the portals were originally conceived as part of the nave, not the narthex, which was constructed subsequently as part of a later and largely independent building campaign. Fourth, the sculptures must be understood as directed primarily toward those who would have used the nave facade doorways the most: pilgrims and local inhabitants. Finally, the identity of the central deity must be more accurately defined. This figure has always been interpreted as Christ. I will demonstrate that although such an identification is not wrong, it is incomplete, and thus not only contradicts both the visual evidence and the official doctrine of the Latin Church, but also ultimately prevents an accurate understanding of the program's contents and significance. Chapter Two will investigate this question of the central deity's identity, and will explore the numerous ways in which the meaning of this multivalent figure is enriched by its gestures, its pose, and its formal articulation. Chapter Three will examine the main portal imagery in its entirety, arguing that the composition's primary textual

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sources are not only the Book of Acts 2:1-12 but also a passage hitherto unconnected to the sculptural program at Vezelay that describes the establishment of the terrestrial Church and that is found in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. A number of surprising pictorial sources for the main portal scheme will then be identified and their considerable significance investigated. Chapter Four will begin with an examination of how the main portal, through the textual and pictorial sources discussed in the previous chapter, functions additionally as an image of certain liturgical activities taking place within the basilica itself. This discovery will lead to a second claim, namely, that the three portals together find their meaning and coherence as a visualization of a single important liturgical text recited regularly by the laity in the midst of the liturgical activities alluded to in the main portal. The chapter will then speculate on some of the subtler, less directly text-based meanings with which the program may have been invested, examining in particular how the imagery appears to have been organized a) to speak of the sculptures' primarily didactic intent, as a means of justifying their presence within a monastery, b) to speak of the congregation's experience of the monastery as both a pilgrimage destination and departure point, c) to explain in a very pragmatic manner how the different spaces of the basilica were to be used, and d) to speak of the salvific

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significance of the congregation's activities both within the church and upon the pilgrimage roads leading to and from the abbey. Chapter Five, finally, after examining the evidence concerning the sculptures' date, will discuss the important questions of authorship and authorial motivation: Who does the evidence suggest was responsible for the creation of the narthex portal program at Vezelay? What appear to have been the deeper intentions of the author or authors in creating the sculptural scheme that they did? Can we see the program in this respect as a telling product of its time? The chapter will then conclude with an investigation of the sculptures' considerable but heretofore misunderstood influence on later works of art. In this regard, attention will be focused on the west facade portal program at the royal abbey of Saint-Denis, a program that has long been celebrated as initiating the Gothic portal system that would determine the character and structure of monumental sculpture for the remainder of the Middle Ages.

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Chapter Two: The Central Deity The Triune God The enthroned central deity of the main portal at Vezelay is shown dispensing the Holy Spirit onto the heads of the twelve apostles seated below, very explicitly from its fingertips (fig. 2). Seeiiger has identified this figure, as have all other scholars, as Christ, and has argued that both Christ's appearance here and his act of dispensing the tongues of fire can be explained by John 15:26, the Gospel reading for the Sunday mass preceding the Feast of Pentecost.' In this passage, Christ tells the apostles, "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father...he will testify on my behalf."2 For Seeiiger, then, the contents of John 15:26, and the fact that this passage was recited during the Pentecostal liturgy, prove that the central deity is Christ sending the Holy Spirit to the apostles on the day of Pentecost and that the image as a whole should be understood as a liturgical re-envisioning of the Pentecostal miracle. Taylor has also interpreted this figure as Christ, and has agreed that the event depicted is Pentecost, but he has attributed a more specific, and more theologically charged, significance to Christ's act of dispensing the Holy Spirit

: See "Das Pfingstbild,* pp. 147-148, and above, pp. 38-39. : "Cum autem venerit paracletus/ quem ego mittam vobis a Patre~ille testimonium perhibebit de me."

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by way of his fingertips.3 According to Taylor, this detail was designed to turn the tympanum composition into a visualization of the filioque clause, which states that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son as well as from the Father. As mentioned in the previous chapter, this clause was officially added to the Western Nicene Creed only in 1098, at the Council of Bari, against the strenuous objections of the attending Greek authorities, who asserted that the Holy Spirit could proceed only from the first cause, namely, the Father. This distinction had been for centuries and would continue to be for several centuries more, one of the great theological points of contention between the Greek and Latin churches.4 For Taylor, then, the issuing of the tongues of fire from the deity’s fingertips was intended to visualize and affirm an important new component of official Western doctrine. In one sense, the arguments proffered by Seeiiger and Taylor are both convincing: the tympanum composition was indeed likely intended to function as an illustration of both John 15:26 and the filioque. The manner in which these claims have been made, however, and thus the final conclusions of both scholars, are fundamentally flawed. Seeiiger and Taylor have both asserted that what is shown in ! See "The Pentecost at Vezelay," p. 11, and above, pp. 39-41. * Concerning Che history and concent of the filioque debate, see John N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, 3rd edition (London, 1972), pp. 358-367; Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. Volume 2: The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700) (Chicago, 1974), pp. 183-198.

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the center of the main portal is the Holy Spirit issuing from the fingertips of Christ. If the central deity is identified as Christ alone, however, the image as a whole cannot, in fact, be functioning as an accurate visualization of all the Gospel verses recited during the Pentecostal liturgy nor even of the filioque. As Seeiiger himself has pointed out, another verse from the Gospel of John (14:26) was also recited during Pentecost, indeed, during the feast day mass itself.' Its contents are spoken by Christ to the apostles just before Christ declares in verse 15:26 that he will send the Holy Spirit to them: "...the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you"0 [author's italics] . Seeiiger has argued that this passage, which claims that the Father rather than the Son will send the Holy Spirit, is the source for a second group of Pentecostal images, distinct from the group to which the Vezelay composition and the miniature found in the Cluny Lectionary belong (fig. 6), that show Christ not as directly involved with the sending of the Holy Spirit but rather as speaking or teaching at the same time as the tongues of fire descend on the apostles.' The notion that depictions of Pentecost "Das Pfingstbild,* p. 148. ’ "Paracletus autem Spiritus Sanctus quem mittet Pater in nomine meo/ ille vos docebit omnia/ et suggeret vobis omnia quaecumque dixero v o b i s .* Among the works cited by Seeiiger (ibid., pp. 147-48) as belonging to this group are a carved stone door panel at Maria im

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featuring Christ may visualize different biblical texts depending on how the Savior is represented in those images is not in itself improbable. After all, a picture within a manuscript or within a larger pictorial cycle might well be designed to communicate a specific meaning or set of meanings, peculiar to that context, that would justify the depiction of one version of the event rather than another. Taylor has argued convincingly that such is the case, for example, in the Cluny Lectionary miniature, where Christ is shown with the tongues of fire radiating out from beneath him, in an apparent illustration both of the Lucan passage inscribed on the miniature itself and of the Augustinian ideas contained in the Johannine homily that follows the image/ Seeiiger's contention becomes problematic, however, when the picture concerned is like the one at Vezelay, that is, the dominant, effectively supra-narrative image within a church, one moreover that would be visible to the entire congregation at all times of year, and that would thus presumably have been designed to be meaningful within the largest possible range of contexts. Indeed, it is inconceivable that the main tympanum would have been designed to visualize, as Seeiiger has asserted, the single liturgical Gospel reading of John 15:26, proclaiming that Kapitol (Koln, mid-eleventh century; Abb. 9), the champleve Coblenz Retable (Paris, Musee Cluny; Mosan School, c.1160-70; Abb. S) , and a miniature in the Ingeborg Psalter (Chantilly, Musee Conde, MS. 1695, fol. 32v; French, before 1236; Abb. 5). " See "The Pentecost at Vezelay," pp. 10-11, and above, pp. 39-41.

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the Holy Spirit was sent by the Son, if it meant that the composition would as a result actually deny the validity of another Pentecostal Gospel reading, John 14:26, proclaiming that the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father. The filioque, in turn, and as the term indicates, expresses the belief that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, simultaneously. As Taylor has identified the scene, however, what would be represented is rather the procession of the Holy Spirit through the Son alone, per filio, which was in fact the Byzantine position at this time.9 It is surely impossible that a Cluniac monastery in the heart of Western Europe would feature an image above its church's main doorway that not only contradicted the liturgical Gospel reading most related to that image's central subject, in the sense that John 14:26 was read during the Mass of Pentecost itself, but, by pronouncing the refuted Byzantine concept of per filio, also denied the contents of the very statement of belief recited during every public mass by all those who entered the church through that same doorway.10 Who, then, does the central deity represent? Of necessity, the figure must be interpreted, at the very ' The Greeks argued chat the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, as first cause, through the Son. See Nicetas of Byzantium, Capita syllogistica XXI V (Joseph Hergenrother, ed., Monumenta Graeca ad Photium ejusque historian pertinentia [Regensberg, 1869; reprinted 1969, with new introduction by J oan M. Hussey]), pp. 84-138, partic. Book 2, p. 91; Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: Volume 2, p. 193. 13 Concerning the recitation of the Nicene Creed during the Western mass, see Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, pp. 348-357.

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least, as a depiction of both the Father and the Son. Only then can the composition as a whole be seen to illustrate John 14:26 as well as John 15:26, and to function as a visualization of the Western filioque rather than the Eastern per filio. This means, in turn, that when the deity is considered in conjunction with the tongues of fire emanating from its fingertips, the image acquires a trinitarian significance. A range of textual and visual evidence can be gathered, in fact, to demonstrate that the figure was intended to be understood as a personification not just of the Father and the Son, but of the Trinity as a whole. ★

★

★

In the early centuries of Christianity, theologians struggled to determine precisely in what senses the triune God was three and in what senses He was one, increasing their efforts whenever a new heresy seemed to call established conclusions into question, or to reveal a lack of clarity in previously accepted arguments. In the Latin West, in particular, the great threat to what later became known as the orthodox position, during its formative years of doctrinal development between the mid-fourth and mid­ sixth centuries, was Arianism.11 Attempting to counter Arian

Concerning Che doctrines of Arius and his followers, see Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. Volume One: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600) (Chicago, 1971), pp. 191-200; Ephrem Boularand, L'Heresie d'Arius et la “F o i " de Nicee (Paris, 1972); Joseph T. Lienhard, "Recent Studies in Arianism," Religious Studies Review 8 (1982), pp. 331-337; idem, "The 'Arian' Controversy: Some Categories Reconsidered," Theological Studies

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ideas about the existence of limitations to Christ's divinity, Western theologians beginning with Augustine, in contrast to Eastern theologians, placed special emphasis on the unity of the three Persons of the Trinity, particularly in terms of their substance and operation." The initial, scriptural justification for these beliefs is found most concisely in three statements made by Christ in the Gospel of John: "...for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise" (5:19), "I and the Father are one" (10:30), and "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say,

'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I

am in the Father and the Father is in me?" (14:9-10).u From the time of the earliest Christian writers, moreover, this unity of the Father and the Son was thought to include the Holy Spirit as well, which Augustine described as the love

48 (1987), pp. 415-37; Rowan Williams, Arius: Heresy and Tradition (London, 1987), partic. pp. 2-16; Michael Slusser, "Traditional Views of Late Arianism," in Arianism after Arius: Essays on the Development of the Fourth Century Trinitarian Conflicts, Michael R. Barnes, Daniel H. Williams, e d s . (Edinburgh, 1993), pp. 3-30. In the East, where challenges to the c o e t e m i t y and consubstantiality of the Father and the Son were felt to be less threatening, more emphasis was placed on the plurality of the three Persons of the Trinity. See, for example, Cyril C. Richardson, "The Enigma of the Trinity," in A Companion to the Study of St. Augustine, ed. Roy W. Battenhouse, 3rd edition (New York, 1969), pp. 237-39, 24548; Edmund J. Fortman, The Triune God: A Historical Study of the Doctrine of the Trinity (Philadelphia, 1972), pp. 139-43; John Zizioulas, "The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity: The Significance of the Cappadocian Contribution," in Trinitarian Theology Today: Essays on Divine Being and Act, ed. Christoph Schwobel (Edinburgh, 1995), partic. pp. 44-60. John 5:19: "„.quaecumque enim ille [the Father] fecerit haec et Filius similiter facit." John 10:30: "Ego et Pater unum sumus." John 14:9-10: "Qui vidit me vidit et Patrem/ quomodo tu dicis ostende nobis Patrem/ non credis quia ego in Patre et Pater in me est."

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"by whom the two [Father and Son] are joined."14As Augustine stated regarding the divine unity of substance,

"so great is

the equality in this Trinity, that not only is the Father not greater than the Son in that which pertains to the divinity, but neither are the Father and the Son anything greater than the Holy Spirit, noris each person singly, whichever of the three it may be, anything less

than the

Trinity itself."15 As a result, he argued, "each is in each, all are in each, each is in all, all are in all, and all are one."10 Concerning the divine unity of operation, in turn, Augustine claimed, "they [the Trinity] are inseparable, so they operate inseparably,"1 and "in the Trinity what is said about each one [of the Persons] is likewise said about all, on account of the inseparable activity of the one and the same substance."19

'* Augustine, De Trinicace, 6.5.7 (PL, 42, col. 928): "aliquis duorum est quo ucerque conjungitur.* See also ibid., (trans. Stephen McKenna [Washington, 1963], p. 207): "The Holy Spirit is, therefore, something common, whatever it is, between the Father and the Son. But this communionn itself is consubstantial and coeteraal, and if this communion itself can be appropriately designated as friendship, let it be so called, but it is more aptly called love [Spiritus ergo sanctus commune aliquid est Patris et Filii, quidquid illud est. At ipsa communio, consubstantialis et coeterna: quae si amicitia convenienter dici potest, dicatur; sed aptius dicitur charitas]." 1‘ Ibid., 8.1 (PL, 42, col. 947): "tantamque esse aequalitatem in ea Trinitate, ut non solum Pater non sit major quam Filius, quod attinet ad divinitatem, sed nec Pater et Fillius simul majus aliquid sint quam Spiritus sanctus, aut singula quaeque persona quaelibet trium minus aliquid sit quam ipsa Trinitas." Ibid., 6.10.12 (PL, 42, col. 932): "...singula sunt in singulis, et omnia in singulis, et singula in omnibus, et omnia in omnibus, et unum o m n i a ." '7 Ibid., 1.4.7 (PL, 42, col. 824): "...inseparabiles sunt, inseparabiliter operentur." '8 Ibid., 1.12.25

(PL, 42, col. 824):

ita

"Jam enim ostendimus in hac

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The indivisible unity of the Godhead, both in substance and operation, was also manifestly a special concern in the writings of Pope Leo the Great,19 Fulgentius of Ruspe,20 Boethius," Alcuin," and Hincmar of Reims,29 among other early medieval authors.'4 This was the case not only because of the Trinitate per rauicos d m n a r u m iocutionum raoaos etiam ae singuiis aicx quod omnium est, propter inseparabilem operationem unius ejusdemque substantiae.* Sermo 75.3 (PL, 54, col. 402): "We confess this blessed Trinity to be one God for this reason, because in these three Persons there is no diversity either of substance or of power or of will of operation [Ideo enim hanc beatam Trinitatem unum confitemur Deum, quia in his tribus personis nec substantiae, nec potentiae, nec voluntatis, nec operationis est ulla diversitas]." Concerning the divine unity of substance, De Fide 4 (PL, 65, cols. 673-74): “Fa i t h . ..preaches one God Trinity, that is. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...so that the true God is a Trinity of persons and one in nature. Through this natural unity the Father is wholly in the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Son wholly in the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit wholly in the Father and the Son [Fides...unum Deum praedicat Trinitatem, id est Patrem et Filium et Spiritum sanctum...ipse verus Deus in personis Trinitas est, et in una natura unus est(e). Per hanc unitatem naturalem totus Pater in Filio et Spiritu sancto est, et totus Filius in Patre et Spiritu santo est, totusque Spiritus sanctus in Patre et Filio est]." Concerning the divine unity of operation, Concra Sermonem Fascidiosi Ariani 2 (PL, 65, col. 509): "The holy Trinity operates inseparably: there is no work which the Father has done and the Son has not done; or which the Son has done and the Holy Spirit has not done [Inseparabiliter quippe sancta Trinitas operatur: nec est opus quod fecerit Pater et non fecerit Filius, et non focerit Spiritus sanctus]." “ Quomodo Trinitas Unus Deus ac non Tres Diis 6 (PL, 64, cols. 1254-55): "...the unity [of the Trinity] is maintained because there is no difference of substance or operation or of any substantial predicate [...servata vero unitas in eo quod est indifferentia vel substantiae vel operationis vel omnino ejus quae secundum se dicitur praedicationis].” ” De Fide Sanctae et Individuae Trinitas 2.18 (PL, 101, col. 35): "Wherever in Holy Scripture we read ’Goa alone, ' this should not be taken as referring to any one person in the Holy Trinity, but to the entire Holy Trinity [Ubicunque in Scriptura sancta legitur, solus Deus, non de unaqualibet persona in sancta Trinitate intelligendum est, sed de tota sancta Trinitate]." De Una et non Trina Deitate 9 [PL, 125, col. 552): "[Scripture taught] a single and identical action of [the Trinity] everywhere [Neque enim S c r i p t u m circa Trinitatem discrepat, unam eamdemque operationem ejus factam ubique docens].* ** Within the early medieval period, Cassiodorus, Isidore of Seville, Bede, Hrabanus Maurus, Ratramnus of Corbie, and Peter Damian also stressed the divine unity of substance and operation. See Fortman,

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influence of Augustine and first the reality and then the memory of Arianism, great as those were, but also because of the appearance of the Adoptionist heresy at the end of the eighth century, and of Gottschalk of Orbais' theory of "trine deity (trina dietas)" in the middle of the ninth century, both of which in their own way, like Arianism, called into question the consubstantiality and coeternity of the Son with the Father.'5 The desire to express this notion of the indivisibility of the triune Godhead was, in turn, undoubtedly the motivating force behind at least four early medieval images of God presented as a single, christological deity.'5 The The Triune God, pp.

154-170.

The Adoptionists, led by Felix of CJrgel and Elipandus of Toledo, asserted that although Christ was of one essence with the Godhead in his divinity, he was adopted in his humanity, a position ultimately condemned by the Carolingian Church as implying the existence of two Christs. Gottschalk of Orbais claimed that each Person of the Trinity has its own deity, a proposition that, in turn, was condemned as tritheistic. Concerning Adoptionism, and Alcuin's response, see Emile Amann, " L 'adoptionisme espagnol du V U I e siecle, * Revue des sciences religieuses 16 (1936), pp. 281-317; Wilhelm Keil, "Der Adoptianismus, Alkuin und Spanien, " in Karl der Grosse: Lebenswerk und Nachleben, ed. Wolfgang Braunfels, 5 vols. (Diisseldorf, 1965), vol. 2, pp. 95-155; and Pelikan, The Chriscian Tradition. Volume 3: The Growth of Medieval Theology (600-1300) (Chicago, 1978), pp. 52-58. Concerning Gottschalk's theory of the "trine d eity,” and Hincmar's response, see Klaus Vielhaber, Gottschalk der Sachse (Bonn, 1956), partic. pp. 68-82; Jean Jolivet, Godescalc d'Orbai et la Trinite: La methode de la theologie a 1'epoque carolingienne (Paris, 1958); Pelikan, The Christian Tradition. Volume 3, pp. 59-61; and George H. Tavard, Trina Deitas: The Controversy Between Hincmar and Gottschalk (Milwaukee, 1996), partic. pp. 29-155. '* A further series of early medieval christological personifications of the Trinity appears in conjunction with other motifs and will be discussed later in this chapter. See below, pp. 107-112?, and figs. 20-22. A Ravennese sixth-century mosaic originally in the church of San Michele in Affrisco, furthermore, may be included within this initial group, although the image lacks any explicit reference to the Trinity as a whole. Rather, it depicts an enthroned Christ holding a book in which are inscribed words from John 14:9 and 10:30: "Qui uidit me uidit et patrem. Ego et pater unum sumus” (Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. I and the Father are one) . For the argued trinitarian significance of this mosaic, see W. Braunfels, Die Heilige

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earliest of these four compositions is found in the Benedictional of Aethelwold (London, British Library, MS. Add. 49598, fol. 70r; fig. 7), a manuscript produced at Winchester between 971 and 983.21 Here, Christ is shown enthroned above the inscription "Omnipotens Trinitas, unus et verus Deus, Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus (The all powerful Trinity, the one and true God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit)." The miniature is followed by a blessing that, like the inscription, asserts the indivisible oneness of the divinity:‘s May the omnipotent Trinity, the one and true God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, allow you to desire him faithfully, to recognize him truly, and to love him sincerely. Amen. May he so impress in your minds the equality and immutability of his essence, that he may never permit you to wander from him through any phantasms. Amen.

Dreifalcigkeit (Diisseidorf, 1954) , pp. viii-ix; idem, "Heilige Dreifaltigkeit,' Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, vol. 1 (Rome, 1968), cols. 527-537; and Robert Deshman, The Benedictional of St. Aethelwold (Princeton, 1995), pp. 98-99. Concerning the interpretation of this miniature as a declaration of the unity of the three Persons of the Trinity, see Erwin Panofsky, "Once More 'The Friedsam Annunciation and the Problem of the Ghent Altarpiece," Art Bulletin 20 (1938), p. 433; Braunfels, Dreifaltigkeit, p. xliv; Deshman, Benedictional, pp. 97-99; Frangois Boespflug and Yolanta Zaluska, "Le dogme trinitaire et l'essor de son iconographie en Occident de l'epoque carolingienne au IVe Concile du Latran (1215)," Cahiers de Civilisation Medievale 37 (1994), pp. 186-87. Concerning the date and circumstances of the Benedictional's creation, see Deshman, Benedictional, p. 3, and Appendix One, pp. 257-266. Corpus Benedictionum Pontificalium, ed. Edmond Moeller, vol. 2 (Turnhout, 1971), no. 1804: "Omniptens trinitas unus et uerus deus, pater, et filius, et spiritus sanctus det uobis eum desiderare fideliter, agnoscere ueraciter, diligere sinceriter. Amen/ Aequalitatem atque incommutabilitatem suae essentiae, ita uestris mentibus infigat, ut ab eo numquam uos quibuscumque fantasiis oberrare permittat. Amen/ Sicque uos in sua fide et caritate perseuerare concedat, ut per ea postmodum ad sui manifestationem uisionemque interminabilem introducat. A m e n ."

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And may he allow you to continue so steadfastly in his faith and love, that afterward because of them he might lead you to endless manifestation and appearance. Amen. Another late tenth-century miniature, perhaps begun in England but completed at Fleury (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. lat. 6401, fol. 158v; fig. 8),39 shows Christ enthroned w r t h m the tympanum of an elaborately decorated canopy, flanked by the Alpha and the Omega and two heavenly creatures, and watched from below by an evangelist-like seated figure. This composition seems originally to have been designed as an author portrait and frontispiece to Boethius' Quomodo Trinitas Unus Deus ac non Tres Dii (How the Trinity is One God and not Three Gods) . Scholars have long noted the formal similarities between the Christ figure in the Fleury image and the deity in the Benedictional of Aethelwold.31 The original function of the Fleury miniature

Elzbieta Temple believed the manuscript in which the miniature appears to have been written at Fleury but the miniature itself to have been painted by an Anglo-Saxon artist. See Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 9001066, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, vol. 2 (London, 1976), p. 59. Deshman has disagreed with this assessment, arguing that certain stylistic inconsistencies indicate that the miniature and the initial on the facing page (fol. 159; my fig. 22) were more likely either copied by a Continental craftsman at Fleury from an Anglo-Saxon model or simply completed by the French painter, who applied color and further detail to drypoint sketches done in England (Benedictional, p. 99, n. 246). This attribution is made on the basis of the two words inscribed in the book held by the lower figure, "Investigata(m) diutissime," which are the first two words of Boethius' Quomodo Trinitas Unus Deus ac non Tres Dii. The presence of the historiated initial "I", the first letter of the treatise, on the facing page, a composition that will be discussed later in this chapter, confirms the identication. The text of the treatise, however, was never written into the manuscript. See Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, p. 59, no. 32; and Francois Avril and Patricia Danz Stimemann, Manuscrits enlumines d'origine insulaire VTIeXXe siecle (Paris, 1987), pp. 15-16, no. 16. !1 Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, p. 59; Deshman, Benedictional,

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as a frontispiece to Boethius' treatise indicates that the meaning of the two figures was also the same; that is, they were both designed to emphasize the unity of the trinitarian Godhead. Two late tenth-century Ottonian depictions of Christ, both produced at the monastery of Fulda, seem also to assert this notion, by being used as pictorial prefaces to votive feasts of the Trinity.i: In the Fulda Sacramentary (Gottingen, Niedersachsiche Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek, MS. theol. Fol. 231, fol. 136r; fig. 9), Christ is shown standing and flanked by angels. The words "missa de s(an)c(t)a Trinitate," are inscribed along the bottom of the picture.13 In the Udine Sacramentary (Udine, Archivio Capitolare, MS. 1, fol. 83r; fig. 10), Christ appears more in the manner of the deity in the Benedictional of Aethelwold, that is, alone and enthroned within an historiated initial "0", although he is beardless in the Udine manuscript, and is flanked by a hanging Alpha and Omega, as in the Fleury miniature.14 The words "ego su(m)

p. 99. The Fulda Sacramentary has been dated to approximately 975. See Ernst H. Zimmermann, Die Fulaaer Buchmalerei in karolingischer and ottonischer Zeit (Halle, 1910), p. 3, and Henry Mayr-Harding, Ottonian Book Illumination, Volume II (New York, 1991), p. 127. The Udine Sacramentary has been dated by Achille Comoretto to the years 975-993 (Le miniature del Sacramentario fuldense di Udine [Udine, 1988], pp. 2122) . Mayr-Harding, however, has dated this manuscript only to the late tenth-century (Ottonian Book Illumination II, p. 144). 11 See Sacramentarium Fuldense, eds. Gregor Richter and Albert Schonfelder (1912; reprint Farnborough, 1977), pi. 38. 11 See Comoretto, Le miniature, pp. 81-83, fig. 37; and Luigi Magnani, Le miniature del sacramentario d'lvrea e di altri codici

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ostium [I am the door]" are inscribed in the book held in Christ's left hand. No doubt a reference to John 10:9, where these words are used to describe Christ's role as the key to salvation,35 the inscription may also be intended to indicate, as Achille Comoretto has

suggested, that

Christis

"the door" through which humankind

is able to gain

access

not just to the Father, according to John 14:9,36 but to the Trinity as a whole.' To summarize the evidence cited so far in this chapter, the depiction of the central deity

at Vezelay with

the

tongues of fire emanating from its

fingertips requires this

figure to be interpreted not only as Christ, that is, as the Son, but as the Father as well. Otherwise, the image would both contradict the Pentecostal liturgy and express the Byzantine position against the filioque in the years just after that clause had been added to the Latin Church's main liturgical creed. That the central deity at Vezelay was in fact intended to stand as a depiction of all three Persons of the Trinity, and not just the first two, is suggested by Western patristic and early medieval writings on the triune God, which emphasize again and again that the substance and warmondiani

(Vatican City,

1934), p. 36, pi. 34.

John 10:9 states: "I am the doer. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture [Ego sum ostium/ per me si quis introierit salvabitur et ingredietur et egredietur et pascua inveniet]." "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father [Qui vidit me vidit et Patrem]." Cf. above, n. 26. 17 Le miniature, p. 83.

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actions of the Father and the Son cannot ever be separated from those of the Holy Spirit. Several early medieval images exist, moreover, that seem to have been designed to visualize this doctrine by showing the Trinity as a single, christological figure, similar to that at Vezelay, indicating that those who conceived of the narthex portal scheme would conceivably have had models and precedents to inspire and encourage them. Might there, however, have been an even closer textual source, in terms of time and place of origin, one moreover that could have served as a link between the tradition of theorizing on the nature of the triune God discussed above (and perhaps also between the images that illustrated that tradition's central claims) and the particular composition at Vezelay, that is, of the central deity rendered in the specific act of sending the Holy Spirit at Pentecost? And might there be found, in turn, any more compelling visual evidence, on the tympanum itself, of the central deity's trinitarian significance? Fortunately, both a closer textual source and additional visual evidence can indeed be found. ★

★

★

Support for the filioque had always been a corollary to belief in the indivisible unity of the Godhead, both in terms of substance and operation, because the double procession of the Holy Spirit was seen as an inevitable consequence of, and testament to, the equality of the Father

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and the Son.33 It is primarily for this reason that the concept was embraced so strongly in the West, but not in the East, being added to the Creed first by the SpanishVisigothic Church, perhaps as early as 589,39 and then by the Frankish-Carolingian Church, certainly by 798.40 When the filioque was officially added to the Nicene Creed by the Latin Church as a whole, at the Council of Bari in 1098, Pope Urban II chose as the Church's apologist Anselm of Canterbury, who then defended the decision against the criticisms leveled by the Greek authorities present at the Council.’1 A few years later, probably in the second half of 1102, Anselm published the arguments he had purportedly used at the Council in the form of a treatise, entitled De Processione Spiritus Sancti.1' Anselm's ideas in this work See Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, pp. 358-60; and Fortman, Triune God, pp. 145, 152, 156, 159-160, and 166-170.

The

The use of the Creed in the Mass was officially endorsed at the first "national" council of the Spanish Church in 589. Whether the filioque was part of the Creed at that time or introduced soon after remains a matter of debate. See Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, pp. 36062; Judith Herrin, The Formation of Christendom (1987; 2nd paperback reprint, Princeton, 1989), pp. 230-31. ,c Concerning the Carolingian endorsement of the filioque, see Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, pp. 362-67; Fortman, The Triune God, pp. 164-69; Robert G. Heath, "The Schism of the Franks and the 'Filioque'," Journal of Ecclesiastical History 23 (1972), pp. 97-113; Herrin, The Formation of Christendom, pp. 43 9-40, 462-64. I: For first-hand accounts of the Council, see Eadmer, Historia iVovorum in Anglia, {PL, 159, cols. 414-418; Eng. trans. Geoffrey Bosanquet, Eadmer's History of Recent Events in England [Philadelphia, 1965], pp. 108-14); and Eadmer, Vita Sancti Anselmi, edited with introduction, notes, text, and English translation by Richard W. Southern (London, 1962), pp. 112-13. *' This terminus post quem is derived from the fact that Anselm sent an apparently completed version of the treatise to Hildebert, Bishop of Le Mans, in the summer of 1102. See Eadmer, Vita Sancti Anselmi, p. 113, n. 1.

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are directly relevant to the imagery at Vezelay, in turn, not only because they constituted the definitive, quasi­ official statement in the West, in the first half of the twelfth century, on the nature of the relations between the three Persons of the Trinity and on the filioque, but also because they were formulated within a specifically Cluniac milieu. Urban II, at whose request Anselm defended the addition of the filioque in November 1098, was a former prior of Cluny.43 Anselm, moreover, spent almost half of the seven years following the Council of Bari, a period during which he would have been refining his arguments on the filioque, composing De Processione Spiritus Sancti and then, presumably, most enthusiastically distributing copies of the treatise and discussing its contents, as a guest of the archbishop of Lyon.44 These stays at Lyon involved numerous recorded visits to nearby Cluny,45 where, documents also indicate, Anselm was received with great favour, both by the

*' Between Urban's tenure as prior at Cluny and his accession to the papacy, he held the position of cardinal-bishop of Ostia. Concerning Urban's continued close relationship to Cluny during his papacy, see Smith, Cluny in the Eleventh and Twelfch Centuries, pp. 83-100. “ Anselm is recorded to have stayed at Lyon, during his first exile, from May-June 1099 to late August 1100, and, during his second exile, from December 1103 to April 1105. For Anselm's itinerary during the years 1097-1105, and its sources, see The Letters of Saint Anselm of Canterbury, Cistercian Studies, 96, translated and annotated, with introduction, by Walter Frohlich (Kalamazoo, 1990), pp. 338-342. Anselm is known to have stayed at Cluny through Christmas of 1097 (that is, before his first exile), in the spring of 1100, again in September 1100, and from April to May 1105. There may well have been other, unrecorded visits as well. Concerning the sources for the recorded visits, see Frohlich, Letters, pp. 339-342.

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abbot, Hugh of Semur, and his brethren.46 Anselm's close contact with the community at Cluny during the very years when he was working on De Processione Spiritus Sancti is itself significant, in turn, not only because Vezelay was a Cluniac dependency, strongly affiliated with the motherhouse,47 but also because abbot Hugh's nephew, Renaud of Semur, who was to rule as abbot of Vezelay during the period when the narthex portal sculptures were conceived and erected (1106-1128), and who was thus undoubtedly responsible in some central way for the sculptures' creation, was a senior monk at Cluny at that time, and so

“ Gilo, Che author of one of Che lives of Hugh of Semur, cakes special care to recall how intimate and delighcful were the conversations held between Hugh and Anselm during the latter's visits to Cluny. See Gilo, Vita S. Hugonis, ed. Albert L'Huillier, Vie de St. Hugues, abbe de Cluny 1024-1109 (Solesmes, 18S8), pp. 588-589; and Southern, Saint Anselm: A Portrait in a Landscape (Cambridge, 1990), p. 383. Concerning the community as a whole, Eadmer described Anselm's reception at Cluny during Christmas, 1097 (that is, just nine months before the Council of Bari) in the following terms: "On the 2 3rd of December [1097] we reached Cluny. There Father Anselm was received with the utmost reverence by the whole body of the monks of that monastery and the whole place was filled with joy and gladness. And what followed? Why, to put it shortly, all the time he was there he was treated with such special reverence as exceeded that shown to any other of all those who visited Cluny [(Eadmer’s History of Recent Events, p. 94, Eadmer, Historia Movorum in Anglia, 3 [PL, 159, col. 404]): Venimus vero Cluniacum tertio die ante Nativitatem Domini, ibique a toto illius monasterii monachorum agmine summa cum veneratione Pater suscipitur, et cuncta loci ipsius gaudio laetitiaque replentur. Quid deinde? Donee ibi fuit, ut paucis dicam, singulari prae omnibus id loci venientibus reverentia habitus est]." Eadmer also told of how, on another occasion, probably in the summer of 1100, the English prelate so impressed the monks at Cluny with a sermon he delivered there, entitled De Beatitudine Perennis Vitae, that one of them asked Eadmer for a written version of its contents. See Southern, Saint Anselm: A Portrait in a Landscape, pp. 385-86; and Memorials of St. Anselm, eds. Southern and Francis S. Schmitt (London, 1969), pp. 273-291. The final version of this sermon appears in PL, 159, cols. 587-606. That the monks were so struck by the words of Anselm during a visit to Cluny in the summer of 1100 is particularly significant because it is at this very time that Southern (Saint Anselm: A Portrait in a Landscape, pp. 410-11) has suggested Anselm was working on De Processione Spiritus Sancti. 17 See above, pp. 4-5.

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would have had ample opportunity to familiarize himself with, and to be inspired by, Anselm's ideas.48 One of Anselm's key concerns in De Processione Spiritus Sancti was to answer two challenges to the filioque put forth by the Greeks at the Council of 1098.49 The first of these challenges was that the double procession of the Holy Spirit is without biblical justification. Anselm responded by declaring that Scripture does indeed proclaim the filioque, even if only implicitly, and cited none other than John 14:26 and 15:26 to prove his point:50 So what does "whom the Father will send in my name" [John 14:26] mean except that whom the Father will send *" Although no documents speak of Renaud's precise role at Cluny, the very fact that in 1106 he was appointed abbot of Vezelay, perhaps the most important Cluniac daughterhouse in France, testifies to his prominent position there in the early 1100s. Concerning R e n a u d ’s abbacy at Vezelay, see Cherest, Etude I, pp. 144-147. ” Concerning Anselm's intentions in De Processione Spiritus Sancti, see Jasper Hopkins, A Companion to the Study of Anselm (Minneapolis, 1972), pp. 108-121; Gillian R. Evans, Anselm (Wilton, 1989), pp. 60-66. Anselm, trans. Hopkins and Herbert Richardson, Anselm of Canterbury: Volume Three (Toronto and New York, 1976), p. 200, De Processione Spiritus Sancti (S. Anselmi: Opera Omnia 2, ed. F. S. Schmitt [Edinburgh, 1946], pp. 191-192): "Quid itaque est: "quem mittet pater in nomine meo", nisi: quem pater mittet, filius quoque mittet; sicut cum dicit: "quem ego mittam a patre", not est aliud quam: ego mittam et pater?...Cum itaque filius tanta diligentia ostendat unam esse missionem patris et suam, ut nec pater mittat nisi cum filius mittit, nec filius nisi cum mittit pater." Anselm argued that the filioque is also implicit in John 5:19 (Hopkins and Richardson, Anselm 3, p. 211; Schmitt, Opera Omnia 2, p. 203): "For...the Word says, ’Whatever the Father does, this the Son does a l s o . ’ Therefore, since the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son [Anselm said, assuming the Greek position] , let us say likewise that He proceeds also from the Son, even as what has been created by the Father through the Word has also been created by the Word [Ipsum namque verbum dicit: ’Quaecumque e n i m ’ pater ’fecerit, haec et filius similiter facit’. Dicamus igitur quia spiritus sanctus, cum procedit a patre per filium, procedit et a filio similiter, sicut quae facta sunt a patre per verbum, facta sunt similiter ab ipso verbo]." Peter Lombard, later in the twelfth century, also cited John 14:26 and 15:26 as proof that the Greeks were wrong to deny the filioque. See Sententiarum Libri Quator, I.XI.l (PL, 192, cols. 551-552); Fortman, The Triune God, p. 196.

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the Son also will send? - just as when the Son says "whom I shall send from the Father" [John 15:26], nothing else is meant except "I and the Father shall send"... Therefore, [in these Scriptural passages] the Son shows very carefully that the Father's sending and His own sending are one, so that the Father does not send except when the Son sends, and the Son does not send except when the Father sends [author's italics]. This claim that the Father's and the Son's sending of the Holy Spirit constitute a single act, in turn, was key to Anselm's response to the second Greek accusation, that the filioque implies the existence of two divine sources - a notion that itself would be heretical, since it effectively suggests the existence of more than one God. As Anselm states, not only are the Father's and the Son's acts of sending the Holy Spirit inseparable, but also the Father and the Son are themselves, in regard to that sending, a single, inseparable entity: "But if [the Greeks] argue that the Holy Spirit cannot exist from two causes or two sources, then we make the following reply. Just as we believe that the Holy Spirit exists not from that in virtue of which the Father and the Son are two but from that in virtue of which they are one, so we say not that He has two sources but that He has one source."51 Anselm's claim concerning the unity of the Father and Anselm, trans. Hopkins and Richardson, Anselm 3, p. 214, De Processione Spiritus Sancti (Opera Omnia 2, p. 205): “Quod si dicunt non eum posse esse de duabus causis sive de duobus principiis, respondemus quoniam, sicut non credimus spiritum sanctum esse de hoc unde duo sunt pater et filius, sed de hoc in quo unum sunt: ita non dicimus duo eius esse principia, sed unum principium.* Anselm's response in this regard anticipates the conclusions of the Second Council of Lyons in 1274: "We confess that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son, not as from two principles but as from one, not by two spirations but by o n e . ” See Fortman, The Triune God, p. 152.

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the Son in the sending of the Holy Spirit, both in terms of substance and operation, however, was part of a larger argument, as it was for Augustine and other earlier Latin writers, about the inseparability of the Trinity as a whole. According to Anselm, the three Persons of the Trinity are one in substance and operation, and are only three in the specific context of their relations.5' That is, the three Persons are only distinct from each other in terms of their causality - with the Father as unbegotten, the Son as begotten from the Father, and the Holy Spirit as proceeding from both - but, in terms of their deity, that is, in terms of their relationship to the world, they are eternally one. As he stated, "insofar as God is spoken of in relation to God He admits of a difference of persons, just as do several men. But in that which God is in Himself, namely, in His deity, He retains an inseparable oneness, after the likeness of a single man."55 Furthermore, he stated, returning to the biblical sources discussed above, it is through the image or likeness of the Son, specifically, that we are able to see the triune God as a whole: "...when we hear 'The Father is in me and I in the Father' and 'He who sees me sees the

Concerning Anselm's ideas on Che Trinity, see Hopkins, A Companion to the Study of Anselm, pp. 90-108; Foreman, The Triune God, pp. 173-176; Evans, Anselm, pp. 56-60. Anselm, trans. Hopkins and Richardson, Anselm 3, p. 228, De Processione Spiritus Sancti (Opera Omnia 2, pp. 217-218 ): "In hoc itaque quod relative deus ad deum dicitur, sicut plures homines personarum admittit diversitatem; in hoc vero quod per se est, id est in deo, inseparabilem ad similitudinem unius hominis servat singularitatem."

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Father also'

[John 14:9-10]: we ought to know, by means of

what is said, that the Holy Spirit is not outside the Father and the Son, that the Father and the Son are not outside the Holy Spirit, and that in seeing the Son one sees the Holy Spirit as well as the Father"'1 [author's italics]. Anselm's treatise, then, produced and disseminated within the Cluniac milieu of which the monastery at Vezelay was an integral part, in the years just preceding the creation of the narthex portal scheme, seems to provide both an immediate source for the main tympanum's central configuration, and, as a consequence, an explanation of its meaning. On the one hand, the treatise reveals why the image of the deity issuing the tongues of fire from its fingertips was conceived of in the first place: to emphasize, according to Anselm's state-of-the-art defense of the filioque against the Greeks, that the Father and the Son are but one, inseparable source in the sending of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, Anselm's emphasis on the equality and mutual inexistence of all three Persons of the Trinity, an emphasis that indicates how rooted his ideas are within the Western trinitarian theological tradition discussed above, strongly suggests that the single christological deity of the main portal was intended to function as a personification not only of the Father and the Son - which John 14:26 and 15:26 Ibid., p. 218 (Opera Omnia 2, p. 209): "Et cum audimus: 'pater in me est et ego in patre'; et: 'qui videt me, videt et p a t r e m ' : cognoscere debemus per haec quae ita dicuntur, quia spiritus sanctus non est extra patrem et filium, aut pater et filius extra spiritum sanctum, et quia p e r visionem filii videtur spiritus sanctus sicut pater."

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require it to be - but of the Holy Spirit as well. Anselm's assertion that in seeing the Son, specifically, as the viewer does at Vezelay, one also sees both of the other two Persons of the Trinity, seems only to add force to such an interpretation. If the figure dispensing the tongues of fire on the main portal is indeed the triune Deity, furthermore, and all the evidence suggests that it is, the remarkably close correlation between Anselm's ideas in De Processione Spiritus Sancti and this central configuration at Vezelay at least opens up the possibility that one of the two tenthcentury Anglo-Saxon christological personifications of the Trinity discussed above (figs. 7 and 8), or a related AngloSaxon image, served as a source of inspiration. Anselm was the archbishop of Canterbury and travelled with a sizeable entourage, made up perhaps exclusively of residents of the Canterbury monastery." These monks, as well as Anselm himself, would have been familiar with the illuminated manuscripts contained within their own library and probably also with many of the illuminated manuscripts located in the libraries of related foundations, and could easily have transmitted their knowledge while at Cluny to the future abbot of Vezelay, Renaud of Semur. In this context, it is certainly noteworthy that both of these tenth-century images

For an assessment of Anselm's travelling entourage, which the archbishop seems to have been eager to keep entirely monastic, see Southern, Saint Anselm: A Portrait in a Landscape, pp. 238-246.

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share further features in common with the scheme at Vezelay. The trinitarian deity in the Benedictional of Aethelwold, a miniature seemingly known at Canterbury, either directly or through a closely related intervening image,50 is already associated with

the subject of Pentecost, serving as an

illustration of

the blessings for the feast's Octave mass

and, as will be discussed in more detail below, being carefully designed to function virtually as a component part of the Pentecost miniature that immediately precedes it (fol. 67v; fig. 11) .57 The trinitarian deity in the Fleury miniature, in turn, a figure seemingly based on the deity in the Benedictional, or a common model, appears, like the deity at Vezelay, as the dominant figure in a tympanum above a decorated doorway. In other words, these two Anglo-Saxon images, the existence of which might plausibly have been known by Renaud of Semur, at the very least, through contact with monks from Canterbury during Anselm's two periods of exile, anticipate the main portal composition not only in terms of their main subject, that is, the Trinity as a single, enthroned, christological personification, but also in terms of either their Pentecostal context, in the case of

As will be reiterated later in this chapter, the triune deity in the Benedictional, or a related image, seems to have served as the source, for example, of the three deities inthe author portrait of the Gospel of John in the Grimbald Gospels (my fig. 21), a manuscript probably produced at Canterbury in the first quarter of the eleventh century. See below, pp. 107-109 and n. 86. The Pentecost miniature in the Benedictional, however, does not appear to visualize the filioque. Concerning its relation to the triune deity initial, see Deshman, Benedictional, pp. 89-108.

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the Benedicitional initial, and their architectural setting, in the case of the Fleury miniature. ★

★

★

The textual evidence of Anselm's treatise and of the abundant Latin writings that preceded and influenced that treatise, particularly when considered in conjunction with a number of early medieval christological personifications of the Trinity, strongly suggests that the central deity of the main portal was itself intended to be understood as a personification of all three Persons of the Trinity, and not just of the first two. A range of additional pictorial evidence serves to confirm this hypothesis and, in the process, to add yet another level of complexity to the deity's trinitarian significance. Two other known medieval representations of Pentecost have been recognized as proclaiming the validity of the filioque by way of a depiction of the Trinity. In the ninthcentury Drogo Sacramentary (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale MS. lat. 9428, fol. 78r; fig. 12), the filioque is demonstrated by showing both the Father and the Son placing their hands on the dove of the Holy Spirit, from which emanate the tongues of fire.58 In the mid-thirteenth-century composite image of Pentecost on the sanctuary arch in the church of S. Maria in Grottaferrata (figs. 13 and 14), the filioque is demonstrated even more subtly, through the '* See Elizabeth Leesti, "The Pentecost Illustration in the Drogo Sacramentary," Gesta 28 (1989), pp. 205-216.

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depiction of the three Persons as each to some degree overlapping the others, emphasizing their mutual inexistence, with the tongues of fire again emanating from the dove.55 A third image, found in the Bury Gospels (Cambridge, Pembroke College, MS. 120, fol. 6r; fig. 15) and produced around 1130, probably at Bury St. Edmunds, can also be added to this group.00 In this miniature, the validity of the filioque is proclaimed through the conjunction of imagery in the upper and lower registers. In the upper register, the Father and the Son are shown enthroned in heaven as a single deity with two heads, undoubtedly as a means of emphasizing their equality and unity.01 The Father and the Son each hold the beaded frame of the encircling mandorla with their outer hand. In the lower register, the Herbert Kessler has convincingly argued that the trinitarian imagery, which is in fresco, was superimposed on an existing Greekinfluenced mosaic of Pentecost precisely in order to transform the mosaic into an affirmation of the filioque. See "Caput et Speculum Omnium Ecclesiarium: Old St. Peter's and Church Decoration in Medieval Latium," in Italian Church Decoration of the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance, ed. William Tronzo, Villa Spelman Colloquia, 1 (Bologna, 1989), pp. 119-146. ,c See Elizabeth Parker, "A Twelfth-Century Cycle of New Testament Drawings from Bury St. Edmunds Abbey,” Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology 31 (1969), pp. 263-302; idem (as E. Parker McLachlan) , The Scriptorium of Bury St. Edmunds in the Twelfth Century in The Garland Series: Outstanding Theses from the Courtauld Institute (1965; reprint New York, 1986), pp. 120-194; Claus M. Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts 1066-1190, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, vol. 3 (London, 1975), pp. 31-32, 74-75; Katherine R. Bateman, "Pembroke 120 and Morgan 736: A Re-examination of the St. Albans-Bury St. Edmunds Manuscript Dilemma," Gesta 17 (1978), pp. 19-26. The Son sits at the right of the Father and is identifiable by way of his cruciform halo. The image no doubt ultimately derives from the pictorial tradition of Psalm 109:1, although the presentation of the enthroned Father and Son as a single deity with two heads appears to be without precedent. See Parker McLachlan, The Scriptorium of Bury St. Edmunds, pp. 187-190. Concerning the pictorial tradition of Psalm 109:1, see Boespflug and Zaluska, "Le dogme trinitaire, ” pp. 207-240.

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tongues of fire are shown emanating out from the mouth of the dove onto the heads of Mary and the twelve apostles. As in the Drogo Sacramentary miniature, the dove is held by two hands. That these are the same two hands that hold the mandorla in the upper register, in other words, that they are the outer hands of the Father and the Son, is emphasized through the joining of the bottom of the mandorla in the upper register to the top of the central gable in the lower register, by way of a little ball. The point of the miniature as a whole, in turn, was surely to emphasize, as at Vezelay, that the Father and the Son are one in the sending of the Holy Spirit. In all three of these comparative Pentecostal filioque compositions, however, the tongues of fire emanate from the three Persons of the Trinity together, and not just from the Father and the Son; or rather, the tongues emanate from the Holy Spirit within the Trinity, in each case symbolized by a dove. The tongues do not, however, constitute the Holy Spirit itself, in its entirety. At Vezelay, as has been emphasized, the tongues of fire radiate quite specifically from the central deity's fingertips. This detail, when considered in light of how the Trinity is configured in the Pentecost compositions in the Drogo Sacramentary, at Grottaferrata, and in the Bury Gospels, acquires enormous significance, for "the finger of God" was a commonly invoked epithet, with biblical

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precedent, for the Holy Spirit. As Augustine noted, "it is very clearly stated in the books of the Gospels that the finger of God signifies the Holy Spirit. Indeed one of the evangelists has said: 'It is by the finger of God that I drive out demons'

[Luke 11:20],

[while] another expresses

the same thing, saying: 'It is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons'

[Matt 12:28]

Augustine then used the

term to refer specifically to the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost: "Christ is killed, Who was led like a lamb to the slaughter... the true Pasch is celebrated, and, fifty days afterwards, the Holy Spirit, Who is the finger of God, is given in view of charity."'3 Ambrose, furthermore, cited the phrase to argue precisely for the equality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son: "If the Holy Spirit is called 'the finger of God'...let them learn...that not inequality but unity of power is signified by this testimony."'4 This detail has further significance for the overall meaning of the narthex portal program and will be Augustine, quoted and translated by Jean Danielou, The Bible and the Liturgy (Notre Dame, 1956), p. 331 (Ad Inquisitiones Januarii [PL, 33, col. 218]): "in libris autem Svangelii apertissime declaratur, digitum Dei significare Spiritum sanctum. Cum enim unus evangelista dixisset. In digito Dei ejicio daemonia; alius hoc idem ita dixit. In spiritu Dei ejicio daemonia Idem, quoted and translated by Danielou The Bible and the Liturgy, pp. 331-332 (Ad Inquisitiones Januarii [PL, 33, 218-219]) : "Occidentur Christus, qui tanquam ovis ad immolandum ductus e s t . ..celebratur verum Pascha, et interpositis quinquaginta diebus datur ad charitatem Spiritus sanctus, qui est digitus Dei." Ambrose, quoted and translated by by Fortman, The Triune God, p. 139 (De Spiritu Sancto, 3.11 and 3.31 [PL, 16, cols. 812, 816]): "Unde etiam et digitus Dei appellatus est Spiritus...Sed accipiant, ut saepius dixi, non inaequalitatem, sed unitatem potestatis hac testificatione signari.*

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discussed at length below.65 For now, it will be sufficient to note that the tongues of fire emanating from the fingertips of the deity help to confirm the deity's identity as the triune God: what is represented is the radiation of the tongues of fire from the Holy Spirit, whose eternal oneness with the Father and the Son is expressed through the depiction of the Holy Spirit as, literally, "the fingers of God, " creating an image of Pentecost that functions in a strikingly similar, although even more subtle, manner to those in the Drogo Sacramentary, at Grottaferrata, and in the Bury Gospels.66 In the end, the message of all four of these images may perhaps best be articulated through the words of Fulgentius of Ruspe, who six centuries earlier had argued as part of his own justification of the filioque that "[the Holy Spirit] proceeds wholly from the Father and the Son, wholly remains in the Father and the Son, for He so remains that He proceeds and so proceeds that He remains."6 A final confirmation of the central deity's trinitarian significance is to be found in a second detail on the tympanum: the interruption of the framing cycle of the signs " See pp.

298-303 .

” In addition to this textual tradition for the symbolizing of the fingers of God as the Holy Spirit, moreover, there appears to be at least one pictorial precedent. In a Carolingian ivory now at St. Just (my fig. 16), in Narbonne, a hand of God, substituting for the traditional dove of Carolingian depictions of Pentecost, dispenses the tongues of fire likewise from its fingertips. See Adolph Goldschmidt, Die Elfenbeinskulpturen, vol. 1 (Berlin, 1918), p. 20, no. 31, and pi. 15. ,T Epistolae, 14.28 (PL, 65, col. 418): "[Spiritus Sancti] totus de Patre procedit et Filio, totus in Patre manet ac Filio,- quia sic manet ut procedat, sic procedit ut maneat."

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of the zodiac and the labors of the month, directly above the deity, by a trio of strange creatures. These three creatures are different from one another - apparently a dog, an acrobat, and a siren - but they are also clearly intended to be understood as a single, unified sequence, given that they are all rendered similarly coiled in a circle so that their hind legs, feet, and fin, respectively, touch or overlap their heads. Although the meaning of the identities of these creatures remains something of a mystery, the meaning of their poses and number can be more precisely determined.09 As many Early Christian authors noted, the descent of the Holy Spirit occurred on the same day as did the culmination of the Jewish festival of the harvest.09 This festival began each year with the presentation of the sheaf, at the inception of the harvest season, and ended a week of weeks later, plus a day (hence one of its names, the Festival of Weeks), in other words, fifty days later (hence ” Through their identity, these figures may perhaps be intended as symbols of evil or sin, defeated through the presence and power of God. The dog, the acrobat, and the siren are all common medieval signifiers of carnal, sinful behavior, while the motif of an acrobat bent back into a circle appears in at least one earlier context as an image of victory over evil. In the Psalter of Bury St. Edmunds (Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica, MS. Reg. lat. 12, fol. 90v; my fig. 17), produced in the second quarter of the eleventh century probably at Canterbury but for use at Bury St. Edmunds, such a figure illustrates a verse in Psalm 82 (82:14: "0 my God, make them like a wheel; and as stubble before the wind [Deus meus pone eos ut rotam quasi stipulam ante faciem venti]") that was interpreted as a prayer against the enemies of the Church. See Rooert Harris, "The Marginal Drawings of the Bury St. Edmunds Psalter," Ph.D. diss. (Princeton, 1960); Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, pp. 100102; and James Snyder, Medieval Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture 4th-14th Century (New York, 1989), p. 233. ” I am here paraphrasing the ideas of Danielou, the Liturgy, pp. 319-328.

in The Bible and

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its other name, Pentecost), with the offering of the firstfruits. While the significance of the name Pentecost for Christians certainly came to be thought of as deriving from the fact that the Holy Spirit descended fifty days after the Crucifixion, it is in reality because the miracle took place on the fiftieth and final day of the Jewish festival, already known as Pentecost, that the event originally acquired its name. This connection to the Jewish festival inspired Christian writers to see the New Testament Pentecost, and its annual liturgical commemoration, as itself the culmination of a fifty day sequence, in this case initiated by the Crucifixion/Paschal feast. c This mode of conceptualizing Pentecost in turn prompted Basil of Caesarea to see the miracle as potentially symbolized by the figure of a circle, for the event could be described as having begun and ended in the same place, that is, on the first day. This was true in two senses. First, just as the Crucifixion occurred on the first day of a seven week cycle, so too did Pentecost, by occurring on the fiftieth day (7 x 7 + 1). Second, Pentecost is the eighth Sunday in the sequence beginning with the Sunday of Easter, and thus is like the first Sunday after a week of Sundays. This circle symbolism, however, was intended as more than just a clever conceit, being articulated to express as well the more

' This is made clear, for example, by Augustine’s comments concerning Pentecost and the "finger of God' cited above, on p. 95 and in n. 63 .

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important notion of Pentecost as itself a figure of the Resurrection. By describing the fifty day cycle culminating in Pentecost as evocative of a circle, and thus of the never-ending trajectory of eternity, Basil was really calling attention to the fact that it was only with the descent of the Holy Spirit and the consequent creation of the terrestial Church that resurrection, and eternal life, became possible for humankind: The whole period of the fifty days (pentekoste) reminds us of the resurrection that we await in eternity. Indeed this day [of the descent of the Holy Spirit] that is one and the first, seven times multiplied by seven, accomplishes the seven weeks of Pentecost, for it begins on the first day and is ended by it...So it has certain resemblances to eternity, since by a circular movement it comes to end where it begins. The three creatures located above the central deity at Vezelay, then, who themselves each, in a sense, come to an end where they begin, were surely intended, by way of their poses, on an initial level, to identify the scene below as Pentecost and to speak of its salvific implications. On a second level, however, their poses, when considered in relation to their number, were surely intended to identify the figure directly below them as a personification of the Trinity, and to comment, in turn, on its eternal nature. Although this is an issue that will be discussed in greater detail below, : it is in both of these senses, also, that the ' Basil, Sur le Saint-Esprit, introduction, text, and French translation by Benoit Pruche, Sources chretiennes, 17 (Paris, 1968), p. 487; English translation by Danielou, The Bible and the Liturgy, p. 328. ‘ See pp. 249-250, and 280-285.

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placement of these three creatures within the cycle of the signs of the zodiac and the labors of the month can at least begin to be understood. By being inserted within a sequence of images that itself already thematizes the passage of time as a cyclical process, these three creatures who come to end where they begin are all the more effectively able to function as symbols both of the everlasting life of the resurrected Christian soul, prefigured and enabled by Pentecost, and of the eternity, and eternal unity, of the triune God.

The Son's Two Natures A wide range of written and pictorial evidence, then, provides ample proof that the central deity at Vezelay was intended to be understood as a personification of the Trinity as a whole. One aspect of its rendering, however, remains to be discussed (fig. 18). As has often been noted, 3 the upper and lower halves of the figure are curiously disjunctive: while the head, outstretched arms and torso are depicted in a flat, frontal and symmetrical manner, the legs and feet are more deeply carved and jut with a pronounced lack of symmetry away to the viewer's right. Given the evident presence of meaning in even the smallest of the composition's details examined so far, particularly those ! See, for example, Salet, La Madeleine de Vezelay, p. 149; idem, Cluny et Vezelay: L'oeuvre des sculpteurs (Paris, 1995), p. 110; Schapiro, "On Geometrical Schematism in Romanesque Art,* in Romanesque Art: Selected Papers (New York, 1977), p. 277; Jean-Claude Bonne, I,'Art Roman de Face et de Profile (Paris, 19S4) , p. 85, n. 46.

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concerning the deity's body, it is logical to assume that this striking disjunction, which distinguishes the Vezelay deity from all other French Romanesque tympanum Majestas figures, 4 was intended to convey a theological message. To determine what that message may be, and how it may be conveyed, it will be useful, first, to note another important aspect of early medieval trinitarian thinking, and to demonstrate that a widespread tradition already existed for its pictorial expression. A central tenet of early medieval trinitarian faith, founded on the prologue of John's Gospel and on the content of the creeds themselves, was that the second Person of the Trinity is both the eternal Son, or Son of God, who has sat enthroned in heaven with the Father since the beginning of time, and the incarnate Christ, or Son of Man, who lived and died within historical time and whose human nature was joined to the Son's divine nature, indeed to the Trinity as a whole, in heaven after the Ascension. 5 The doctrinal importance of this belief seems to be reflected in the visual arts. As a careful examination of the evidence reveals, a surprisingly large number of early medieval and 1 To my knowledge, every other French Romanesque tympanum Majestas figure is rendered more or less frontally and symmetrically from the waist down as well as from the waist up. The positioning of the arms in these figures, however, is frequently not symmetrical. ' See, for example, Augustine, De Civitate Dei, Book X, chapter 29 (C C S L , 47, p. 305) : "...this body [of Christ] was laid aside in death, and then transformed by his resurrection, and...when it had thus become incorruptible and immortal he carried it up into the realms above [~.ipsum corpus morte depositum et in melius resurrectione mutatum iam incorruptibile neque mortale in s u p e m a subuexit]."

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Romanesque non-narrative trinitarian images appear to proclaim this notion of the dual activity of the Son, in one manner or another. The earliest known example is found, appropriately enough given the creedal origins of the ideas being communicated, in an illustration of the Creed. The illustration is located in the so-called Utrecht Psalter (Utrecht, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, MS. 32, fol. 90r; fig. 19), a manuscript likely produced at Reims between 816 and 83 5, and present at Christ Church, Canterbury, at least by the millennium. ° In the upper register of this image, the Father is shown enthroned on a globe and surrounded by an oval mandorla. ' An empty globe-throne

’’ Concerning the dace and location of Che PsalCer's creation, see Goldschmidt, "Der Utrechtpsalter," Repertorium fur Kunstwissenschaft 15 (1892), pp. 156-169; Paul Durrieu, "L'origine de manuscrit celebre dit le Psautier d'Utrecht," in Melanges Julien Havet (Paris, 1895), pp. 639657; Koert van der Horst and Jacobus H. A. Engelbregt, Utrecht-Psalter: vollstandige Faksimile-Ausgabe im Original format der Handschrift 32 aus dem Besitz der Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht: Kommentar (Graz, 1984). Celia Chazelle has recently suggested that the Psalter may have been produced a little later, perhaps between 835 and 845. See "Archbishops Ebo and Hincmar of Reims and the Utrecht Psalter,* Speculum 72 (1997), pp. 1055-1077. Although the presence of the Utrecht Psalter in England cannot be documented before c. 1000, the iconography of the manuscript was nonetheless exerting an influence on English imagery by the 970s, as the miniatures of the Benedictional of Aethelwold demonstrate. Concerning the impact of the Utrecht Psalter on English art, see Dmitri T s e l o s , "English Manuscript Illustration and the Utrecht Psalter," A m Bulletin 41 (1959), pp. 137-49, William Noel, "The Utrecht Psalter in England: Continuity and Experiment," in The Utrecht Psalter in Medieval Art: Picturing the Psalms of David, edited by K. van der Horst, W. Noel, and Wilhelmina C. M. Wustefeld (Westrenen, 1996), pp. 120-165. For previous interpretations of this miniature, see Ernest T. DeWald, The Illustrations of the Utrecht Psalter (Princeton, 1932), p. 71; Ernst Kantorowicz, "The Quinity of Winchester," in Selected Studies (Locust Valley, 1965), pp. 109-110; Barbara Raw, Trinity and Incarnation in Anglo-Saxon Art and Thought (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 150-156; and Deshman, "Another Look at the Disappearing Christ: Corporeal and Spiritual Vision in Early Medieval Images," Art Bulletin 79 (1997), pp. 523-524.

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appears to His right, no doubt signifying the divine, coeternal Son.'8 The oneness of the enthroned Father and Son is indicated by the intrusion of the Son's globe-throne into the space of the Father's mandorla. At the far left, the Virgin Mary, a dove perched atop her head, leans forward to place the cruciform-nimbed Christ Child on the empty globethrone. This grouping, in addition to demonstrating the inclusion of the Holy Spirit within the Trinity, symbolized by the dove, both serves as a reference to the Incarnation’ and emphasizes that the humanity of the Son, acquired in the Incarnation, is now enthroned along with the Son's divinity, within the celestial Trinity as a whole.80 Two later Anglo-Saxon compositions, widely regarded to have been based on the Utrecht Psalter miniature, either directly or indirectly, make even more explicit reference to both the Son's eternal and incarnate aspects. The so-called "Quinity," which illustrates the Office of the Trinity in the Aelfwine Prayerbook (London, British Library, MS. Cotton, Titus D. XXVII, fol. 75r; fig. 20), a manuscript

See Kantorowicz,

"The Quinity at Winchester,* p. 109.

The presence of both Mary and the dove appears to visualize the important creedal concept that the Son was conceived b y the Holy Spirit but born from Mary. This distinction, which was much used by the Carolingians in their fight against Adoptionism, seems to have been designed to emphasize, on the one hand, that Christ, in being conceived by the Holy Spirit (that is, by G o d ) , must himself be God, and, on the other, that Christ, in being b o m from Mary, is not the son of the Holy Spirit. See Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, pp. 376-378. ,c See Deshman,

"Disappearing Christ,* pp. 524.

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produced at Winchester probably between 1023 and 1035,31 shows the same grouping of the Virgin, Christ Child and dove.32 However, it also includes the eternal Son, rather than just the empty throne of the Utrecht Psalter image, sitting to the right of the Father but otherwise indistinguishable from Him.33 The four figures and the dove are then enclosed within a single, circular, bead-studded mandorla, demonstrating the deeper unity of the Godhead. On fol. 114v of a two-page composition prefacing the Gospel of John in the Grimbald Gospels (London, British Library, MS. Add. 34890, fols. 114v and 115r; figs. 21 and 22), a manuscript probably produced at Christ Church, Canterbury around 1020,34 the unity of the Trinity is expressed through the depiction, above the Evangelist John, of three virtually

See Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts,

pp. 94-95.

I am only dealing here with the trinitarian grouping within the circular mandorla. For previous interpretations of the meaning of this miniature as a whole, see Kantorowicz, "The Quinity of Winchester," pp. 100-120; J udith A. Kidd, "The Quinity of Winchester Reconsidered," Studies in Iconography 7-8 (1981-1982), pp. 21-33; and Raw, Trinity and Incarnation, pp. 156-162. Concerning the meaning of this composition in relation to the Crucifixion miniature in the same manuscript (fol. 65v) , see Jennifer O'Reilly, "St. John as a Figure of the Contemplative Life: Text and Image in the Art of the Anglo-Saxon Benedictine Reform," in St. Dunstan: His Life, Times and Cult, Nigel Ramsay, Margaret Sparks, and Tim Tatton-Brown, eds. (Woodbridge, 1992), pp. 174-184. This pairing of the Father and the Son, as well as the "enemy" in manacles beneath the Son's feet, clearly derive from the image illustrating Psalm 109:1 in the Utrecht Psalter (fol. 64v). The Hell Mouth and the figures of "Arrius" and Judas below the mandorla, however, appear to be an innovation of the Winchester artist. Concerning the miniature's relationship to the illustration of Psalm 109 in the Utrecht Psalter, see Kantorowicz, "The Quinity of Winchester," pp. 103-104; Boespflug a n d Zaluska, "Le dogme trinitaire," pp. 213-214, 217-218. See Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, pp. 86-88; Janet Backhouse, Derek H. Turner, and Leslie Webster, eds., The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art (London, 1984), p. 72.

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identical christological deities, each shown enthroned in a medallion carried by a quartet of angels.35 The central figure within this trio is in fact distinguished from the other two, and can be identified as the Son, by way of its cruciform nimbus. The reason for the Son's placement in the central medallion is made clear through an examination of the composition on the facing page, fol. 115r. Here, the corresponding central medallion, which like the three on fol. 114v is held aloft by four angels, depicts an enthroned Virgin and Child, again in order to make the point that the second Person of the Trinity is both the eternal Son, shown on fol. 114v, and the incarnate Christ, shown on fol. 115r. That this is a vision of the specifically heavenly unification of Christ's humanity with the Trinity is then demonstrated not only by way of the angels shown supporting all four of these medallions, but also through the inclusion, in the frames of both pages, of an entire celestial community, made up of seraphim and saints, who turn to praise the triune Godhead in all of its complex glory. The three deities on fol. 114v of the Grimbald Gospels may well be based on the triune deity in the Benedictional of Aethelwold, or a common model.36 The imagery of the

4' Concerning the full meaning of this pair of miniatures, see O ’Reilly, "St. John as a Figure of the Contemplative Life," pp. 179-180; Deshman, "Disappearing Christ," pp. 524-525, and 542. ,s See Deshman, Benedictional, p. 98.

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Benedictional, in turn, both in terms of its style and content, has long been recognized, like the two-page composition in the Grimbald Gospels, to have been influenced by the imagery of the Utrecht Psalter.3, It is therefore no surprise to discover that the initial of the triune deity in the Benedictional also contains a reference to the presence of the incarnate Son within the eternal Trinity. As Robert Deshman has convincingly demonstrated, the motif of the raincloud enclosed within the deity's mandorla, and the combination of the raincloud and the rainbow upon which the deity sits, were carefully constructed to signify, when examined in conjunction with imagery found elsewhere in the Benedictional, the humanity of Christ that was suffused by the Son's divinity in the Incarnation, and that was joined to the celestial Godhead following the Ascension.33 This dual aspect of the Son is also depicted in the Fleury manuscript, immediately opposite the miniature of Boethius and the triune deity discussed above (fig. 8),” in the historiated initial "I" that was to have begun the text of Boethius’ Quomodo Unus Deus ac non Tres Dii (fol. 159r; fig. 23). It features, at the top of the letter, the same christological triune deity between the Alpha and the Omega that appears in the author portrait on the opposite page, 37 Deshman indicated the influence of the Utrecht Psalter on the Benedictional of Aethelwold throughout Benedictional, his recent study of the latter manuscript. 33 Ibid., pp.

99-104.

" See above,

pp. 79-80.

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and that is so similar in formal terms to the triune deity in the Benedictional. Below this figure are depicted first a lamb in front of a cross and then a dove, both of which are cruciform-nimbed and enclosed within medallions. At the bottom of the image, Boethius appears again, next to a tree, and as in the facing image he gazes up at the divinity. As Barbara Raw has already argued, the composition appears to be making a distinction between the eternal triune God in heaven, represented by the enthroned deity depicted between the Alpha and the Omega,90 and God's activities on earth, in time, performed either by the incarnate Christ, represented by the lamb, or by the Holy Spirit, represented by the dove.91 The depiction of the lamb and the dove in the middle registers of the initial, between the transcendent deity at the top and the terrestial figure at the bottom, emphasizes their mediating function. Their cruciform haloes, in turn, which they share with the upper deity, emphasize the oneness of the incarnate Christ, the Holy Spirit in the world, and the eternal Godhead, while the depiction of the lamb and the dove in medallions likely indicates that these motifs are but symbols, but images, of God's earthly presence and actions.9*

Raw characterizes this figure as "neither Father nor Son but God himself," created, she believes, according to the description of the enthroned One of Rev 1:8. See Trinity and Incarnation, p. 144. I b id., p . 157. For the latter notion, as it applies to a number of Anglo-Saxon illuminations, including the Fleury composition, see ibid., pp. 129-130. Concerning the idea of the medallion as a self-conscious image within an

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The Fleury initial is in fact the earliest of a group of images that appear to proclaim the unity of the Son of Man and the Son of God within the Trinity through the envisioning of the incarnate Christ as a lamb, in contrast to the group of images derived from the Utrecht Psalter illustration of the Creed, which make the same argument using the motif of the Christ Child in the arms of Mary, Christ's human mother (figs. 19, 20, 21 and 22). The next known image within this second group appears in the Tiberius Psalter (London, British Library, MS. Cotton Tiberius C. VI, fol. 126v; fig. 24), a manuscript produced at Winchester around the middle of the eleventh century.53 The composition features at its center a christological deity that in formal terms is closely related to the deities in the Benedictional of Aethelwold and the Fleury manuscript and that like them was itself very probably intended to stand as a personification of the entire Trinity.94 To the left and right of this figure are depicted once again a lamb and a dove, both of which are included within the borders of the image, designed to signal the ultimate unrepresentability of the Christian divinity, as this idea pertains to medieval art more generally, see H. L. Kessler, "Real Absence: Early Medieval Art and the Metamorphosis of Vision,* Settimane di Studio del Centro italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo 45 (1998), pp. 1157-1211. ” See Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, pp. 115-117; Kathleen M. Openshaw, "Images, Texts and Contexts: The Iconography of the Tiberius Psalter, London, British Library, Cotton MS. Tiberius C. VI,* Ph.D. dis s . (University of Toronto, 1990), pp. 2-4, 128-142. Thomas Alexander Heslop has recently dated the manuscript to sometime after Easter 1063. See "A Dated ’Late Anglo-Saxon' Illuminated Psalter,* Antiquaries Journal 72 (1992), pp. 171-174. ,4 See Raw,

Trinity and Incarnation, p. 167.

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deity's quatrefoil mandorla. As in the Fleury initial, the eternity of the Godhead, as opposed to the timebound character of the earthly activities of the incarnate Son and the Holy Spirit, is signified through the framing of the central deity by the Alpha and the Omega. The unity of the Trinity as a whole is then expressed through the inclusion of the lamb and the dove within the quatrefoil mandorla. A third image that can be ascribed to this group incorporates aspects from both the Fleury initial and the Tiberius Psalter miniature, but introduces new elements as well. It illustrates a sermon on the Trinity in a lectionary produced at the abbey of Saint-Pierre, Corbie, probably in the second quarter of the twelfth century (Amiens, Bibliotheque Municipale, MS. 142, fol. 29v; fig. 25).” At first glance, the image appears to be a standard Majestas composition, depicting an enthroned Christ in the center, enclosed within an almond-shaped mandorla and surrounded by the four evangelist symbols. The upper evangelist symbols of Matthew and John, however, have been replaced by medallions showing the lamb and the dove that rest in the hands of the central deity. That this image, like those in the Fleury manuscript and the Tiberius Psalter, is making a distinction between the eternal Godhead, personified by the central figure, and the activities of God within the world,

" See Walter Cahn, Romanesque Manuscripts: The Twelfth Century, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in France (London, 1996), vol. 2: Catalogue, pp. 127-128, no. 105.

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signified by the lamb and the dove, is confirmed and indeed emphasized by the specific positioning of these latter two motifs.90 That is, the meaning of the lamb as a symbol of the incarnate Christ is emphasized by the lamb's replacement of the evangelist symbol of Matthew, a figure which itself is a man and which, of course, is intended to connote the Gospel of Matthew, a text that begins with an extensive genealogy of Christ's human ancestors. The meaning of the dove as a symbol of the Holy Spirit’s earthly activities, in turn, is emphasized by its replacement of the evangelist symbol of John, the eagle, since John, like the Holy Spirit (and indeed as a result of the agency of the Holy Spirit), was considered to be the true source of humankind's knowledge of the celestial deity and, in particular, of the divine, eternal Son.91 That the lamb and the dove are but symbols for God's earthly activities is then emphasized, as in the Fleury initial, by their explicit presentation as images, that is, within medallions, while the oneness of the incarnate Christ, the Holy Spirit acting in the world, and the transcendent Trinity is here expressed through the depiction of the deity as actually holding the two

See Boespflug and Zaluska,

"Le dogme trinitaire, “ pp.

191-192.

This notion seems to have been introduced by Augustine, based on the content of John's prologue, and was subsequently developed by various Carolingian and Anglo-Saxon authors. See, for example, Schapiro, "Two Romanesque Drawings in Auxerre and Some Iconographic Problems,'’ in Studies in Art and Literature for Belle da Costa Greene, ed. Dorothy Miner (Princeton, 1954), pp. 334-338; O'Reilly, "St. John as a Figure of the Contemplative Life," 165-185; Deshman, "Disappearing Christ," pp. 538-546. See also below, pp. 126-129.

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medallions.59 Another trinitarian composition, located in the keystones of the archivolts above the main portal at the royal abbey of Saint-Denis (fig. 26), within a portal program likely carved between 1137 and 1140," seems to incorporate aspects from images found within both the Utrecht Psalter and the Fleury manuscript groups. Like the Winchester Quinity and the two-page frontispiece to the Gospel of John in the Grimbald Gospels, the scheme seems to feature both the eternal Son, depicted at Saint-Denis in the lowest archivolt, welcoming two souls into heaven, and the Father, depicted in the penultimate archivolt. Like the compositions in the Fleury manuscript, the Tiberius Psalter and the lectionary in Amiens, the incarnate Christ is included in the form of a lamb. Like the Fleury and Amiens miniatures, the lamb is enclosed in a medallion or disk. And

As Boespflug and Zaluska have shown ("Le dogme trinitaire, * pp. 192-193), a number of other images, all dating from the second half of the twelfth century, similarly depict a christological deity with medallion images of the lamb and the dove: Cologne, Arch. Hist., MS. W 244, fol. 12v; Mons, Bibl. Uni. MS. 333/352, fol. 2v; Stuttgart, Wurttembergiscne Landsbibliothek, Cod. brev. 128, fol. 49v; and Prague, Library of the Cathedral Chapter, MS. A. VII, fol. lv. The two-page miniature depicting the Adoration of the Elders in the eleventh-century Saint-Sever Apocalypse (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. l a t . 8878, fols. 121v-122) may also belong to this group. However, the enthroned deity in the center of the image, who holds the medallion of the lamb in his right hand and a standard, at the top of which appears a medallion of the dove, in his left hand, displays no explicit christological attributes, so may just as easily be interpreted as a personification of the Father alone. See ibid., p. 193; and Nourredine Mezoughi, "Les peintures accompagnant le texte de 1 ’Apocalypse et son commentaire dans le Seatus de Saint-Sever," in El "B e ato ' de Salnc-Sever, ms. lat. 8878 de la Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris, volumen complementario de la edicion facsimil (Madrid, 1984), p. 280. Concerning the evidence for the date of the west portals at Saint-Denis, see below, p. 346, n. 33.

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like the Amiens picture alone, the disk is being held by an anthropomorphic deity, in this case the Father.100 With the dove in the uppermost archivolt and the Last Judgement in the tympanum below, this celestial vision, surrounded by the twenty-four elders, seems to be making the point that upon entering heaven, the elect, signified by the two souls at the bottom of the composition, will finally come face-toface not only with the eternal Son who welcomes them - that is, the "door" of John 10:9 that is actually the focus of the verses inscribed on the bronze doors directly below'01 but also with the Father, Christ in his incarnate nature, and the Holy Spirit, depicted in the archivolts above.

In

The trinitarian compositions cited above in n. 98 also all feature an anthropomorphic deity holding a medallion image of the lamb. The inscription on the bronze doors at Saint-Denis, composed by Suger and recited by him in De Administrations, reads: "Whosoever of you seeks to extol the glory of these doors,/ Admire the craftsmanship, and not the gold or expense./ The noble work is bright, but a work that is nobly bright/ Should brighten minds, so that they may pass through true lights/ To the true light, where Christ is the true door./ The golden door indicates in what way it [the true light, i.e., the divine] may be within these things [the artworks]./ The dull mind rises to the truth through material things/ And, having seen this light, arises from its former submersion [Portarum quisquis attollere quaeris honorem,/ Aurum nec sumptus, operis mirare laborum./ Nobile claret opus, sea opus quod nobile claret/ Clarificet mentes, ut eant per lumina vera/ Ad verum lumen, ubi Christus janua vera./ Quale sit intus in his determinat aurea porta./ Mens hebes ad verum per materialia surgit,/ Et dermersa prius hac visa resurgit]" (author's italics). Eng. trans., Conrad Rudolph, Artistic Chemge at St-Denis (Princeton, 1990), pp. 52-53. Concerning the possible meanings of these verses, see E. Panofsky, Abbot Suger: On the A b bey Church of St-Denis and its Art Treasures, 2nd edition by Gerda Panofsky-Soergel (Princeton, 1979), pp. 23-24, 46-49; Paula Gerson, "The West Facade of St.-Denis: An Iconographic Study," Ph.D. d i s s . (Columbia University, 1970), pp. 103-110; idem, "Suger as Iconographer: The Central Portal of the West Facade of Saint-Denis," in Abbot Suger and Saint-Denis: A Symposium, ed. P. Gerson (New York, 1986), pp. 186-188; and Rudolph, Artistic Change at St-Denis, pp. 48-55. For a christological personification of the Trinity that is itself proclaimed as the "door" of John 10:9, see above, pp. 80-81 and fig. 10. Gerson ("Suger as Iconographer" pp. 193-194) and Peter Klein ("Programmes eschatologiques, fonction et reception historiques des portails du Xlle siecle: Moissac - Beaulieu - Saint-Denis," Cahiers de

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other words, the scheme seems to proclaim that the full mystery of the Trinity will be revealed only at the end of time and only to those who can count themselves amongst the saved.103 Two eleventh-century images, finally, illustrate the presence of the incarnate Christ within the triune Godhead by manipulating the Early Christian sign of the Chrismon and by juxtaposing it with other motifs or inscriptions. One drawing, which illustrates a text entitled Expositio Civilisation Medievale 33 [1990], pp. 338-339) have also identified the figure holding the disk as the Father, and have argued that the motif was intended to connote the Creator and the created cosmos, the latter being symbolized by the disk containing the lamb as a sign of the sacrificed Christ. This notion does not necessarily conflict with my interpretation of the lamb in the disk as a symbol specifically of the incarnate Son, given that the incarnate Son was himself a created being of the cosmos, that is, of real time and place. However, Rudolph's interpretation of the figure holding the disk as a personification of both the Father and the eternal Son, holding the sign of the incarnate Christ in the form of the lamb (Artistic Change at St-Denis, pp. 45-46), is more problematic. The textual and pictorial evidence already examined in this chapter indicates that it would have been all but impossible for a figure at this time to personify the Father and the Son without also personifying the Holy Spirit (the deity of the Bury Gospels Pentecost image [my fig. 15] is an exception to this rule, but its unusual meaning is telegraphed through its unique, two-headed form). It is difficult to interpret this standing figure as a personification of the triune deity, in turn, because of the differences in the depictions of the lamb and the dove. That is, for the standing figure to function as a personification of the transcendent Godhead, and the lamb and the dove to function as symbols of God's activities on earth, as in the compositions discussed above (my figs. 23-25, and n. 98), the lamb and the dove would both have to be depicted either within disks or without them. The very fact that the lamb appears in a disk but the dove does not suggests that the two motifs signify different aspects of the Person they represent and, specifically, that the dove signifies the Holy Spirit in its eternal aspect while the lamb in the disk signifies the Son only in his historical, incarnate aspect. With the Father, the Holy Spirit and the incarnate Christ being present in the upper archivolts, orthodox medieval theology then all but demands that the half-figure in the lowest archivolt be interpreted as the eternal Son. ::1 This notion derives from Augustine, who believed that the faceto-face encounter with the Trinity is what marks true entry into the heavenly kingdom. See De Trinitate, 1.13 (PL, 42, col. 844). Gerson was the first to relate this Augustinian notion to the archivolt imagery at St-Denis. See "West Facade of St.-Denis," pp. 120-122, 133-135; idem, "Suger as Iconographer," p. 193.

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catholicae fidei, in a manuscript probably produced at Besangon (Montpellier, Faculte de medecine, MS. 76, fol. 81v; fig. 27), presents the Chrismon flanked by two near­ identical christological deities.104 These two figures, like the identical deities in the Winchester Quinity, are surely intended to signify the eternal Father and Son.10' As Frangois Boespflug and Yolanta Zaluska have recently demonstrated, the embellished chrismon motif appearing between them then alludes to the entire creedal statement of belief concerning Christ.10” The Alpha refers to Christ's celestial co-enthronement with the Father since the beginning of time; the dove, in addition to imbuing the scheme with a trinitarian significance, refers to the Son's enfleshment at the Incarnation; the Cross added to the Chrismon refers to Christ's

mortal death; the angels

carrying the insignia refer to the heavenly installation of Christ's humanity after the Ascension; and the Omega emphasizes that Christ will remain enthroned with theFather in heaven until the end of time. Another trinitarian chrismon, to which was added the Cross, the Alpha and the Omega, and the letter "S", appears on the late eleventh-century tympanum over the west portal ‘:1 Concerning the date and location of the manuscript’s creation, see Boespflug and Zaluska, "Le dogme trinitaire," n. 251. See above, pp. 103-104. Concerning the overall development of trinitarian imagery ultimately derived from visualizations of Psalm 109:1, see Boespflug and Zaluska, "Le dogme trinitaire," partic. pp. 207-234. ‘=" Ibid., pp. 232-33 .

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of the Cathedral at Jaca (fig. 28 ).107 Calvin Kendall has convincingly translated the inscription carved into the chrismon's circular frame as follows: "In this sculpture, Reader, take care to understand [the symbolism] in this way: P is the Father, A is the Son, the double consonant [the letter X] is the Holy Spirit. These three are indeed rightly one and the same, the Lord."103 The duality of the Son is then referred to within the chrismon itself, through the hanging of the Alpha and the Omega (the symbols of the Son's eternal divinity) on the Cross (the symbol of Christ's historical, incarnate life). When the inscription is read in conjunction with these visual symbols, the scheme emphasizes that the Father, the Holy Spirit and the Son, in both of his aspects, are but a single, indivisible and eternal deity. Moreover, through the presence of the X, the P, and the S See Jesus M. Caamano Martinez, "En torno al timpano de Jaca," Goya 142 (1978), pp. 200-207; Susan H. Caldwell, "Penance, Baptism, Apocalypse: The Easter Context of Jaca Cathedral's West Tympanum," Arc History 3 (1980), pp. 25-40; Willibald Sauerlander, "Romanesque Sculpture in its Architectural Context," in The Romanesque Frieze and its Spectator, ed. Deborah Kahn (London, 1992), pp. 19-20; Kendall, "The Verse Inscriptions of the Tympanum of Jaca and the PAX Anagram, ” Mediaevalia 19 (1996), pp. 405-434; idem. The Allegory of the Church, pp. 125-130 and 230. HAC IN SCULPTURA LECTOR SIC NOSCERE CURA/P PATER/A GENITUS/DUPLEX EST SPirituS ALMUS/HII TRES JURE QUIDEM DOMINUS SUNT UNUS ET IDEM. See Kendall, The Allegory of the Church, p. 230. Sauerlander ("Romanesque Sculpture in its Architectural Context," pp. 19-20), basing his translation on the transcription of Angel Canellas Lopez and Angel San Vicente (Aragon Roman, Zodiaque: La nuit des temps [Saint-LegerVauban, 1971], p. 159), has argued that the inscription should read: "In this sculpture, Reader, if you wish to recognize it, P is the Father, A is the twice b o m , S the Holy Spirit. These three are by right one and the same G o d [HAC IN SCULTURA LECTOR SI GNOSCERE CURA/P PATER A GENITUS DUPLEX EST SPIRITUS ALMUS/HITRES JURE QUIDEM DOMINUS SUNT UNUS ET IDEM].• While such an interpretation would also suggest that the tympanum was intended to emphasize the dual nature of the Son within the Trinity, the clear presence of a break between "genitus" and "duplex" within the inscription, and the absence as well of the letter "S" before "spiritus," renders it less persuasive.

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within the circular frame, as the salient letters of the word "XPistuS," the scheme also emphasizes - as does the cruciform-nimbed deity at Vezelay - that the envisioning of Christ involves the envisioning of the Trinity as a whole. ★

★

★

The notion that the eternal Son and the incarnate Christ are one within the transcendent Godhead, then, is visualized in a wide range of early medieval and Romanesque trinitarian images, and through a wide variety of means. Given that the concept is expressed, first, in both of the Anglo-Saxon images of the triune deity already suggested as possible inspirations for the figure at Vezelay (figs. 7, 8, and 24),109 second, in at least two contemporary or near­ contemporary trinitarian manuscript compositions produced, like the narthex portal sculptures, in a French monastic milieu (figs. 25 and 27), and, third, in both the only known earlier and only known later images of the Trinity to appear on Romanesque sculpted tympana (figs. 28 and 26, respectively), it is reasonable to ask whether it is also somehow being expressed at Vezelay. Moreover, it is reasonable to ask whether the attempt to emphasize the presence of both the eternal and incarnate aspects of the Son within the Trinity might be related to the uniquely I am referring here to the triune deities in the Benedictional of Aethelwold (fol. 70r; fig. 7) and the Fleury manuscript (fol. 158v; fig. 8). Although the incarnate and eternal aspects of the Son are not referred to in the latter miniature itself, they are expressed in the historiated initial "I* on the facing page (fol. 159r; fig. 23), which is clearly intended to be understood as part of the same composition.

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disjunctive rendering of the upper and lower halves of the central deity's body. To understand precisely how this might be the case, in turn, it will be useful initially to identify another set of ideas dear to medieval Christology and to examine the various ways in which they too seem to have been pictorialized. As Ernst Kantorowicz was the first to point out, patristic and early medieval exegetes frequently employed an anthropomorphic symbolism to express the dual nature of the Son, arguing that Christ's feet symbolized his humanity while his head symbolized his divinity.110 According to Cyril of Jerusalem, for example, "the head means the godhead of Christ; the feet, his manhood,"111 while according to Gregory the Great, "we can...understand by [Christ's] feet the mystery of his Incarnation, by which his divinity touched the earth because he took a body to himself...We can appropriately take his head to represent his divinity."11* As Kantorowicz and Deshman have demonstrated, Augustine was :: In addition to Cyril, Gregory, and Augustine, discussed below, Pseudo-Chrysostomos, Bede, Haymo of Auxerre, Pseudo-Bede, Anselm of Laon and Peter the Lombard have been identified as expressing this notion, in some form. See Kantorowicz, The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology (1957; reprint Princeton, 1997), pp. 70-72; Deshman, "Disappearing Christ," pp. 528-529. ::: Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 12.1 (PG, 33, col. 726), Kantorowicz, The King's Two Bodies, p. 70.

trans.

Gregory, Forty Gospel Homilies, trans. David Hurst (Kalamazoo, 1990), pp. 273-74, XL Homiliarum in evangelia, 2.XXXIII.6 (PL, 76, cols. 1242-43): "Potest quoque per pedes ipsum mysterium incarnationis ejus intelligi, quo divinitas terram tetigit, quia c a m e m sumpsit...Si pedes Domini mysterium incarnationis ejus accipimus, congrue per caput illius ipsa divinitas designatur." For a discussion of the impact of this passage on Anglo-Saxon thought and art, see Deshman, "Disappearing Christ," pp. 528-546, and n. 58.

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building on this symbolism, and was implicitly referring back to it, when he argued that because of the Son's activities during his incarnate life, he maintained a terrestial presence even after the Ascension: "He is far above all the heavens, but his feet he has on earth: the head is in heaven, the body on earth. "1U This attributing of different theological values to Christ's head and feet within written texts seems, in turn, to have had a considerable impact on early medieval depictions of the Son, in which his head and feet, in particular, but often also the upper and lower halves of his body as a whole, are either rendered in a manner distinctly different from each other or are presented as if they existed in separate realms. Christ's dual nature may be being expressed implicitly, for example, in the pictorial type of the Baptism in which an upward-flowing veil of water that emanates from the urn of a river god, symbolizing the earthly realm, covers Christ's lower body while the dove of the Holy Spirit, and sometimes angels as well, symbolizing the heavenly realm, converge around his head and upper body. Perhaps the most suggestive image of this type is that found in the Benedictional of Aethelwold (fol. 25r; fig. 29), which depicts the angels descending from on high carrying a Auguscine, Expositions on the Book of Psalms, IV, trans. Henry M. Wilkins (Oxford, 1850), p. 302-03 (Enarrationes in Psalmos, XC.II.5, ed. Eligius Dekkers and Jean Fraipont [CCSL, 39, T u m h o u t , 1956, p. 1270]): "...Longe est super oimes caelos, sed pedes habet in terra; caput in caelo est, corpus in terra.” See Kantorowicz, The King's Two Bodies, p. 71; Deshman, "Disappearing Christ,” pp. 528-529.

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diadem and sceptre, common attributes of the godhood of the Son, and which shows only the upper half of Christ's body enclosed within a mandorla.114 Katzenellenbogen has demonstrated that this symbolizing of Christ's body is indisputably present in a number of early medieval images of the Crucifixion.115 In the unusual carving of this subject on the wooden doors of Santa Sabina in Rome (fig. 30), for example, a work probably produced between 422 and 432,"° Christ's head, unlike those of the thieves on either side, is depicted within a separate triangular zone." This detail was probably intended to visualize a claim made in Paul's Letter to the Corinthians (11:3) that itself surely helped to inspire the exegetical tradition discussed above: "and the head of Christ is For a detailed interpretation of this complex image, see Deshman, Benedictional, pp. 45-56. As Deshman notes, the Baptism of Christ was commonly interpreted as the spiritual anointment of the incarnate Messiah and, as such, as a prefiguration of each Christian's mystical participation in the divinity of the godhead through the liturgical rite of baptism. The visual expression of Christ's dual nature in images of the Baptism would thus certainly be appropriate. That Christ's baptism was meant to be understood, in the Benedictional at least, as the moment when the divinity of the incarnate Son is revealed, is indicated by the fact that the Baptism miniature in this manuscript illustrates the Feast of the Epiphany. See "The Image of Christ in the Early Middle Ages," in Life and Thought in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Robert S. Hoyt (Minneapolis, 1967), pp. 66-84. Concerning the doors as a whole, see Johannes Wiegand, Das altchristliche Hauptportal an der Kirche der hi. Sahina (Trier, 1900); Kantorowicz, "The King's Advent and the Enigmatic Panels in the Doors of Santa Sabina," in Selected Studies, pp. 37-75; Richard Delbrueck, "Notes on the Wooden Doors of Santa Sabina," Art Bulletin 34 (1952), pp. 138145. ' As Katzenellenbogen has noted ("The Image of Christ," p. 70), the three triangular, gable-like frames cannot be explained simply as architectural structure since the brickwork that they would presumably encompass in fact continues beyond them.

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God."118 In the miniature of the Crucifixion in the Rabbula Gospels (Florence, Biblioteca Mediceo Laurenziana, MS. Plut. 156, fol. 13r; fig. 31), a manuscript created at Zagba, Mesopotamia, in 586,119 the same point seems to be made byshowing Christ's head emerging alone above the background hills and as thus silhouetted against the sky.120 The makers of a mid-eighth century miniature in an Irish Gospel book now at St. Gall (Stiftsbibliothek, MS. 51, p. 266; fig. 3 2 ) seem to have presented Christ's head as a sign of his divinity by showing it flanked by angels, in a heavenly realm initiated by the horizontal arms of the cross. As Katzenellenbogen has proposed, Christ's humanity then seems to be expressed through the rendering of the body itself.'" That is, Christ's limbs and ribbon-like garments are depicted as strictly symmetrical from the waist up but as asymmetrical from the waist down. Indeed, the contrast :;1 See ibid., pp. 69-70. Christ is also given the thick beard and long wavey hair of a pagan deity, which are not yet standard features for this period and which distinguish his head not only from those of the beardless thieves on either side, but also from his own, clearly mortal naked body below. Regarding the visualizing of Christ's features in the Early Christian period, and its possible meaning, see Thomas Mathews, The Clash of Gods (Princeton, 1993), pp. 108-109, 123-128. The manuscript is signed by its author, a scribe dated by him to the year 586, and declared to have been monastery of Saint-John in Zagba. See Giuseppe Furlani, Gospels, eds. Carlo Cecchelli, Furlani, and Mario Salmi Lausanne, 1959), pp. 9 and 19-21.

named Rabbula, written in the The Rabbula (Olten and

"The Image of Christ," pp. 70-71. See Jonathan J. G. Alexander, Insular Manuscripts 6th to the 9th Century, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the 3ritish Isles, vol. 1 (London, 1978), pp. 66-67.

Katzenellenbogen,

"The Image of Christ,* pp. 71-73.

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between the frontal upper body, with its extended arms, and the diagonally positioned lower body, with the legs bent awkwardly to one side, make this figure a particularly pertinent comparison to the central deity at Vezelay. The Crucified Christ in the late-seventh century Durham Gospels (Durham, Cathedral Library, MS. A.II.17, fol. 38v; fig. 33), finally, although not discussed by Katzenellenbogen, may also be included within this group."3 Displaying the same division as the St. Gall miniature between a lower earthly realm, located below the horizontal arms of the cross and populated by the two human tormentors, and an upper heavenly realm, populated by the two angels, the Durham Gospels composition renders Christ's head as an even more explicit symbol of his divinity by showing it flanked by the Alpha and the Omega."4 Christ’s upper and lower body are also used to express his dual nature in numerous early medieval depictions of the Ascension. In certain Carolingian images this is done, in accordance with Augustine's notion that "the head is in heaven, the body on earth," by depicting Christ's feet still

;;l See The Durham Gospels (Durham, Cathedral Library, M S A. I I .17), Christopher Verey, Thomas Julian Brown, and Elizabeth Coatsworth, eds. (Copenhagen, 1980); George Henderson, From D urrow to Kells: The Insular Gospel-Books 650-800 (London, 1987), pp. 57-88, partic. 80-84. '';4 An inscription located to the left of the miniature also appears to refer, at least implicitly, to Christ's two natures, describing how the incarnate Son has rejoined his divinity next to the Father in heaven: "He rose from the dead and sits at the right hand of the Father, so that when we have been restored to life, we may reign with him." See Henderson, From Durrow to Kells, p. 83.

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on the ground and either some part of his head (fig. 34)1:5 or his entire upper body (fig. 35)"° above the cloudline. Deshman has recently demonstrated that this upper body-lower body symbolism was then developed to a far more sophisticated level in a group of Anglo-Saxon and Continental images of the Ascension, produced around the year 1000." Each of these compositions show the ascending Christ's upper body hidden by clouds as a means of emphasizing that his divinity - which became fully apparent to the apostles only at the moment of his ascent - is "visible" exclusively through the eyes of faith."3 It is worth noting, furthermore, that one of these early images of the disappearing Christ, a scheme that so forcefully associates Christ's divine and human natures to the upper and lower halves of his body, respectively, appears in the

"5 The frontispiece to the Book of Acts in the San Paolo Bible (Rome, San Paolo fuori la mura, fol. 292v); Northern French, c. 870. Concerning the manuscript's place of origin, see Hubert Schade, "Studien zu der karolingischen Bilderbibel aus St. Paul vor den Mauern zu Rom, " Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrburch 21 (1S59) , pp. 9-40. Concerning the manuscript’s date, see William J. Diebold, "The Artistic Patronage of Charles the Bald," Ph.D. d i s s . (The Johns Hopkins University, 1989), pp. 175-182; Nikolaus Staubach, Rex Christianus: Hofkultur and Herrschaftspropaganda im Reich Karls des Kahlen. Teil II: Die Grundlegung der 'religion royale' (Koln, 1993), pp. 221-281. The Drogo Sacramentary (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. lat. 9428, fol. 71v) ,- Metz, c.850. Concerning the manuscript's provenance, see Florentine Miitherich, "Einleitung, " in Drogo Sakramencar, manuscript latin 9428, Bibliotheque nationale, Paris, 2 v o l s . (Graz, 1974). Deshman,

"Disappearing Christ," pp. 518-546.

"s The same point is perhaps also being made in the more traditional Ascension composition that decorates the early twelfthcentury tympanum of the Porte Miegeville at Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, where Christ's oversized halo is inscribed with the letters "R/E/X", the words DEUS and PATER, and the Alpha and Omega. See Kendall, The Allegory of the Church, pp. 59-60.

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Tiberius Psalter, the same manuscript in which is found one of the creedal trinitarian compositions discussed above (fol. 15r; fig. 36; and fig. 24). Kantorowicz himself first suggested that this symbolizing of christological body parts also occurs in images of Christ enthroned, as well as in an least one composition based on such images."9 In the portrait of Otto III in the Aachen Gospels (Aachen, Cathedral Treasury, fol. 16r; fig. 37), for example, a manuscript produced at Reichenau or perhaps Trier in the late tenth century,'30 Otto is shown virtually as a christomimetes, an impersonator of Christ, who like the Savior in depictions of the Majestas is presented sitting on a cushioned throne, enclosed within a mandorla, and surrounded by the four evangelist symbols. By way of the banner that runs across the emperor's chest, which Kantorowicz has demonstrated signifies the veil of the tabernacle and as such the barrier between heaven and earth, Otto's body is shown to exist simultaneously in the celestial and terrestial realms, a point reiterated by the presence of a personification of Terra below Otto's feet and of the hand of God, crowning the emperor, above Otto's head. Through its assimilation of Otto to Christ, Kantorowicz has

The King's Two Bodies, pp. 61-78. 1!C See Stephan Beissel, Die Bilder der Handschrift des Kaisers Otto im Munster zu Aachen (Aachen, 1886); Albert Boeckler, "Die Reichenauer Buchmalerei,* in Die Kultur der Abtei Reichenau II, ed. Konrad Beyerle (Munich, 1925), pp. 956-998; and Charles R. Dodwell and Derek H. Turner, Reichenau Reconsidered, A Reassessment of the Place of Reichenau in Ottonian Art (London, 1965).

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furthermore argued, this image of the emperor with his feet on earth and his head in heaven, was designed to visualize the early medieval notion of the ruler as himself, like Christ, having two natures, that is, of being "human by nature and divine by grace."131 As proof that this iconography was derived from existing images of Christ enthroned, finally, Kantorowicz cited a miniature in the Trier Apocalypse (Trier, Stadbibliothek, MS. 31, fol. 61r; fig. 38), a manuscript probably produced in Northern France in the early ninth century,13' that shows Christ sitting on a globe with the upper and lower halves of his body in demonstrably different realms. Katzenellenbogen, in turn, has suggested that the Majestas Domini in the eighth-century Gundohinus Gospels (Autun, Bibliotheque de la Ville, MS. 3, fol. 12v; fig. 39), renders Christ's head as a symbol of his divinity by isolating it from the rest of his body, above the back of the throne, and by then surrounding it by an enormous decorated halo.133 He has also suggested that the figureeight mandorla, which appears for the first time in the Majestas composition in the First Bible of Charles the Bald

111 The King's Two Bodies, p. 77. :i; See Peter Klein and Richard Laufner, 1975) .

Trierer Apokalypse (Graz,

1!! "The Image of Christ," pp. 79-80. Concerning the date of the manuscript, noted as 754 in the book's colophon, see Lawrence Nees, The Gundohinus Gospels, Medieval Academy Books, no. 95 (Cambridge, Mass., 1987); concerning the sources and more comprehensive meaning of the Majestas Domini miniature, see ibid., pp. 131-189.

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(Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. lat. 1, fol. 329v; fig. 40 ), 134 and which was later to appear in numerous Ottonian and Romanesque Majestas images, was designed to emphasize that Christ in glory exists simultaneously in two realms, the cosmos below and the absolute sphere of heaven above.135 Such a scheme, if interpreted through the lens of Augustine, involves at least an implicit reference to Christ's two natures. There is further evidence, however, to suggest that in symbolizing the two realms of Christ's dominion, the figure-eight mandorla was intended to express specifically this notion of the duality of the Son. Hans Meyer, for example, has argued that the motif visualizes Ezekiel 1:27 ("I saw what might have been brass glowing like fire in a furnace from the waist upwards; and from the waist downwards I saw what looked like fire with encircling radiance"), a passage that was interpreted by Hrabanus Maurus, following Gregory and Jerome, as a reference to Christ's status as both man and God.136 The implication for

:u The First Bible of Charles the Bald was completed in the fall of 845. See Paul E. Dutton and H. L. Kessler, The Poetry and Paintings of the First Bible of Charles the Bald (Ann Arbor, 1997), pp. 45-56. ;,,i "The Image of Christ," pp. 80-84. This theory certainly complements the widely accepted hypothesis that Majestas images showing Christ seated on a globe, with his feet resting on a mound of earth, as in the First Bible miniature, illustrate the Lord's claim in Isaiah 66:1 that "Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool." Concerning Isaiah 66:1 as a source for Carolingian Majestas images, see H. L. Kessler, The Illustrated Bibles From Tours (Princeton, 1977), p. 40. Jerome, Commentariorum in Ezechielem, 1.1 (PL, 25, cols. 30-31); Gregory, Homiliaruum in Ezechielem Prophetam Libri Duo, 5.15-28 (PL, 76, cols. 865-867); Hrabanus Maurus, Commentaria in Ezechielem 2 {PL, 110, cols. 545-548). See Hans Meyer, "Zur Symbolik friihmittelalterlicher Majestasbilder,* Das Munster 14 (1961), pp. 76-84.

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the pictorial scheme, Meyer has argued, is that the upper sphere of the mandorla was designed to signify Christ's pre­ existent divinity while the lower sphere was designed to signify his assumed humanity.137 The fact that the two earliest known figure-eight mandorlas appear in contexts in which both the incarnate and eternal aspects of the Son are explicitly referred to supports Meyer's hypothesis. In the case of the Majestas composition in the First Bible of Charles the Bald, the references are contained in the verses that explain the miniature and that appear on the reverse side of the same folio.Concerning the figure of Matthew in the upper right corner of the composition, the verses state: "At the start of [the New Testament] Matthew clearly recites the clear beginnings/From the birth of the Lord."139 Concerning the figure of John in the upper left corner, they state: "0 celestial John, you climb above the ethereal heights to the one born of the Father."140 This latter point then seems to be emphasized visually through the placement of John’s symbol, the eagle, above both Christ's head (the sign of the eternal Son) and the upper sphere of the mandorla (the sign '' "Majestasbilder," p. 82. Reedition and English translation by Dutton and Kessler, Poetry and Paintings, pp. 114-115. Concerning the location of these verses, see ibid., p. 7. "Cuius in initio clare primordia clara/ Mattheus domini concinit ex g e n e s i ." "Ad genitum patris super aethera, verbo verba colenda c a n i s .'

celse Iohannes,/ Scandis et ex

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of the "ethereal heights" of heaven).141 Indeed, the positioning of all four of the evangelist symbols in this miniature, with the eagle above and the three other symbols below, in a sense surrounding the lower sphere of the mandorla, seems virtually to illustrate the following passage composed by Alcuin, the former abbot of Tours, a fact that further supports the hypothesis that the figureeight mandorla was designed expressly to symbolize Christ’s two natures: And among the writers of the Evangiles the blessed John is surely the most eminent in depth of insight into the divine mysteries...Beyond doubt he intended especially to show the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ in which He is equal to the Father...And so he is elevated far before the three other Evangelists; these you see, as it were, on the earth conversing with the human Christ, while him you see mounting above the cloud which covers the entire earth and reaching the liquid light of heaven where he beheld, with a most acute and powerful mind, the Word in the beginning, God issuing from God, light from light...And if there are other facts that intimate the divinity of Christ and His equality to the Father, John alone has set them forth fully...For this reason, he is rightly compared to the flying eagle in the image of the four beasts; indeed, of all the birds, the eagle flies the highest, and of all living creatures, he alone dares to fix his gaze on the rays of the sun. The other Evangelists walk upon the earth, That Che placement of the eagle above the head of the enthroned deity, in several Carolingian Majestas images, was intended both to connote the heavenly realm and to recall Christ's divinity was first implicitly suggested by Meyer Schapiro when he argued that this detail was intended to express J o h n ’s special status amongst the evangelists as a spiritual seer. See "Two Romanesque Drawings in Auxerre and Some Iconographic Problems," pp. 334-38. For a list of the Carolingian Majestas images in which the eagle is placed above the head of Christ, see ibid., n. 31. :4' Alcuin was abbot of Tours from 796 to 804 and indeed was responsible for initiating the production of single-volume Bibles there, so his ideas would undoubtedly have been well known by the makers of the First Bible of Charles the Bald. For Alcuin's role in the production of single-volume Bibles at Tours, see Kessler, The Illustrated Bibles, pp. 3-4.

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as it were, with the Lord; expounding both His generation in time and His temporal deeds, they said little about His divine nature. But John flies up to heaven with the Lord and in speaking of His temporal acts recognizes also the eternal power of His divinity through which all things are made, his mind in lofty flight and limpid speculation, and by his writing transmits to us what we should know...143 That the figure-eight mandorla was also intended to refer to Christ's two natures in che second known Majestas composition in which it appears, the frontispiece to the Books of the Prophets in the San Paolo Bible (Rome, San Paolo fuori le Mura, fol. 117r; fig. 41), is suggested, first, by the fact that the image clearly incorporates several other elements of the vision of Ezekiel in which the passage discussed by Meyer (1:27) is found,144 and, second, by the fact that the Son's eternal and incarnate aspects are Alcuin, quoted and trans. Schapiro, "Two Romanesque Drawings," p. 335 (Cowmentaria in S. Joannis Evangelium 1 and preface, in the form of Epistola ad Gisiam et Rictrudam [PL, 100, cols. 741-745]): "Atque inter ipsos Evangeliorum scriptores valde beatum Joannem, in divinorum profunditate mysteriorum eminentiorem esse...Sed procul dubio maxime divinitatem Domini nostri Jesu Christi, qua Patri est aequalis, intendit d e c l a r a r e ...Itaque longe a tribus superioribus evangelistis sublimius elevatus est, ita ut eos quodammodo videas in terra cum Christo homine conversari, ilium autem transcendisse nebulam qua tegitur omnis terra, et pervenisse ad liquidum coeli lumen, unde acie mentis acutissima atque firmissima videret in principio Verbus, Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine...Et si qua alia sunt quae Christi divinitatem, in qua aequalis est Patri, recte intelligentibus intiment, plenius solus Joannes in Evangelio suo posuit...Unde ex merito in figura quatuor animalium aquilae volanti comparatur. Cunctic quippe avibus aquila Celsius volare, cunctis animantibus clarius solis radiis infigere consuevit obtutus. Et caeteri evangelistae quasi in terra ambulant cum Domino, qui, termoralem ejus generationem pariter et temporalia facta sufficienter exponentes, pauca de divinitate dixerunt. Hie autem quasi ad coelum volat cum Domino, qui, perpauca de temporalibus ejus actis edisserens, a e t e m a m divinitatis ejus potentiam, per quem omnia facta sunt, sublimius mente volando et limpidius speculando cognovit, ac nobis cognoscendam scribendo contradidit.” The two cherubim, the four tetramorphs and the flames between the tetramorphs all derive from Ezekiel’s vision. See Ezekiel 1:5-24 and 10:5-17. See also Joachim Gaehde, "The Painters of the Carolingian Bible Manuscript of San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome,* Ph.D. diss. (New York University, 1963), pp. 309-310.

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the very subject of the picture. That is, the upper two tiers of the composition depict a vision of the eternal, pre-existent Son145 being venerated by the sixteen major and minor prophets of the Old Testament, while the lower tier, showing Isaiah on the right, the Israelite King Ahaz and his army on the left,

and the Virgin Mary in the center,

pictorializes a passage from the Book of Isaiah (7:14) that was commonly interpreted as an allusion to the coming of the incarnate Christ:"Look, the young woman shall bear a son,

is with child and

and shall name him Immanuel."*46

That this symbolizing of Christ's upper and lower bodies in images of the Majestas, as a means of expressing his dual nature, was still active in the Romanesque period and, indeed, in the French Benedictine milieu in which the Vezelay sculptures were produced, is demonstrated by the content of the central tympanum at Saint-Denis (fig. 42) .*4 The Last Judgement composition here features an unusual depiction of Christ enthroned, in which the lower half of his body is enclosed within a mandorla and the upper half, naked across the chest so as to reveal his wound, is

'■*' The words inscribed in Christ's open book derive from Rev. 22:13: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end [Ego A et (U primus et novissimus principium et finis]." See Gaehde, "San Paolo fuori le Mura,* p. 313. :4° "Ecce virgo concipiet et pariet filium/ et vocabitis nomen eius Emmanuhel." The figures in the lower tier, and the subject of the scene, can be identified by way of inscriptions found on the miniature itself. See ibid., pp. 305. As Gaehde has stated (ibid., pp. 305-306), the combination of these two scenes is unique. ‘4 For bibliography,

see above, p. 112, n. 101.

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superimposed upon the Cross.148 Paula Gerson has argued convincingly that this scheme was designed to emphasize the Augustinian notion that both the Son of Man (that is, Christ in his

human nature), symbolized by the figure's upper body

framed by the Cross, and the Son of God (Christ in his divine

nature), symbolized by the lowerbody seated on the

throne and enclosed within a mandorla, will be involved in the Last Judgement, the reason being that while the blessed will be able to see Christ in his divine form at the end of time, the wicked will not be and so must be judged by Christ in his human form.i49 Conrad Rudolf has furthermore persuasively argued that the traditional scheme of anatomical signification was inverted at Saint-Denis for the specific purpose of illustrating Hugh of St. Victor's elaboration of these Augustinian ideas.‘5Q According to Hugh, Christ derives his power to judge from his divine nature but, because the damned can only perceive him in his incarnate form, as Augustine asserted, Christ must make those judgements known through his human nature.151 Given that Christ is recounted in the Gospel of Matthew to communicate his judgements by way of arm gestures, Rudolf I agree with Gerson and Rudolph, against Klein ("Programmes eschatologique,* n. 57), that the lower sphere is a mandorla rather than a globe. The sphere's pointed base and decorated frame are salient features of the mandorla in medieval art. ;4‘ See Gerson, "The West Facade of St.-Denis,* pp. 199-122; "Suger as Iconographer,” pp. 190-192. See Rudolph, Artistic Change at St-Denis, pp. 38-40. 151 Hugh of St. Victor,

De Sacramentis [PL, 176, col. 310).

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idem,

has claimed, a fact that is referred to on the tympanum through the inscriptions held in each of Christ's hands,152 it became necessary for the makers of Che Saint-Denis program, in order to visualize Hugh's exegesis, to present Christ's upper body, rather than his lower body, as a symbol of his human nature. Christ's head and torso were then aligned with the Cross, and his wound exposed, in order to render this unconventional scheme explicit and therefore more comprehensible to its viewers. That the makers of the portal program were aware of the conventional system of anatomical signification within images of Christ, however, which the Saint-Denis scheme carefully and only for specific reasons inverts, cannot be doubted.153 *

*

*

In summary, then, there appear to exist, on the one hand, a large number of early medieval and Romanesque trinitarian images that express the unity of the eternal Son and the incarnate Christ within the transcendent Trinity through the inclusion of various motifs - and, on the other The inscription in Christ's right hand (VENITE BENEDICTI PATRIS MEI) is derived from Matthew 25:34: "Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are bessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." The inscription in Christ's left hand (DISCEDITE A ME MALEDICTI) derives from Matthew 25:41: “Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." See Gerson, "Suger as Iconographer," pp. 189. It is significant in this respect that the imagery of the Touronian Bibles was clearly known to Suger. As Konrad Hoffmann has convincingly demonstrated, the medallions of Moses Unveiled and of the Lion and the Lamb in the so-called Anagogical window show the direct influence of the Touronian Apocalypse frontispieces. See "Sugers 'Anagogisches Fenster' in St. Denis," Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 30 (1968), pp. 57-88.

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hand, an equally large number of early medieval and Romanesque images that express the presence within Christ of both the divinity of the eternal Son and the humanity acquired in the Incarnation - through the manipulation of the figure of Christ itself. Examples belonging to this latter group, moreover, express Christ's dual nature in some instances by way of a Majestas figure (figs. 37-42) and, in at least one other instance, by twisting Christ's lower body alone onto a diagonal plane (fig. 32), features that in each case anticipate important aspects of the composition at Vezelay. These two distinct groups of trinitarian and christological images also, in fact, appear to be closely related to each other, with examples of each appearing, in the mid-eleventh century, in the same manuscript, the Tiberius Psalter, and, in the years just after the creation of the Vezelay tympanum, in the same sculptural composition, the central doorway at Saint-Denis. As these two pairings in particular indicate, furthermore, versions of each group were undoubtedly known both within the English monastic milieu to which Anselm and his monks belonged and the French monastic milieu of which Vezelay was a part. That the makers of the portal program at Vezelay fused these two image types to create the main tympanum's christological triune deity, that is, that they designed the flat, frontal, static, and symmetrical upper body of the deity to symbolize the divinity of the eternal Son, and the more deeply modelled,

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dynamic, asymmetrical lower body to symbolize the humanity of the incarnate Christ, as a means of emphasizing the presence of both within the Trinity, seems like an obvious explanation for the deity's strikingly disjunctive construction. That this was indeed the case is further suggested both by the fact that form was undoubtedly manipulated to convey thematically similar ideas on other Romanesque tympana and by a number of additional details visible on the main tympanum at Vezelay itself. As has often been noted, other Romanesque tympana clearly employ differences in style or "modes" to communicate different levels of being and/or morality within a universal Christian hierarchy.'54 In the North Portal tympanum of Saint-Pierre at Moissac (fig. 43), for example, probably carved between 1120 and 1130,135 Christ, the transcendent deity, is shown in the center of the composition, in relatively low relief, depicted at rest and in a strictly frontal, virtually symmetrical pose. The two angels on either side of Christ, who are next in the order of heavenly beings, are rendered with somewhat more

54 As Madeline Caviness has demonstrated, the use of different styles or modes within a single work to convey content is by no means restricted to Romanesque sculpture, being evident in Romanesque art in all media, in particular, but also in the art of other periods throughout the Middle Ages. See "Images of Divine Order and the Third Mode of Seeing," Gesta 22 (1983), pp. 99-120. See also Schapiro, Words and Piccures (Paris, 1973), pp. 36-49. Concerning the history of the term "mode" to characterize differences in style, see Caviness, "Images of Divine Order," p. 99. For the evidence concerning the portal's date, Romanesque Sculpture, pp. 169-170, n. 1.

see Hearn,

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movement, asymmetry and relief. The twenty-four elders that surround the central group and that are the lowest in this celestial, anthropoid hierarchy are then rendered in the greatest state of agitation, their bodies twisted in a series of twenty-four different asymmetric poses, and are so deeply carved as to appear almost free-standing. The four Living Creatures immediately surrounding Christ also display their station through their form: their importance as apocalyptic and evangelical symbols is indicated through their flatness, relative to the elders, while their inferior status as beasts is indicated by the extreme torsion and asymmetry of their poses.15' 5 Willibald Sauerlander has suggested that this hierarchy of being, conveyed through stylistic means, is then continued in the porch sculptures located on the lateral walls below the tympanum (figs. 44 and 45) .15 That is, the tympanum figures, while formally distinguished from each other according to rank, are all nonetheless heavenly beings caught in a transtemporal, celestial vision, a fact communicated through the composition's overall symmetry and ordered, geometrical structure.159 The figures in the porch panels, by contrast,

Meyer Schapiro has also noted that this hierarchy extends to size and number: the largest figure is the single God, the next largest the two angels, the next the four beasts, and the smallest the twentyfour elders. See "The Romanesque Sculpture of Moissac, Part 1 (2)," Art Bullecin 13 (1931), p. 467. 157 Sauerlander, "Romanesque Sculpture in its Architectural Context," pp. 36-37. 154 Peter Klein has argued persuasively that the tympanum at Moissac depicts a present, ongoing theophany, rather than a prophetic vision of

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which participate in scenes related to the Incarnation and Last Judgement, exist within this earthly world, in other words, within the confines of historical time and place, and are therefore depicted not only closer to the human viewer on the ground but also in a more narrative mode, bereft of symmetry and geometrical regularity.159 This juxtaposition within a single pictorial scheme of what have been termed iconic and narrative modes to denote the difference between heavenly and earthly events and beings is apparent in other monumental sculptural programs as well. In the tympanum at Sainte-Foy, Conques (fig. 46), for example, dating probably to the second quarter of the twelfth century,160 the two modes are employed to present contrasting visions of heaven and hell.101 On the left, in Che Second Coming. See "Programmes eschatologiques,” pp.

320-330.

This progression is not continued in Che lowest reliefs on either wall, however, which again feature more symmetrical and ordered compositions. But this further change in modes may also be explained as declaring a change in content. That is, the lowest reliefs arguably employ a more iconic mode because they are more symbolic in conception, depicting contrasting examples of vice on the west wall (Avarice and Luxuria) and virtue on the east wall (the Annunciation and Visitation). For the notion that the west and east wall sculptures present exempla of bad and good behaviour, respectively, and therefore signify the realms of the damned and the blessed, see ibid., pp. 326-327. There is little concrete evidence to indicate exactly when the tympanum at Conques was produced. As a consequence, a wide range of dates have been suggested. The most convincing arguments, however, have tended to place the sculptures in the 1120s to 1140s. For a recent assessment of the evidence, see Bonne, L'Art Roman de Face et de Profil, pp. 313-317. For a detailed bibliography of the dating arguments, see Don Denny, "The Date of the Conques Last Judgment and Its Compositional Analogues," Art Bulletin 66 (1984), p. 7 and n. 1. ',l See Caviness, "Images of Divine Order," p. 100. For a detailed and convincing examination of how form constructs meaning at Conques, not just in regard to the contrasting visions of heaven and hell, but across the tympanum as a whole, see Bonne, L ’Art Roman de Face et de Profil.

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the lowest register, celestial Jerusalem is depicted as a carefully compartmentalized, symmetrically arranged structure, populated by stiffly posed saints and centered on the fully frontal figure of Abraham gathering a pair of mirror-imaged souls to his bosom. On the right, hell, the destination of those unable to ward off the temptations of the physical, mortal world, is characterized as a place without order or symmetry. The devils and the damned writhe in a chaotic jumble of naked limbs and torsos. Moreover, Satan himself, whose central location and frontal pose mimic those of Abraham, is exposed as the true opposite of Abraham, not only through his nakedness, his enormous phallus, and his glaring visage, but also by way of the diagonal, stridently asymmetrical positioning of his arms to the right and of his phallus to the left. In other sculptural programs, the moral aspect of this juxtaposition of styles may not be so apparent, but its employment to distinguish between the heavenly and the earthly, and the divine and the human, is just as evident. In the Last Judgement composition on the west tympanum of Saint-Lazare at Autun (fig. 47), for example, probably carved between 1125 and 1135, l6‘ the huge, central figure of Christ is rendered in lower relief than are the other figures on the tympanum, and is furthermore distinguished by

:s: See Bernhard Rupprecht Romanische Skulptur in Frankreich, edition (Munich, 1S84), pp. 112-115, with bibliography.

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2nd

its rigidly static and symmetrical pose.163 These formal qualities were together undoubtedly intended to communicate Christ's transcendent divinity and his consequent absolute power over blessed and damned alike, giving pictorial shape to the inscription running around the frame of his mandorla: OMNIA DISPONO SOLUS MERITOSQUE CORONO ("I alone dispose all things and crown the deserving").104 In the west tympanum at Perrecy-les-Forges (fig. 48), probably carved sometime between 1105 and 113 0 and, like the tympanum at Autun, appearing in a church located in the region of Burgundy stretching between Cluny and Vezelay,105 different styles were used to distinguish not only the heavenly from the earthly, but also quite specifically the Son of God from the Son of Man. That is, the divine, eternal Christ is presented in the main scene enthroned in heaven, in a frontal, symmetrical pose, and is held aloft by a pair of near­ identical angels. The incarnate Christ, by contrast, is '61 As Caviness has noted, the almost abstractly flat figure of Christ in the mandorla at Autun acquires a vertical as well as a lateral symmetry when considered in conjunction with the four angels holding the mandorla. See "Images of Divine Order," p. 100. As Bonne has suggested, furthermore, Christ's pose should be thought of not so much as static as transcending the specificities of movement within time and place. That is, the figure appears to be both standing and sitting, simultaneously. See L ’Axt Roman de Face et de Profil, p. 85; idem, "Depicted Gesture, Named Gesture: Postures of the Christ on the Autun tympanum, * History and Anthropology 1 (1934), pp. 77-92. '°'i For similar interpretations of the meaning of this contrast in forms at Autun, see Henri Focillon, L'art des sculpteurs romans: Recherches sur 1'histoire des formes (Paris, 1964), p. 245; and Bonne, L'Art Roman de Face et de Profil, pp. 86-87. Masuyo Tokita Darling ("The Romanesque Architecture and Sculpture of Perrecy-les-Forges," Ph.D. diss. (University of Michigan, 1994), pp. 142-198) has dated the portal sculptures to 1105-1115+. Salet (Cluny et Vezelay, p. 125-132) has dated them to 1125-1130.

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depicted in the Passion scenes in the lintel below as just one of a series of twisting, asymmetrical figures.166 This strategic use of form to convey distinctions between the heavenly and the earthly, and between the divine and the human, in so many of the monuments closely related to the narthex portal sculptures at Vezelay, makes it all the more reasonable to propose that the disjunction between the central deity's frontal, symmetrical and less deeply carved upper body and its diagonally-positioned, asymmetrical and more three-dimensional lower body was intended to communicate that the triune God includes both the divinity of the eternal Son and the humanity of the incarnate Christ. Such a hypothesis receives yet further support from the fact that a hierarchy of form seems to have been employed not just in regard to the central deity at Vezelay but across the main tympanum as a whole. That is, the apostles are rendered in slightly greater depth and are imbued with a greater degree of movement than is the central deity, particularly the deity's upper body, as a means of emphasizing their lesser, exclusively human status.16 The Sauerlander has also argued that the differences in style between the tympanum and lintel at Perrecy-les-Forges are intentional and are determined by content, rather than different carving campaigns. See "Romanesque Sculpture in its Architectural Context," p. 28. For a detailed analysis of the p or t a l ’s iconography, see Darling, "Romanesque Architecture and Sculpture," pp. 199-311. That the deity is declared to share in the humanity of the apostles through the formal similarities evident between his lower body and the bodies of his twelve followers, but is then shown to transcend that humanity through the forms of his upper body, was in fact suggested by Salet in his initial and extremely elegant description of the deity's disjunctive rendering (La Madeleine de Vezelay, p. 149): "Ici [at Vezelay] l'Homme-Dieu siege en gloire, a la droite du Pere, mais il est

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peripheral figures, in turn, are carved in an even more three-dimensional fashion than are the apostles, and exhibit an even greater degree of free, unstructured movement, as a means of emphasizing that although they are mortal like the apostles, they have yet to receive, as the apostles have, the sanctification of the Pentecostal Spirit. As Henri Focillon has observed, moreover, this increase in movement and three-dimensionality from the center to the periphery is accompanied not only by a commensurate decrease in the size of the figures, as at Moissac, but also by the construction of a subtle but distinct succession of planes within the tympanum.103 That is, the deity sits within a recessed plane created by the concavity of the mandorla, the apostles are arrayed on a middle plane, which can be described as the surface of the tympanum proper, while the lintel and archivolt compartments, and thus the figures inside them as well, project forward slightly, toward the viewer and into the space of the narthex. One final set of details, in this case iconographic, can be cited in support of the hypothesis that the upper and lower halves of the central deity's body at Vezelay were intended to carry symbolic meaning concerning Christ's two natures. As demonstrated above, the presence of the two encore tout vetu de son humanite. Buste de face mais les jambes pliees vers ia gauche, il parait impatient de l'immobilite qui le contraint; il semble q u 'il va se dresser et se mettre en marche avec ses apotres a la conquete des nations. Au centre du large nimbe crucifere, le visage allonge rayonne par la simplicite de ses formes une paix s u m a t u r e l l e . " See Focillon,

L'art des sculpteurs romans, pp. 243-245.

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natures was declared in many early medieval images not through the differing treatment of the upper and lower halves of Christ's body but by locating Christ's body parts in different realms, in a visualization of the Augustinian notion that Christ "is far above all the heavens, but his feet he has on earth: the head is in heaven, the body on earth."109 A close inspection of the tympanum composition at Vezelay reveals that this idea is also in fact being visualized. That is, not only is the central deity's head depicted both above the clouds, in the higher regions of heaven, and directly below the three symbols of eternity in the archivolts (namely, the dog, the siren and the acrobat),170 but its feet rest on the top of the Cross, which serves as an effective symbol both of the earthly realm in general and of the incarnate Christ's terrestial existence in particular. The trumeau cross at Vezelay has many levels of meaning, as will be revealed in the following chapters, but in this context it helps to create a composition strikingly similar in its organization and signification to the christological portrait of Otto III in the Aachen Gospels (fig. 37). A mass of evidence exists, then, drawn from written texts, earlier imagery, contemporary sculptural monuments, and the Vezelay portal itself, that, when considered as a

See above, "■ See above,

pp. 117-129. pp. 96-100.

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whole, demands that the disjunction between the upper and lower halves of the central deity's body at Vezelay be understood as intentionally designed to convey the presence of both the divinity of the eternal Son and the humanity of the incarnate Christ within the transcendent, triune Godhead. Such a scheme is not only an ingenious means of emphasizing the oneness of the Son of God and the Son of Man within the Trinity, finally, but it is also perfectly consonant with the use of the deity's hands to express the eternal oneness of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son. In conclusion, then, it appears that through the careful manipulation of a single figure, the makers of the narthex portal sculptures at Vezelay succeeded in expressing the idea that the Father, the Son in his two aspects, and the Holy Spirit are but one, eternal, immutable God. With the various meanings of this remarkably complex figure having now been explored, the time has come to turn to the question of its significance within the main portal composition as a whole.

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Chapter Three: The Main Portal The investigations of the previous chapter demonstrate that the inner tympanum of the main portal at Vezelay features a christological personification of the Trinity rendered in the act of investing the apostles gathered in Jerusalem with the Pentecostal Holy Spirit, dispensed in the form of twelve individual tongues of fire. The surrounding archivolt compartments and lintel b l o c k s i n turn, depict the witnesses of this miracle, who are described in the Book of Acts as both foreigners and native inhabitants of the city.' These peripheral figures appear to respond to the events taking place in the inner tympanum by arguing amongst themselves about the significance of what they see and hear, and by pointing excitedly to the central scene. The figures on the lintels respond in complementary fashion by rushing toward Peter and Paul just to the right of the trumeau, their conversion, in accordance with the biblical text, implicitly being soon to follow.3 The tympanum in its entirety, then, was certainly intended to function as a representation of Pentecost. As such, it would also undoubtedly have been understood as an image of the founding moment of the Church, for the ‘ I refer to Che two lintel blocks, located on either side of the trumeau, as separate lintels, for reasons that will become clear as this chapter progresses. ' See Acts 2:1-12 and above, pp. 30-31. 1 Acts 2:41 states that "about three thousand persons" were baptized on the very day of the miracle.

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apostles' reception of the Pentecostal Spirit gave them the power and authority to establish the Christian mission on earth, which they immediately began to do. As an image of the Church, moreover, and as Michael Taylor and others have already argued,4 the composition seems to have been designed to be read simultaneously as a portrait of Vezelay itself. In this respect, the group of apostles in the inner tympanum, which makes up the Church here at the instant of its greatest purity and autonomy, would have been interpreted as an ideal image of the abbey's monastic community. The peripheral figures, as representatives of a variety of nations and languages who have come from near and far to witness the miracle of Pentecost, would in turn have been seen as archetypes for the lay faithful. As one of the leading pilgrimage sites in twelfth-century Europe, the abbey church at Vezelay was visited not only by local residents but also by myriad pilgrims, many of whom would have spoken foreign languages and traveled from distant lands. Moreover, every lay visitor to the basilica would also have hoped to witness a miracle, as do the peripheral figures, in their own particular case by venerating the famous relics of Mary Magdalen housed in the crypt below the main altar. Seemingly eager to strengthen these initial parallels between the witnesses and the lay congregation, the

* "The Pentecost at Vezelay,” pp. 11-13. Feldman Scott and Sazama have made similar claims. See above, pp. 54-63.

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designers of the tympanum changed the identity of some of the peripheral figures. The Bible states that the Pentecostal witnesses were all Jews living in or visiting Jerusalem at the time, but included among the peripheral figures are such obvious non-Jews as the representatives of the so-called Plinian monstrous races, whose specific identities and possible significance will be discussed below, and such standard medieval European types as the knights at the head of the same procession. These additions turn the Pentecostal miracle into a universal, transtemporal event, experienced by members of a wide range of races and creeds, and by representatives of the contemporary world as well as the world of biblical antiquity. To increase the parallels between the sculptures and their twelfth-century viewers even further, the tympanum's creators showed the peripheral figures to be suffering from the very ailments thought to have been curable at the shrine at Vezelay at that time. The Pilgrim's Guide Co Santiago de Compostela, believed to have been written within thirty years of the making of the narthex portal sculptures,5 describes the miraculous powers of Mary Magdalene's relics

The Guide seems to have had several authors and to have been compiled sometime between 1137 (the year of the death of Louis VI, an event mentioned in the text) and 1173 (when the first copy of the guide is known to have been m a de). Most recently, the compilation has been argued to date from c.1138 to c.1145. See Alison Stones, "The Decoration and Illumination of the Codex Calixcinus at Santiago de Compostela," in The Codex Calixtinus and Che Shrine of SC. James, eds. Stones and John Williams (Tubingen, 1992), pp. 137-184; P. Gerson and Annie Shaver-Crandell, The Pilgrim's Guide Co Sanciago de ComposCela: A Gazeceer (London, 1995), p. 25; Gerson, Shaver-Crandell, Stones, and Krochalis, The Pilgrim's Guide: A Critical Edition; Volume I: The Manuscripts (London, 1998), pp. 15-27, 60 and 198.

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in the following manner: "Here, on account of [Mary Magdalene's] love, the faults of the sinners are forgiven by the Lord, vision is restored to the blind, the tongue of the mute is set free, the lame are straightened out, the possessed are delivered, and ineffable benefits are accorded to many."” Echoing this description with surprising accuracy, the figure furthest to the left in the top left archivolt compartment holds his hands out in front of him as if blind; the dog-headed figures at the far right of the same compartment hold their throats as if mute; numerous figures on either side of the tympanum hold limbs or bend forward in apparent pain, as if lame; and the figure located furthest to the left in the second highest archivolt compartment on the left side displays flame-like hair, as if possessed by the devil.' Many of these peripheral figures, moreover, are shown with walking sticks or cloaks, both of which were archetypal accessories of the medieval pilgrim.’ Reflecting the heterogeneity of the sculptures1 original

"Peccatoribus delicta ipsius amore a Domino dimictuntur, cecis uisus redditur, mutorum lingua soluicur, claudi eriguntur, energumini liberantur, et ineffebilia beneficia multis imperciuntur.* From Pilgrim's Guide: A Critical Edition; Volume II, chapter VIII, p. 44. To be sure, many of the ailments listed as cured by the Magdalen are repeated in the Pilgrim's Guide in regard to the miraculous powers of other saints, so the claim cannot be made that the author of the guide simply compiled his list on the basis of what he saw on the tympanum. However, the contents of the passage do indicate that a correlation existed between the miracles for which the Magdelen was renowned and the afflictions suffered by the tympanum's peripheral figures, a correlation that was no doubt recognized and believed to be meaningful. Several of the figures in the lowest three archivolt compartments on the right side of the tympanum either hold a walking stick or wear a cloak. The sixth figure from the center on the left lintel also holds a walking stick.

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audience, the witnesses are also of every age and both genders,5 and seem to practice a diverse range of professions.'0 The apostles, for their part, are depicted as if speaking, and are shown holding either open or closed books. These details suggest that the apostles are engaged in both reading and prayer, the two most salient activities, as Taylor has noted, of traditional Benedictine monastic life.11 The myriad parallels evident between the figures depicted on the tympanum and the monks and lay faithful using the basilica were no doubt intended to help the main portal's expected lay viewers imagine themselves as participants in the sacred events represented. The experiential character of the sculptures in this regard was not without precedent, having been a feature of much pilgrimage and monastic art from the Early Christian period onward." In a general sense, its intention, as elsewhere, Indeed, two examples of entire families are depicted, each involving a mother, father, and child, at the right end of the right lintel. " To judge from their clothing and attributes, the peripheral figures include amongst their ranks knights, hunters, fishermen, bakers, farmers and vintners. The privileged placement of the knights at the head of the procession on the right lintel gives precise meaning to this procession, as will be discussed below. However, it may also reflect the fact that this social group, in the twelfth century, constituted a disproportionately large percentage of the pilgrimage population. Concerning the particularly enthusiastic participation of the nobility in pilgrimage activities in the twelfth century, see Jonathan Sumption, Pilgrimage: An Image of Mediaeval Religion (Totowa, 1975), pp. 120-123. 1: "The Pentecost at Vezelay," p. 12. See, for example, Kurt Weitzmann, "Loca Sancta and the Representational Arts of Palestine," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 28 (1974), pp. 33-55; William Loerke, "'Real Presence' in Early Christian Art," in Monasticism and the Arts, edited by Timothy G. Verdon with the assistance of John Dally and with forward by John W. Cook (Syracuse, 1984) , pp. 32-51; Gary Vikan, "Pilgrims in Magi's Clothing: The Inpact of Mimesis on Early

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was to render the composition's biblical subject matter more compelling and therefore more memorable, and to emphasize the presentness of the sacred events portrayed in the everyday lives of the faithful, through both the liturgy and private devotion. But, more specifically, by carving this image of the founding moment of the Church that is simultaneously a depiction of the monks and congregation at Vezelay, and by locating the image in the wall above the main doorway of the abbey's own basilica, the makers of the sculptural program enabled the sculptures to speak provocatively about their physical and functional contexts. That is, through this conjunction of subject (Pentecost) and location (portal), the composition sets up a play between temporal and physical beginnings that would have served to announce to its intended lay viewers not only that the boundary delineated by this wall marks the true beginning of the Church for them, but also that their own life within the Church, with all of its salvific benefits, could only begin at the moment they crossed this portal's threshold. As such, the sculptures were able to declare the existence of, and indeed to help create, the sacred space stretching eastward on the other side of the doorway, and to invest the doorway itself with a profound spiritual significance.13 Byzantine Pilgrimage Art," in The Blessings of Pilgrimage, ed. Robert Ousterhout (Urbana, 1990) , pp. 97-107; John Eisner, "The Viewer and the Vision: The Case of the Sinai Apse," Art History 17 (1994), pp. 81-102; and Robert Deshman, "Another Look at the Disappearing Christ: Corporeal and Spiritual Vision in Early Medieval Images," Art Bulletin 79, 3 (September, 1997), pp. 518-546. For a recent examination of the role played by Romanesque portal

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The imagery of the main portal program at Vezelay, however, is even more complicated and sophisticated than the preceding analysis suggests, both in terms of its subject matter and its practical meaning for the sculptures' original, intended audience. In order to arrive at a more complete understanding of the scheme's content and function, it will be useful to examine, first, the specific means by which the Church is figured here as a universal institution.

The Two Churches The figures of Peter and Paul are represented together on the main portal three times. They appear closest to the viewer within the re-entrant angles of the innermost jambs on the right side of the portal (fig. 49). Peter, positioned on the left, can be identified by the keys he holds in his hands while Paul, facing Peter on the right, can be identified by his characteristic receding hairline, widow's peak, and pointed beard. Peter appears again on the right lintel, in oversized form, just to the right of the trumeau (fig. 50). Again he carries keys and is accompanied, to the right, by a second figure, now decapitated, a figure whom all modern scholars have identified as Paul. That this figure is indeed Paul will become clear later in the present chapter. The pair then appears a final time, and most prominently, seated on either side of the central deity in

sculpture in constructing as well as announcing sacred space, see Kendall, The Allegory of the Church, partic. pp. 3-151.

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the inner tympanum, with Peter once again being positioned on the left and being shown holding keys. The decapitated figure to the right of Christ, alone of all the apostles seated in the inner tympanum, appears to address the viewer directly, through the gesture of his raised right h a n d . A s will be demonstrated later in the present chapter, this distinct gesture secures the figure's Pauline identity, but it is an identity already all but confirmed by a wealth of comparative imagery. First, Peter and Paul commonly appear flanking the enthroned deity in early Christian depictions of the twelve apostles gathered around Christ.*5 Second, the pair flank the deity in the only other extant monumental image of Christ surrounded by the twelve apostles produced in an early twelfth-century Cluniac milieu, the apse fresco at Berze-la-Ville (fig. 51).10 Third, Peter and Paul commonly appear closest to the center in Middle Byzantine images of the apostles gathered at Pentecost.17 Fourth, Peter and Paul

11 Concerning the presentation of one or two fingers raised toward the viewer as a gesture of direct speech in medieval art, particularly of the twelfth century, see Michael Camille, "Seeing and Reading: Some Visual Implications of Medieval Literacy and Illiteracy," Art History 8 (1985), pp. 26-49, partic. pp. 27-28 and n. 11. ■' See, for example, the Sant'Ambrogio Sarcophagus, Milan; the Ascension miniature in the Rafabula Gospels (Florence, Biblioteca Laurentiana, MS. Plut. I, 56, fol. 13v); the apse mosaic at Santa Pudenziana, Rome; the triumphal arch mosaic in the basilica of St. Eufrasiana, Porec. :a At Berze-la-Ville, Peter and Paul are identified explicitly through inscriptions. These frescoes have been dated most convincingly to the years just after 1100. See Emile Magnien, Les peintures murales clunisiennes de Berze-la-Ville (Magon, 1973), pp. 7-14; C. di Matteo, "La chapelle aux Moines de Berze-la-Ville,* Les Monuments historicjues de la France (avrilmai 1981), pp. 84-96; Eliane Vergnolle, L'Art Roman en France (Paris, 1994), pp. 275-282. l’ See,

for example,

such manuscript illuminations as those in Paris,

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appear in similarly privileged positions in a number of slightly earlier or approximately contemporary English manuscript images of Pentecost, indicating that a Western tradition for including Paul in depictions of this event, specifically, had already been established. Examples of this type include the Pentecost compositions in the so-called Cotton Troper (London, British Library, MS. Cotton, Caligula A.XIV, fol. 31r; fig. 52), probably produced in the mid­ eleventh century,13 and in the so-called Shaftesbury Psalter (London, British Library, MS. Lansdowne 383, fol. 14r; fig. 53), probably produced in the 1130s.19 Fifth, although Peter and Paul are positioned on the opposite sides of Christ in the Berze-la-Ville fresco than they are in the inner tympanum at Vezelay, they appear on the same sides in an image of the twelve apostles flanking Christ likely created between 1130 and 1140 at Canterbury (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Laud. Misc. 469, fol. 7v; fig. 54) .

This

image, which constitutes the upper half of the frontispiece

Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. gr. 510, fol. 301r, St. Petersburg, Public Library, MS. gr. 21, fol. 14v; Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica, MS. Vat. gr. 1162, fol. 2v; such icons as that produced at Mount Athos in the twelfth century and now in the State Hermitage in St. Petersburg (The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture in the Middle Byzantine Era A.D. 843-1261, exhibition catalogue, edited by Helen C. Evans and William D. Wixom [New York, 1997], pp. 120-121, plate 68A) ,- and such dome mosaics as that in Hosios Loukas, Phokis. ’’ See Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, pp. 113-115; Elizabeth C. Teviotdale, "The Cotton Troper (London, British Library, Cotton MS Caligula A.xiv, f f . 1-36) : A Study of an Illustrated English Troper of the Eleventh Century," Ph.D. diss. (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1991), partic. pp. 277-283. *’ See Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts, pp. 82-84. See ibid., p. 87.

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miniature to a copy of Augustine's De Civitate Dei, is a particularly important comparison, for it appears to have been derived ultimately from the composition at Vezelay or a common model.'1 Several shared features make this clear: the presentation of a larger, enthroned Christ between twelve smaller apostles within a semi-circular, gateway-like structure; the use of specifically spiral-fluted columns to support that gateway's semi-circular arch; the inclusion of cloud masses within the arch, on either side of Christ's shoulders and directly above the two groups of gathered apostles; the depiction of the groundline below the apostles as undulating in a manner that suggests both earth and clouds,-" and the peculiar rendering of the apostles themselves, that is, a) as displaying their large, bare feet on an unnaturalistically vertical plane, b) as each posing differently so that their lower legs create a varied pattern of limbs across the composition,'3 and c) as

■' Peter (identifiable by his round beard and tonsure) and Paul (identifiable by his pointy beard and receding hairline) also appear on the left and right sides of Christ in the only other known early twelfthcentury manuscript image of the De Civitate Dei, probably produced at St. Augustine's, Canterbury around 1120 (Florence, Biblioteca MediceoLaurenziana, MS. Plut. XII.17, fol. 2v; my fig. 55). In this case, however, the apostles are depicted in the register below Christ and, while the image has important parallels with the composition at Vezelay, as is discussed in Appendix One below, it is not as closely related to the main portal as is the miniature in Bodleian MS. 457. Concerning MS. Plut. XII.17, see Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts, pp. 62-63. " The ambiguity of this type of groundline is demonstrated in Florence, Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana, MS. Plut. XII.17, fol. lv, where angels on the top register of a miniature and men fighting each other and working the fields on the lower two registers all stand on such undulating forms. See Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts, fig. 49. This feature is exaggerated, and employed to greater expressive effect, in the composition at Vezelay, but it is nonetheless present in the City of God miniature.

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idiosyncratically arranged so that the heads of the secondtier apostles are visible but their feet are not. The multiple representation of Peter and Paul in the main portal, explicitly as a pair, may in part have been intended to emphasize that this image of the Church was also to be understood as an image of Vezelay itself, for the abbey's basilica was actually dedicated to these two apostles, amongst other sacred figures.'4 The repeated pairing of Peter and Paul, however, was also undoubtedly intended to help emphasize that the Church is being envisaged here not as it existed at the historical moment of Pentecost (Paul, after all, was not present at the miracle) but in its future universal form, when it came to include Gentiles as well as Jews, and inhabitants of Europe and the East as well as of the Holy Land.'5 The notion of the Universal Church as being composed of two essential communities, the Jews and the gentiles, known respectively as the ecclesia ex circumcisione and the ecclesia ex gentibus, came to be related in the early centuries of Christianity to a second notion: that these two communities were each created and guided by one of the two Princes of the Apostles, the Jews by Peter, the leading missionary for Christianity amongst Jewish settlements in the Holy Land, and the gentiles by Paul, the great See above, pp. 3-4 and n. 6. '5 This is, in fact, the underlying motivation for the inclusion of Peter and Paul as a pair in all of the Pentecostal comparative imagery cited above.

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proselytizer of the non-Jewish peoples of the eastern Mediterranean.:s From the fourth century onward, and at first most frequently in Rome, these ideas were visualized either by showing Peter and Paul alone flanking Christ, as at Santa Costanza (fig.56) and probably Old St. Peter's (fig. 57), or by showing them flanked by five further apostles on either side, as at Santa Pudenziana (fig. 58) .:7 At Vezelay, these two modes of presenting Peter and Paul as symbols of the Universal Church are in a sense combined, with the two apostles appearing alone on the right lintel and accompanied by other apostles in both the jambs and the inner tympanum. In each pairing, furthermore, Peter

"6 This tradition of imagining Peter and Paul as leaders of two separate missions received perhaps its fundamental impetus from Paul himself, who claims in his Letter to the Galatians (2:7-8) that: "I had been entrusted with the gospel of the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel of the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter making him an apostle to the circumcised also worked through me in sending me to the gentiles) [Creditum est mihi evangelium praeputii/ sicut Petro circumcisionis/qui enim operatus est Petro in apostolatum circumcisionis/ operatus est et mihi inter gentes].” Concerning the symbolic depiction of Peter and Paul in Rome in the early Christian and medieval periods, see, for example, J.M. Huskinson, Concordia Apostorolum: Christian Propaganda at Rome in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries. A Study in Early Christian Iconography and Iconology, B.A.R. International Series, vol. 148 (Oxford, 1982); Kessler, "Old St. Peter's and Church Decoration in Medieval Latium, * pp. 119-146; idem, "The Meeting of Peter and Paul in Rome: An Emblemative Narrative of Spiritual Brotherhood," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 41 (1987), pp. 265-275. The symbolic significance of Peter and Paul is highlighted with particular force in the apse mosaic at Santa Pudenziana, through the inclusion of female personifications of the two churches who hold wreaths of victory above the head of each apostle. These two figures have been convincingly identified as personifications of the two churches on the basis of similar contemporary figures that appear on the west wall of the basilica of Santa Sabina and that are explicitly identified by inscriptions as ecclesia ex circumcisione and ecclesia ex g entibus. See Walter N. Schumacher and Josef Wilpert, Die romischen Mosaiken der kirchlichen Bauten vom IV. -Kill. Jahrhundert (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1976), p. 307 and pi. 24; Bianca Kiihnel, From the Earthly to the Heavenly Jerusalem, Romische Quartalschrift fur christliche Altertumskunde und Kirchengeschichte, Supplemententheft 42 (Rome, 1987), pp. 63-72.

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is depicted on the left and Paul on the right. Indeed, this arrangement speaks of a broader principle of organization at work in the main tympanum. That is, the composition seems to have been carefully divided into two halves, with the soonto-be-members of the Church of the Jews being depicted in the archivolt compartments and along the lintel on the left side of the tympanum, surrounding their founder, Peter, and with the soon-to-be-members of the Church of the Gentiles being depicted on the right side of the tympanum, surrounding their founder, Paul. The precise identities and full significance of all of the figures in the archivolt compartments and the lintels may never be discovered. The meanings of these figures, after all, were probably designed in large part to carry specifically local and contemporary resonance, for the pilgrims and townspeople that were the scheme's original intended audience, and as such may often not have been based on any written and thus traceable exegetical traditions. Second, these figures may never have been designed to be fixed in their signification in the first place. That is, they may have been invested intentionally with a plurality of meanings so that a range of moral lessons could be extracted from their examination on any given occasion, at the same time, of course, that these figures could always be identifiable as either Jews or gentiles. Despite these interpretative difficulties, however, a sufficient number of secure identifications can still be made, beginning with the 154

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figures on the left lintel, to erase all doubt concerning the tympanum composition's bipartite construction. The nine figures furthest to the left on the left lintel can be identified as hunters who, with arrows in their bows and without game in their arms, seem still to be in the process of achieving their first kill (fig. 59). The next group of seven, in contrast, have their means of subsistence already in hand but, being shown in the act of walking toward the center, clearly have not yet reached their destination. The first figure on the left in this group carries what appears to be a bowl of grapes, the second a loaf of bread, the fourth a fish, the sixth another bowl, containing a mealy substance of some kind, perhaps grain, and the seventh a bucket for holding liquid. The final group of seven figures has evidently reached its destination, being shown gathered around an ox that is about to be sacrificed. In preparation for this event, one of the figures holds the animal's head while another begins to raise an axe. These figures indicate the intentions of those behind them: to present their produce, whether animal or plant, as a sacrificial offering. At the beginning of the Book of Leviticus, God commands the Jewish people, through Moses, to present to Him a series of offerings, ranging from grain to oxen, that are similar to those depicted on the lintel. These ordinances gave birth to the annual Jewish festival of first fruits, in which the first products of the herd and the land were offered up to 155

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God in a ritual of thanksgiving.28 Because the festival took pace on the fiftieth day after Passover, as already mentioned, it was given the name of Pentecost.29 Indeed, it is only because the descent of the Holy Spirit occurred on the day of this festival that the later Christian miracle came to be known by the same name. This coincidence of Pentecosts is reason enough to imagine that the figures on the left lintel were intended by the sculptures' makers to be understood as Jews travelling to and participating in the festival of first fruits. Further observations can be made, however, in support of such a speculation. From the time of Paul, the festival of first fruits was understood in typological terms. The first Letter to the Corinthians, for example, describes the festival's offerings as prefigurations of Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection (15:20) : "Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died."30 Such an association seems clearly to have been intended at Vezelay, given that the produce carried by the figures on the left lintel - grapes, bread, fish, and an ox - can all be seen as symbols or types ‘a The primary Biblical source for Che festival of first fruits, in respect to offerings, is the Book of Leviticus, chapters 1 to 7. Other passages, however, are also important for understanding the festival, including Exodus 23:14-19 and 34:19-26, Leviticus 23:10-15, Numbers 28:2631, and Deuteronomy 16:9. Concerning the significance of the latter three passages, see Danielou, The Bible and the Liturgy, pp. 320-324. Concerning the biblical origins of the festival, broadly speaking, see Kenneth B. Welliver, "Pentecost and the Early Church: Patristic Interpretations of Acts 2," Ph.D. diss. (Yale University, 1961), pp. 20-21; and Robert Cabie, La Pentecote: L'evolution de la Cinquantaine pascale au cours des cinq premiers siecles (Toumai, 1965), pp. 15-31. "9 See above, pp. 97-98. "Christus resurrexit a mortuis primitiae dormientum. *

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of Christ, who is then depicted in his role as a sacrificial offering immediately adjacent to this group, in the form of the cross and the lamb on the trumeau. Indeed, the first figure on the left lintel actually leans against the vertical border of the cross, touching it with his spear, seemingly as a means both of emphasizing the intimate typological relationship existing between the Old and New Testament sacrifices depicted on the lintel and trumeau and of reminding the tympanum's viewers of the Jewish identity of Christ's killers at Golgotha. The Epistle's association of the festival's offerings with the risen as well as the crucified Christ also seems to be visualized, through the presence of the central deity, enthroned in heaven, directly above the trumeau cross. The festival of first fruits was not only associated with Christ's sacrifice and resurrection, however. Indeed, because of the day on which it occurred, the festival came to be interpreted by early Christian exegetes as a prefiguration of Pentecost itself. As Origen stated, for example, referring to the biblical source of the festival:11 Homiliae in Leviticum 2.2.5 (edited with French translation by Marcel Borret, in Sources chretiennes, 286-287 [Paris, 1981], p. 98): "-.primitarium, id est de initiis frugum manaatur oblatio. Quod, si bene meministis, in die Pentecostes fieri lex iubet. In quo illis plane umbra data est, nobis autem veritas reservata est. In die enim Pentecostes oblato orationum sacrificio primitias advenientis sancti Spiritus Apostolorum suscepit Ecclesia." Eng. trans. Gary W. Barkley, Homilies on Leviticus, in The Fathers of the Church, vol. 83 (Washington, 1990), p. 42. The original Greek text was translated into Latin by Rufinus of Aquileia in the fifth century and was widely read in the West throughout the Middle Ages. See, for example, E. Ann Matter, "The Church Fathers and the Glossa Ordinaria," in The Reception of the Church Fathers in the West: From the Carolingians to the Maurists, ed. Irena Backus, 2 vols. (Leiden, New York and Koln, 1997), vol. 1, p. 87. See also Welliver, "Pentecost and the Early Church," p. 21.

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"an offering of first fruits, that is, from the beginning of the harvest, is commanded. If you remember well, the Law commands this to be done on the day of Pentecost. This was obviously given to them [the Jews] as a shadow, but the truth is reserved for u s . For on the day of Pentecost, after they offered up the sacrifice of prayers, the Church of the Apostles received the first fruits of the coming of the Holy Spirit." The festival's offerings, then, were understood as both types of Christ and of the tongues of fire. In other words, the giving of the material first fruits fifty days after Passover, as testimony of the Jewish people's faith in God, was seen to prefigure the giving of the Spirit fifty days after the Crucifixion, as testimony of God's returned faith in humankind. The juxtaposition of the procession of offerings on the left lintel and the reception of the Holy Spirit by the apostles in the inner tympanum helps to make this point clear. The group of figures located in the highest compartment of the archivolts on the left side of the tympanum can also be identified with confidence as Jews (fig. 60). On the left within this compartment, a blind man with closed eyes converses with a shorter companion. In the center, a bearded male shouts into the ear of another male, who stretches toward the speaker in a manner that suggests he cannot hear. On the right, two dog-headed men, known as Cynocephali, grab at their throats. The key to understanding this group is the Cynocephali. As Katzenellenbogen has suggested, the fact that they grab at their own throats indicates that they are

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meant to be understood as mutes;" but they are mutes of a very specific kind. In Psalm 21:17 the author cries that "many dogs have encompassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and feet."33 This passage was interpreted by Cassiodorus and later by Hugh of St. Cher as an allegorical description of the Jews who, just as a dog barks at everything that is strange to him, bark automatically against the new and unfamiliar teachings of Christ.34 Such barking, of course, is a form of muteness, for it describes an inability, from a Christian point of view, to employ the faculty of speech in a rational or coherent fashion. That dog-heads were used in art to signify the Jewish tormentors at the Crucifixion is demonstrated by an illustration of the same Psalm 21:17 in a late eleventhcentury Byzantine psalter now in the Vatican Library (MS. Barberini, gr. 372, fol. 33r; fig. 61), which shows Christ being threatened by a group of such creatures.35 That the See "The Tympanum at Vezelay, * p. 144. '' "Circumdederunt me canes multi/ concilium malignantium obsedit me foderunt manus meas et pedes meos.* !4 See Cassiodorus, Expositio Psalmorum I-LXX, ps. xxi, 17 (CCSL, 97, ed. Marcus Adriaen [Tumhout, 1958], p. 198, 1. 348-354); and Hugh of St. Cher, Opera Omnia in Universum Vetus et Novum Testamentum (Venice, 1732), vol. 2, fol. 50v. Jerome (Commentarioli in Psalmos, In ps. xxi, 2, CCSL, 72, ed. M. Adriaen [Tumhout, 1958], p. 198, 1. 10-12) and Augustine (Enarrationes in Psalmos, In ps. xxi, 2, 17, CCSL, 38, edited by Eligius Dekkers and Jean Fraipont [Tumhout, 1956], p. 127, 1. 1-10) also associated Psalm 21 as a whole with Christ's Crucifixion, indicating that these two Church fathers similarly interpreted the dogs of verse 17, at least implicitly, as Christ's Jewish tormentors. Similar images appear in the ninth-century Khludov Psalter (Moscow, State Historical Museum, Cod. Khludov 129, fol. 19v) , and the eleventhcentury Theodore Psalter (London, British Library, MS. Gr. Add. 19352, fol. 23r) . Concerning the former, see Kathleen Corrigan, Visual Polemics in the Ninth-Century Byzantine Psalters (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 46-49, 81-83 and fig. 6. Concerning the latter, see Friedman, The Monstrous Races, p. 61 and

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same meaning was to be conveyed by the dog-heads at Vezelay, that is, that they were intended to be understood as Jews, is confirmed by the fact that, like the threatening figure on the left in the psalter illustration, the Cynocephalus located on the left at Vezelay is depicted wielding a sword.3'’ The identification of the dog-heads as Jews allows for the other figures in the uppermost left archivolt compartment to be identified as well. That is, just as the Jews are mute to the Word of God, the grouping suggests, so too are they blind and deaf to it. Indeed, the depiction of the other two pairs of figures in this compartment may well have been intended to serve as an illustration of a passage in the Acts narrative itself in which, soon after the miracle of Pentecost, Peter rebukes those Jews who doubt the event's authenticity (2:32-36) :! ’This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of fig. 24. For the broader medieval tradition of imaging the dogs described in Psalm 21:17 as Jewish tormentors of Christ, in both literature and art, see James Marrow, Passion Iconography in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance (Kortrijk, 1979), pp. 33-43. Katzenellenbogen actually noted this borrowing ("The Tympanum at Vezelay," p. 147) but suggested that it was the result of the sculptor's misunderstanding of his model: "One of the [Cynocephali] still bears a sword, although the weapon no longer has the significance it had in the Psalter illustration." Given the theological complexity of those aspects of the composition examined in the previous chapter, a complexity that indicates a deep exegetical knowledge on the part of the portal's iconographers as well as their tendency to invest even the smallest of the composition's details with important theological significance, such an act of blind, mistaken copying seems extremely unlikely. !T "Hunc Iesum resuscitavit Deus/ cui omnes nos testes sumus/ dextera igitur Dei exaltatus/ et promissione Spiritus Sancti accepta a Patre effudit/ hunc quern vos videtis et audistis...certissime ergo sciat omnis domus Israhel/ quia et Dominum eum et Christum Deus fecit/ hunc Iesum quern vos crucifixistis.*

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God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this [the tongues of fire] that you both hear and see...Therefore, let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.' [Author's emphasis] Indeed, even Peter's claim that the deaf and the blind are the same as those who crucified Christ seems to be visualized at Vezelay, through the presentation of these two pairs of figures in the same archivolt compartment as the sword-wielding Cynocephali. The three figures in the next compartment to the left invite a number of different interpretations, by way of their gestures, costume, and/or physical features. The figure furthest to the right in this second compartment sits naked and cross-legged as he bends forward and examines the sole of his own right foot (fig. 60). The pose of this figure is clearly based, in reverse, on the famous antique sculpture commonly known as the Spinario (fig. 62),39 which was on display outside the Lateran Palace in Rome certainly by the mid-116Os and probably much earlier.39 The first two

M Regarding the history of the Spinario, see Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique (New Haven and London, 1981), pp. 8 and 308-310. " For the sculptures on display in front of the Lateran Palace in the Middle Ages, see Ingo Herklotz, "Der Campus Lateranensis im Mittelalter,* Romisches Jahrbuch fiir Kunstgeschichte 22 (1985), pp. 1-43. Concerning the varied use of the Spinario type in medieval art, see Leon Pressouyre, "'Marcius C o m a tor. ' Note sur un groupe de representations medievales du mois de Mars," Melanges d'Archeologie et d'Histoire 11 (1965); Doula Mouriki, "The Theme of the 'Spinario' in Byzantine Art," Deltion tes Christianikes Archaialogikes Hetaireias, ser. 4, 6 (1970-1972), pp. 53-66; Gloria Fossi, "La representation de l'Antiquite dans la sculpture romane et une figuration classique: le tireur d'epine," in La Representation de l'Antiquite au Moyen Age, eds. Danielle Buschinger and Andre Crepin (Wiener Arbeiten zur germanischen Altertumskunde und Philologie 20; Vienna, 1982), pp. 299-324.

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extant medieval descriptions of the Spinario in its public Roman setting are extremely helpful in suggesting two different but equally possible meanings for the figure at Vezelay. A Spanish Jew, Benjamin ben Jonah of Tudela, writing between 1165 and 1167, identified the figure not as the Spinario but as Absalom, the Jewish Icing and son of David renowned for his great beauty.40 The Bible (2 Samuel 14:25) describes Absalom's beauty in such a manner that it draws attention to the soles of his feet and to the top of his head, both of which are prominent features of the Spinario, as well as the Vezelay figure, and may have led the antique sculpture to have been identified as Absalom in the first place: "Now in all Israel there was no one to be praised so much for his beauty as Absalom; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him."41 That the Vezelay figure was indeed intended to be understood as Absalom is further suggested by the fact that it is shown with even longer hair than is the Spinario itself.42 This adaptation is a significant detail, for the length of Absalom's hair was perhaps the most important aspect of its comeliness. As the initial Biblical t; See The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, translated with commentary by Marcus Nathan Adler (London, 1907), p. 7. Concerning the date of Benjamin's visit to Rome and his identification of the Spinario as Absalom, see Paul Borchardt, "The Sculpture in front of the Lateran as described by Benjamin Tudela and Magister Gregorius," Journal of Roman Studies 26 (1936), pp. 68-69. 11 "Porro sicut Absalom vir non erat pulcher in omni Israhel et decorus nimis/ a vestigo pedis usque ad verticem non erat in eo ulla macula." *' The figure's unusually long hair caused Salet [La Madeleine de Vezelay, p. 125) to identify him as a female.

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description of Absalom cited above concludes (2 Samuel 14:26) : "When he cut the hair of his head (for at the end of every year he used to cut it; when it was heavy on him, he cut it) , he weighed the hair of his head, two hundred shekels by the king's weight."'13 As praised as Absalom was for his beauty, however, he was also condemned for his pride, which was seen as the ultimate source of his downfall, and his long hair played a significant role in this as well. Absalom, inflated by self-love and ambition, usurped the throne of his father, David, only to be conquered soon after by David's lieutenants.14 In the final battle, while being pursued on horseback by enemy soldiers, Absalom became entwined, by way of his hair, in the branches of an oak tree. Unable to free himself, he was brutally executed. The presence of the Vezelay figure's long hair, then, not only helps to identify him as Absalom and thus as a Jew, but it may also have been intended to transform him into a negative symbol of the moral sin of pride.45 Such a critical reading of this seated figure would be consonant with how the Spinario was interpreted by its second medieval chronicler, Master Gregory, who wrote either in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century and who "Et quando tondebatur capilium semel autem authem in anno tondebatur/ quia gravabat eum caesaries/ ponderabat capillos capitis sui ducentis siclis pondere publico." 14 See 2 Samuel 15:1-18:15. Hugh of St. Victor, writing in the first half of the twelfth century, criticized long hair as a sign of ostentation. See Sermone 49 (PL, 177, col. 1038).

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identified the sculpture not as Absalom but as Priapus.46 The statue's lascivious content, such as it was construed, seems to have been emphasized in the Middle Ages for, according to Master Gregory, the Spinario had been placed on a column, at approximately eye-level, so as to provide visitors with a direct, unobstructed view of its genitals.4. That the figure at Vezelay was similarly intended to stand as a symbol of the physical sin of lasciviousness or lust, in addition to functioning as a symbol of sins of the mind like pride, is suggested immediately by the youth's nakedness.48 It is further suggested by the appearance and possible meanings evoked by the other two figures in this compartment. The figure located next to the Spinario is also male, is also rendered with long hair, and is also shown naked, save for a gathering of cloth that falls over his left shoulder and that he holds with his left hand. The cloth is gathered and held in such a way that it both hides his genitals and gives the impression that he is in the process “ Concerning the date of Master Gregory's visit to Rome and his interpretation of the Spinario, see Gordon McNeil Rushforth, "Magister Gregorius, De Mirabilibus CJrbis Romae: a new description of Rome in the twelfth century," Journal of Roman Studies 9 (1919), pp. 14-58, partic. 24 and 49. 4 Concerning the moderate height of these columns, see Richard Cocke, "Masaccio and the Spinario, Piero and the Pothos: Observations on the Reception of the Antique in Renaissance Painting," Zeitschrift fur Kunstgeschichte 43 (1980), pp. 22-23; see also the drawing of the Lateran courtyard made by Marten van Heemskerck before 1538, in Herklotz, "Der Campus Lateranensis," p. 6, fig. 2. " Concerning the Spinario as a symbol of voluptas in the Middle Ages, see also Jean Adhemar, Influences antiques dans 1 'art du moyen age frangais, Studies of the Warburg Institute, no. 7 (London, 1939), p. 191, n. 2.

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of revealing them. This gesture is remarkably similar to that of a figure on the west tympanum at Beaulieu (fig. 63), which has been identified by Henry Kraus as a Jew depicted in the process of displaying his circumcised penis.49 A similar meaning may well have been intended for this central figure at Vezelay, as a means of identifying him as a Jew. His long hair and provocative nakedness, however, suggest that he may also, like the Absalom figure, have been intended to serve as a symbol of moral sins like pride and vanity and of physical sins like lasciviousness and lust. The possible meaning of these two archivolt compartment figures has not yet been exhausted. Salet was the first to note that these two males seem to be joined together through the torso. He argued that this detail identifies the pair as Siamese twins. As such, he proposed, they stand as symbols of the nation with whom Siamese twins were frequently associated in classical literature, that of the Cappadocians.50 Since Jewish inhabitants of Cappadocia are mentioned in the Book of Acts as among those who witness Pentecost, perhaps Salet was correct in his interpretation: their joined torsos may well have been intended as yet another means by which the Jewish identity of these two ” See "Anti-Semitism in Medieval Art,* in The Living Theatre of Medieval Art (Bloomington, 1967), pp. 139-144. Jean Marie French ("The Innovative Imagery of the Beaulieu Portal Program: Sources and Significance" [Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1972; Ann Arbor, 1973] has agreed with Kraus about the identification of this figure. Hearn, however, on the basis of an unpublished paper written by his student Roy Petre, has argued that this figure should be identified as a heretic. See Romanesque Sculpture, pp. 178-180 and n. 8. La Madeleine de Vezelay, p. 125.

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figures was signalled. The fact of their joined torsos, however, like the other details that have been examined, also invites a moral reading. One of the ways in which medieval authors attempted to make ethical sense of physical defects was to explain them as punishments for the immoral actions of biblical ancestors. The focus of attention in this regard was Adam's older son Cain, some of whose offspring, it was argued, were rendered monstrous in appearance as retribution for Cain's murder of his brother Abel.51 Following the Flood, the role of ancestor to the monstrous fell to Ham, one of the three sons of Noah, as punishment for Ham's exposure of his father's nakedness after Noah had become drunk and had fallen asleep in his tent.52 As an eleventh-century Middle Irish treatise on the Six Ages of the world stated (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS. 502b), reflecting a broader legendary tradition, congenitally united twins were identified as amongst Ham's monstrous descendants: "His famous father cursed the son called Ham so that he - he excelled in perversity - is the Cain of the people after the Flood. From him with valour sprung... every unshapely person; those of the two heads - it was a crime - and the two bodies in union. .. [author's emphasis]"53 The nakedness, lewd poses, and See Friedman,

The Monstrous Races, partic. pp. 87-107.

■' Genesis 9:20-27. !! From Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS. 502b. Trans. James Carney, Studies in Irish Literature and History (Dublin, 1955), pp. 109110. See also Friedman, The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought, p.

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long hair of the two joined figures at Vezelay suggest that they may have been understood as continuing their putative Old Testament ancestor's sinful behavior. The figure furthest to the left in this compartment is also naked, save for a gathered band of cloth that is wound around his waist and thrown over his right shoulder, suggesting that he too would have been interpreted as a symbol of lust. The most notable feature of this third figure, however, seemingly a young male like the Spinario figure, is his flame-like hair. Hair of this kind was associated on occasion in the Middle Ages with Esau, the son of Isaac and Rebekah, who in Genesis 25:25 is described as "red, all his body like a hairy mantle."54 As such, the detail may have been intended as a means of identifying the figure as a member of the Jewish people.55 Esau was described as having flame-like hair, however, for the specific purpose of presenting him as a personification of maliciousness.55 That flame-like hair was understood more generally as symbolic of this type of behavioral flaw is suggested by the fact that it was used in a range of manuscript illustrations

99. "...rufus erat et totus in morem pellis hispidus." “ Cain, who was often conflated or confused with Ham fay medieval authors, was also at times depicted with flame-like hair, suggesting that the figure at Vezelay might have been intended to be understood as the offspring of any of these Old Testament sinners. Concerning the visualization of Cain and his confusion with Ham, see Friedman, Monstrous Races, pp. 98-100. ^ Ibid., p. 98. See also Jerome, Coimentaria in Ezechielem 11.25 25, col. 334); and Ambrose, De Cain et Abel 1.1, (PL, 14, col. 317).

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(PL,

for Prudentius1 Psychomachia, such as that showing "Patience Undaunted by the Vices" in a French, eleventhcentury copy now in Lyon (Bibliotheque du Palais des Arts, MS. 22; fig. 64), to denote personifications of the sins of anger and violence.57 Perhaps the peripheral figure's flame­ like hair was intended to indicate similar sins relating to brutality, anger and hatefulness. Such an interpretation would accord well with the traditional reading of the figure's flame-like hair as a sign of demon-possession.53 A strong argument can be presented, then, that the three naked, writhing figures in this compartment were intended not only to be understood as Jews, but also to work together to personify a broad range of sins both of the body and of the mind. The four figures in the lower two archivolt compartments on the left side of the tympanum (fig. 65) do not seem to personify any obvious sins or vices, as do the figures above. The pair in the second compartment from the bottom are difficult to identify with certainty. Salet long ago characterized them as symbols of the Jewish faith because the figure on the left wears what Salet argued was a Jewish cap. He speculated further that this figure might be Jeroboam, the first of the idolatrous kings of Israel. As See Helen Woodruff, "The Illustrated Manuscripts of Prudentius," Art Studies: Medieval Renaissance and M o d e m 7 (1929), pp. 33-79. Woodruff publishes several images (figs. 54, 56, 77, 79, 80, 81, 104, and 110) from a variety of early medieval manuscripts that depict personifications of vices with flame-like hair. ’* See, for example, Katzenellenbogen, "The Central Tympanum at Vezelay," p. 145; Salet, La Madeleine de Vezelay, p. 125.

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evidence, Salet noted the long sleeve covering the figure's right hand and suggested that this detail was intended as an allusion to Jeroboam's own withered hand, a punishment recounted in 1 Kings 13:4.” Salet's interpretation is challenged, however, by the content of several miniatures in the so-called Winchester Psalter (London, British Library, Cotton MS. Nero C. IV), a manuscript probably produced at Winchester in the mid-twelfth century.” Figures in three separate miniatures in this psalter are depicted with similarly lengthened single sleeves: the leading magus in "The Magi Before Herod" (fol. H r ;

fig. 66), two of the

monks in the lower register of "The Saved" (fol. 34r,- fig. 67), and one of the monks in the lower register of "The Damned" (fol. 37r; fig. 68). That the costumes of the left figure in the archivolt compartment at Vezelay and the figures cited above in the Winchester Psalter were inspired by a common model is suggested both by the fact that such lengthened single sleeves are extremely rare, if not unique, within the corpus of medieval art, and by the fact that this archivolt figure's distinctive cap - which features an ornamented headband, a rectangular top with rounded corners, and an extension that flows back over the shoulders - also finds striking parallels in the psalter: Abraham wears a

See La Madeleine de Vezelay, pp. 124-125. This hypothesis has most recently been reiterated by Sazama in Le Patrimoine de la basilique de Vezelay (Charenton-le-Pont, 1999), p. 64. 60 See Kristine E. Haney, The Winchester Psalter: an Iconographic Study (Leicester, 1986), pp. 7-9.

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similar cap in "God's Command to Abraham" and "The Sacrifice of Isaac" (fol. 3r; fig. 69) as do the three bishops depicted in the lower register of "The Saved." What these parallels seem to indicate, however, is that the details of the left figure's costume, at least in the model, carried no specific, fixed meaning. Without further evidence, as a result, all that can be claimed is that the elaborate attire of these two archivolt figures suggests that they were intended to stand as high-ranking officials, either religious or secular, of the Jewish community. The two figures in the lowest compartment, in turn, both of whom are now decapitated and are shown writing on tablets, are most plausibly identified as apostles, given that their seated poses, plain costume and verticallydisplayed bare feet replicate salient characteristics of the twelve apostles seated in the inner tympanum. Because the apostles were all originally Jews, the repeated presence of two of their number within the archivolt compartments on the left half of the tympanum is logical.61 Indeed, the apostles were depicted in just this manner, namely, as explicit members of the ecclesia ex circumcisione, in an early tenthcentury Anglo-Saxon image of Christ amongst the choirs of saints located in the so-called Galba Psalter (London, British Library, Cotton, MS. Galba A. XVIII, fol. 2v; fig. Such a doubling does not create a contradiction in meaning with the apostles in the inner tympanum who, of course, are seated on both the right and left side of the composition. This is because, as will be discussed later in this chapter, these inner tympanum figures operate on a different register of signification.

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76) , an image that, as will become evident later in this chapter, is closely related to the composition at Vezelay on several other counts.62 The apostles are also identified specifically as Jews in Augustine's De Civitate Dei, a work that likewise seems to find multiple correspondences with the content of the main portal.’3 The fact that these two figures are rendered in the act of writing, finally, also helps to identify them as apostles, as will become clear in Chapter Four.’' 1 Numerous peripheral figures on the right side of the tympanum, surrounding Paul, can in turn be identified with some certainty as gentiles. First, several of the eight figures on the lintel depicted closest to the center, which are shown being welcomed by the two larger-scale apostles in front of them, wear chain-mail cloaks, articles of dress that would immediately have identified these figures as members of the contemporary Western European knightly class (fig. 70). Europeans, of course, were traditionally acknowledged as converts of the gentile mission.65 Following See below, partic. pp. 195-239. See 18.31 (CCSL, 48, pp. 622-623): "Quis ascenderit ab inferis et insufflaueric in faciem Iudae, hoc esc Iudaeorum discipulorum, Spiritum sanctum, recolat qui meminit euangelium (John 20:22) [Who is it who will ascend from the world of the dead and will breathe the Holy Spirit on the face of Judah, that is, on the Jewish disciples? Anyone who remembers the Gospel can tell]." ’4 See below, pp. 243-246. Concerning the earlier medieval tradition of depicting Paul as leader of the gentile mission in Europe, see, for example, H. L. Kessler, "An Apostle in Armor and the Mission of Carolingian Art," Arte medievale, 2, 4 (1990), pp. 17-41; reprinted in Studies in Pictorial Narrative (London, 1993), pp. 207-248.

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this group on the right lintel are three further groups, at least two of which are made up of members of the Plinian monstrous races. The first group features a pygmy, reputedly an inhabitant of Africa, whose tiny size is expressed by his use of a ladder to mount his horse.00 The next group, consisting of two parents and a child, are too mutilated to identify with confidence.6' The final group, again consisting of two parents and a child, all of whom are depicted with enormous ears, are clearly Panotii, a fabulous race believed by Pliny to live in India and by Isidore to live in Scythia.08 Yet another of Pliny's monstrous races then seems to be represented in the top right compartment of the archivolts (fig. 71). On the basis of their strange, muzzle­ like noses, the figures in this compartment have been identified convincingly as members of the Sciritae, which Pliny described as a nomadic tribe of Northern India.09 All of these representatives of the monstrous races would immediately have been understood as gentiles, not only because they were believed to inhabit lands beyond those of

Regarding the identification of pygmies as Africans, see Pliny, Natural History, VI.35.188 (edited with accompanying English translation by Harris Rackham [London and Cambridge, Mass., 1942), vol. 2, p. 478). Katzenellenbogen ("The Central Tympanum at Vezelay," p. 144) attempted to identify this family group as the Albani mentioned by Pliny in Natural History (VII.2.12 [Rackham, 2, p. 514]), but too little remains of the figures to make a convincing attribution. Pliny, Natural History, IV. 13.95, VII.2.30 (Rackham, 2, pp. 192, 526); Isidore of Seville, Etymologise, XI.3.19 (ed. Wallace M. Lindsay, Oxford, 1911; reprinted 1985). ” See Katzenellenbogen, "The Central Tympanum at Vezelay," p. 145; and Pliny, Natural Histoiy, VII.2.25 (ed. Rackham, 2, p. 522).

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God's original chosen people, but also because the antique authors who first chronicled their existence were known to and described by medieval writers like Augustine and Hrabanus Maurus explicitly as gentiles. ° In other words, the creatures recounted by these ancient writers were understood by medieval commentators as peculiarily pagan culturalscientific products. 1 The Cynocephali in the top left archivolt compartment, who are the only representatives of the monstrous races depicted on the left, and thus the Jewish, side of the tympanum, are simply a special exception to this rule, because of the widespread interpretation of Psalm 21:17 as a reference to Christ's Jewish tormentors. One more group of peripheral figures on the right side of the tympanum, finally, may be readily identified as gentile. The figures in the lowest archivolt compartment (fig. 72) were long ago interpreted by Emile Male, on the basis of their exotic clothing and particularly their strange, high-platform shoes, as heathen natives of Armenia. Male's evidence for this attribution was an illumination in the eleventh-century Theodore Psalter, now in the British Library (London, MS. Add. 19352, fol. 20r; fig. 73), which

See Augustine, De Civitate Dei, 16.8 [CCSL, 48, pp. 508-510); Hrabanus Maurus, De Universo, 7.7 [PL, 111, col. 199] . See also Friedman, The Monstrous Races, p. 116. ' In the case of the pygmies, the evidence for their gentile heritage is even more compelling: the Book of Ezekiel (27:11) actually mentions pygmies and describes them as having played a key role in the creation of the wealth and renown of Tyre, one of the gentile centers of power upon which God is said to have passed judgement. See Friedman, The Monstrous Races, p. 190. Concerning the Plinian races as a known phenomenon specifically of pagan antiquity, see ibid., pp. 121-122.

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shows the apostle Bartholomew in the bottom right corner preaching to a group of Armenians, each of whom is depicted in high-platform shoes that are almost identical in appearance to those worn by the four figures at Vezelay. ' More recently, Kristin Sazama, noting particularly the turban of the figure furthest to the right, has speculated that this group may be Arabs. 3 Whatever the specific identity of these figures, their attributes strongly suggest a gentile origin in the mysterious East. The five figures contained within the two central archivolt compartments on the right side are more difficult to identify with any certainty. Salet argued that the three figures in the upper compartment (fig. 71) might be interpreted, on the basis of their costume and attributes, as Phrygians and, as such, as symbols of the pagan Greek nation. Salet speculated in this respect that the trio might actually visualize certain passages from Homer's Iliad. 4 He also asserted that the left figure in the compartment below (fig. 72) must be identified as a barbarian, and thus implicitly as a gentile, because of his curly hair and

" L 'Art Religieux du Xlle Siecle, pp. 328-329. 3 "Spiritual and Temporal Authority," p. 60 and n. 126; Le Patrimoine de la Basilique de Vezelay, p. 65. 1 Interpreting these figures as Phrygians and thus as symbols of the Greek nation, Salet argued (La Madeleine de Vezelay, pp. 126-127) that the left figure wears a Phrygian cap and that the central figure carries a tau walking stick surmounted by a handle composed of twin ionic volutes. Concerning the scene as a visualization of passages in the Iliad (canto XXIV), Salet argued that certain letters that might spell PRIAM are visible on the frame of the archivolt.

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beard.75 Such suggestions must remain at the level of speculation. The strong evidence that exists elsewhere across the tympanum of a Jewish-gentile division of the composition, however, indicates that these figures must be gentiles of some designation or another. As discussed above, many of the figures identifiable as Jews on the left side of the tympanum seem to have been designed additionally to signify moral deficiencies, and the evidence suggests that most of the gentile figures on the right side of the tympanum were invested with a similar multivalence. First, as Friedman has noted, the monstrous races as a whole were frequently treated in the Middle Ages as little more than didactic signs, by way of which the Christian population could discern God's ethical prescriptions for humankind, particularly in regard to bad behavior. 6 Indeed, Augustine pointed out in De Civitate Dei that such an instructive function was built into the very name of the monstrous races, for "monstrare" means "to show." ' This notion of the monstrous races as emblems to be decoded meant that giants, for example, such as the one that appears on the right lintel just to the left of the first pygmy on horseback, were interpreted because of their Ibid., p. 127. The following speculations are largely dependent upon, and the primary sources largely derived from, Friedman's chapter "Signs of God's Will," in The Monstrous Races, pp. 108-130. See 21.8 {CCSL, 48, p. 112)-. "Monstra sane dicta perhibent a monstrando, quod aliquid significando demonstrent [The name "monster," we are told, evidently comes from monstrare, "to show," because they [the monstrous races] show by signifying something]."

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extraordinarily large size as signifying pride.78 Pygmies, by contrast, because of their unusually small stature, were understood as symbolizing those who are too weak to persevere in the virtuous life. 5 The Panotii, like the three that appear at the right edge of the right lintel, were argued to signify the easily corrupted, because their enormous ears rendered them all too capable of hearing evil.80 Figures like the snub-nosed Sciritae, finally, who appear in the top right archivolt compartment, were similarly said to symbolize the easily corrupted, but in this case because their little noses left them unable to sniff out their own path to salvation.81 Admittedly, most of these allegorical interpretations of the monstrous races derive in their written form from texts of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,8' and thus post-date the sculptures at Vezelay, but as the comment by Augustine suggests, these texts undoubtedly reflect long-standing traditions.

See Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 88 II, fol. 69v: "Giants signify proud men who wish to seem greater than they are, who when you praise them feign virtue [Gigantes sunt ultra humanam modum grandes quorum figuram superbi tenent qui super volunt videri quam sunt, qui dum laudes affectant uires excedunt]." See also Friedman, The Monstrous Races, p. 124. See the Gesta Romanorum, Cap. 175, (ed. Herman Oesterly, Berlin, 1872; reprinted Hildesheim, 1963), p. 575: "In India sunt Pigmei duorum cubitorum in longitudine, equitantes super hircos et cum gruibus preliantes. Hii designant illos, qui parvi sunt in longitudine bone vite, inchoantes sed non perseverantes et non viriliter contra grues i.e. vitiorum sordes pugnant." 42 See MS. Douce 88 II, fol. 69v. See also Friedman, Monstrous Races, p. 124. 41 See Gesta Romanorum, Cap. 175, p. 575: "-habent parvum nasum discretionis ad salutem propriam. * See Friedman,

The Monstrous Races, pp. 121-126.

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Several of the peripheral figures on the right side of the tympanum, just as on the left side, appear to suffer from physical ailments. Afflictions of the body, like the monstrous races themselves, were also commonly interpreted in the Middle Ages as signs of moral failings.33 That this type of correlation between physical and spiritual, or moral, ailments was meant to be understood as active in regard to the main portal figures is suggested by the fact that those further away from the center in the lintel blocks and from the bottom in the archivolt compartments tend to be not only more deformed or monstrous, but also more likely to suffer from physical injuries. The child representative of the Panotii at the edge of the right lintel, for example, holds his right leg, as if he were in pain, while the prostrate Sciritae at the top of the composition reach out and touch their own backs, as if to ease their aching bones or muscles. Indeed, medieval writers believed the Sciritae as a race to be lame34 and Augustine, for example, argued in De Civitate Dei that those who are bent to the ground, like the Sciritae at Vezelay, are unable to see the ways of God:35 Is it any wonder if those whose backs are always bowed so that they bend down towards things of the earth, fail to look upwards towards things in heaven? For 33 Concerning the biblical basis of this attitude, see above, pp. 4445, n. 50. Concerning its ubiquity in the Middle Ages, see, for example, Sumption, "Medicine and Religion," in Pilgrimage: An Image of Mediaeval Religion, pp. 77-81. 14 See Katzenellenbogen,

"The Central Tympanum, " p. 145.

45 17.19 (CCSL, 48, p. 586) : "Quid mirum, si caelestia non suspiciunt, qui ut in terrena sint proni, dorsum eorum semper incuruum est? His enim uerbis translatis a corpore uitia intelliguntur animorum."

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these bodily metaphors refer to spiritual failings. A similar set of moralizations may also have been intended for the figures in the next archivolt compartment, located directly across from the three naked figures on the left side of the tympanum, each of whom is shown with a physical affliction: the first figure appears to suffer from an injured left hand, which he hides under his cloak and which he supports with his free hand; the middle figure, leaning on a crutch, may suffer from a bad foot or leg, or simply from the fragility of old age; the third figure, finally, holds his right arm up as if it were paralyzed and favors with his left hand what appears to be a sore knee. The figures arrayed along the lintels and within the archivolt compartments of the main tympanum, then, seem to have been carefully divided according to their pre-Christian heritage, with Jews appearing on the left and gentiles on the right. When the peripheral figures, arranged in this manner, are considered in conjunction with the apostles receiving the Holy Spirit from Christ in the center, the composition as a whole becomes an image of the Church envisioned simultaneously at the historical moment of its Pentecostal foundation and in its future universal state, when it came to be composed both of the Church of the Jews, led by Peter on the left, and the Church of the gentiles, led by Paul on the right. The continuing growth of the Church and its ever-more realized transformation from a local into a global 178

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institution are implicitly declared through the implementation of such a transtemporal scheme. These notions are then explicitly visualized through the particular arrangement of the peripheral figures in relation to each other on either side of the tympanum. That is, and as previous scholars have already noted,36 the figures on both lintels and within both sequences of archivolt compartments are ordered in such a way that the most monstrous and/or physically and/or morally afflicted are positioned furthest from the center (in other words, at the outer edge of each lintel and at the top of each sequence of archivolt compartments) while those who are the least monstrous in appearance and the least visibly compromised by physical or psychic injury are located closest to the center. What this ordering suggests is that the peripheral figures are themselves rendered in a state of transformation, with those nearest to the center being declared, through their relative "normality", as both physically and temporally closer than those behind them to the moment of conversion, to membership in the Church, and thus to salvation. In other words, the heterogeneous nature of the peripheral figures' spiritual health, as it were, helps to create an image of the Universal Church that is to be understood as still active and still evolving, even in the contemporary world of its

“ See, for example, Katzenellenbogen,

"The Central Tympanum," pp. 144-

146.

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early twelfth-century viewers.37

Ephesians 2:15-22 The main tympanum as a whole, then, constitutes a transtemporal vision of the Universal Church, a Church shown to have been engendered by the triune Godhead at the moment of Pentecost, to have ultimately come to be composed of two constituent communities, the Jews and the gentiles, and to be involved energetically, up to and implicitly beyond the very moment of viewing, in the spiritual rejuvenation of every human soul (fig. 2). Why, however, did the makers of the main portal composition deem it so important to emphasize, and in such a rigidly bipartite fashion, the participation of the two peoples of Christianity in the creation of the Church? And why was this image of the unified Church centered around a christological personification of the Trinity? Moreover, why was it articulated by way of the architectural details identified in Chapter One, such as the lintel blocks, archivolt compartments, and keystone-like shape that frames the head of the deity? Finally, how is the content of the tympanum, as determined above, to be reconciled with that of the middle register, that is, the trumeau cross, the medallion of the lamb of God, the figure of John the Baptist assimilated to a column, and the figures of the six apostles

3' For a complementary reading of the portal as constituting an image of the Church as a present and still-growing entity, see Feldman Scott, "The Narthex Portal at Vezelay,* partic. pp. 95-104.

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assimilated to pilasters? Every one of these questions can in fact be answered, once it has been understood that the main portal as a whole visualizes an important ecclesiological metaphor, never before associated with the narthex scheme, articulated in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians (2:11-22). For the sake of clarity, each of the details relevant to the visualization of this passage will be explicitly identified: the presence of the christological personification of the Trinity and the depiction both of his head within a trapezoidal space shaped like a keystone and of the tongues of fire emanating from his fingertips; the arrangement of the peripheral figures into the soon-to-be Church of the Jews on the left and the soon-to-be Church of the gentiles on the right and the depiction of these figures either within archivolt blocks or upon lintel slabs; the presence of a cross on the trumeau, behind John the Baptist, that both joins and supports the two lintel slabs; the depiction of this same John the Baptist on the trumeau as the Prophet of the Lamb of God - he holds the lamb on a disc in his hands and stands before the cross - and as embedded within a column; and, finally, the depiction of six of the apostles for a second time in the jambs and on the lateral faces of the trumeau, in this case accompanied by pilasters. The passage reads as follows:39

"Propter quod memores estote/ quod aliquando vos gentes in c a m e qui dicimini praeputium/ab ea quae dicitur circumsisio in c a m e manufacta/ quia eratis illo in tempore sine Christo/ alienati a conversatione Israhel/ et

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So then, remember that at one time you gentiles by birth, called 'the uncircumcision" by those who are called "the circumcision" - a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands - remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Jesus Christ you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace: in his flesh he has made both groups [meaning the Jews and the gentiles] into one and has broken down the dividing wail, chat is, cne hostility between u s . He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the keystone [or cornerstone]. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. The identification of this passage as the primary source text for the main portal explains the meaning of so many heretofore unexplained details and allows us to appreciate the astonishingly creative and sophisticated manner in which the sculptural scheme was devised not simply to emphasize that Pentecost was the founding moment of the Church, but hospites testamentorum promissionis/ spem non habentes et sine Deo in mundo/ nunc autem in Christo Iesu/ vos qui aliquando eratis longe/ facti estis prope in sanguine Christi/ ipse est enim pax nostra qui fecit utraque unum/ et medium parietem maceriae solvens inimicitiam in c a m e sua/ legem mandatorum decretis evacuans/ ut duos condat in semet ipsum in unum novum hominem faciens pacem/ et reconciliet ambos in uno corpore Deo per crucem/ interficiens inimicitiam in semet ipso/ et veniens evangelizavit pacem vobis qui longe fuistis et pacem his qui prope/ quoniam per ipsum habemus accessum ambo in uno Spiritu ad Patrem/ ergo iam non estis hospites et advenae/ sed estis cives sanctorum et domestici Dei/ superaedificati super fundamentum apostolorum et prophetarum/ ipso summo angulari lapide Christo Iesu/ in quo omnis aedificatio constructa crescit in templum sanctum in Domino/ in quo et vos coaedificamini in habitaculum Dei in Spiritu."

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also both to comment broadly on the circumstances leading up to the Church's establishment on a universal scale, and to speak of the medieval viewer's present and future relationship to that Church. First, the visualization of the Ephesians passage allows the portal composition to emphasize that the Universal Church came into being only through the reconciliation of two separate entities: the Church of the Jews and the Church of the gentiles. This is the most significant reason, we can now see, why the peripheral figures were so carefully organized on the tympanum according to these two "humanities", with Jews on the left, led by Peter, and gentiles on the right, led by Paul. That the figure immediately to the right of Christ was intended to be understood as Paul can also now be confirmed: as a means of signalling his effective authorship of the portal, by way of his epistle passage, Paul raises his right hand to the viewer in a gesture of direct speech. The Jews and gentiles of the periphery are then shown to be brought together, in an ingenious pictorialization of the subtleties of the Ephesians text, at the bottom of the tympanum through the cross as the cornerstone and at the top through Christ's head as the keystone. This arrangement allows the portal to play on the imprecision of the term lapis angularis, which can denote either a "cornerstone" or a "keystone", given that both of these stones function to hold walls together.” As Gerhart Ladner has demonstrated,

the term was also interpreted as

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Indeed, the particular deployment of the cross even alludes to the ambiguity of the word "cornerstone, " which can signify either a stone at the corner of a building that links two horizontal parts together, as the upper vertical bar of the cross links the two lintels, or a foundation stone that supports what exists above it, as the horizontal bars of the cross support the tympanum.90 The motivation for including both a cornerstonefoundation stone and a keystone, however, was not primarily to present the portal's viewers with an erudite lesson on the multiple meanings of the term "lapis angularis." Rather, it was to allow the portal composition to render explicit what the Ephesians passage itself only implies, namely, that Christ served to reconcile Jews and gentiles both by way of his actions as incarnate Son (that is, through his Crucifixion) and by way of his actions as eternal God (most notably, in this context, through his dispensing of the sanctifying tongues of fire at Pentecost).91 The cross in conjunction with the lamb, two motifs that together visualize precisely the Ephesian's passage's identification signifying a cap- or coping stone, that is, the last stone placed on the top of a building, because this stone too essentially served to join one wall to another. See "The Symbolism of the Biblical C o m e r Stone in the Mediaeval West," Mediaeval Studies 4 (1942), pp. 43-60. Acknowledging the flexible signification of lapis angularis, the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible cites both cornerstone and keystone as possible translations for the term. Concerning the elision of the terms "foundation stone" and "cornerstone" in regard to lapis angularis, see Ladner, "The Symbolism of the Biblical Cornerstone," partic. pp. 44-46. 11 The eternal God's actions at the end of time are also important, both in the Ephesians passage and on the tympanum, but these will be discussed at the appropriate moment below. See pp. 276-285.

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of the cornerstone-foundation stone with both "the cross" (2:16) and "the blood of Christ" (2:13), serve to emphasize the involvement of the incarnate Son in this process of unification. Christ's head as the keystone, in turn, serves to emphasize the involvement of the eternal God. This latter claim is true not only in the obvious sense that the central figure of Christ is shown in his divine triune aspect, surrounded by a mandorla and enthroned in heaven, but also in the sense that the specific body part employed, that is, Christ's head, seems designed to bring to mind Paul's claim cited in the first Letter to the Corinthians (11:3) that, "the head of Christ is God."” This play on cornerstone and keystone, moreover, reinforces the association made through the play on first fruits discussed in the previous section of this study,” namely, that the incarnate Son's offering of himself as the first fruit to God at the Crucifixion enabled God, in return, to give the Holy Spirit as the first fruit to humankind at Pentecost. The Ephesians passage, however, despite its all-inclusive message, is addressed specifically to gentiles, a point that is alluded to on the tympanum through the depiction of Peter and Paul for a second time on

“Caput vero Christi Deus." The presentation of Christ's head, specifically, as the keystone, may also have been intended as an allusion to Christ's own designation of himself as the lapis angularis, recounted in the Gospels (Matt 21:42, Mark 12:10, and Luke 20:17). As he states, referring to Psalm 117:22, “Have you never read in the scriptures: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the c o m e r ; this was the Lord's doing and it is amazing to our eyes [Numquam legistis in scripturis/ lapidem quem reprobaverunt aedificantes hie factus est in caput anguli/ a Domino factum est istud et est mirabile in oculis nostris]." ” See above, pp. 155-158.

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the right lintel. Functioning here as symbols of the Universal Church, they welcome the approaching peripheral figures, which are to be identified as gentiles, into their midst. Indeed, even the fact that the Ephesians passage urges its readers to join the Church in a state of peace (2:14, 15, 17) is visualized, through the actions of the leading figures in the right lintel procession, the first of whom hands Peter and Paul a sword, blade downward, and the third of whom carries a shield under his arm, as if preparing to surrender it as well to the two apostles. The portal also emphasizes, in fidelity to the Ephesians passage, that it was both the words of the prophets, culminating in those of John the Baptist, and the post-Pentecostal missionary work of the apostles that allowed the Universal Church to establish itself in the first place. The notion of the Church being built in this respect "upon the foundations of the apostles and the prophets"

(2:20) is visualized in the middle register, where

the figures are not only placed in the supporting stones below the tympanum but are also assimilated to real structural members: a column in the case of John the Baptist, pilasters in the case of the apostles. The prophets' supporting role is further emphasized through the superimposition of John the Baptist and his column upon the cross, which has already been shown to signify the Church’s primary means of support, namely, its foundation stone.34 The ,4 Salet (La Madeleine de Vezelay, p. 42) has argued that the figure of

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global scope of the apostles' missionary work, in turn, is suggested by their organization on this level into four groups, representative of the four corners of the earth to which the apostles will ultimately travel. Indeed, this arrangement at Vezelay is not an isolated phenomenon in French monumental sculpture of the period, for the departing apostles are divided into four such units to highlight precisely this point on at least two other church facades produced before 1150, those of the cathedrals of Angouleme (fig. 74) and Chartres (fig. 75) .95 Moreover, this arrangement seems to visualize one of Bede's important written interpretations of Ephesians 2:20, found in his John che Baptist on the column must be a later addition because a) it appears to be the wrong scale, jutting as it does into the space of the two lintels, b) it is simply glued on to the front of the trumeau, and c) it concludes in a capital-like form that makes no structural sense, given that it supports nothing. The obvious importance of John the Baptist on the column to the visualization of the Ephesians passage makes clear that the motif is an original component of the scheme. Its particular form can then be explained by the following observations. First, the figure and the column do not need to support the tympanum physically, like the apostles and pilasters do in the jambs, because the very fusion of the figure with the column already graphically articulates J o h n ’s foundational role. Indeed, the motif's removal from a literally structural context might even have been intended to highlight its metaphorical significance. Second, the gluing of the figure and column to the trumeau cross was likely determined by the fact that the conglomeration of motifs on the trumeau was simply too complicated to be carved out of a single stone. Third, John the Baptist and the column v/ere probably made larger than the apostles on the jambs both in order to relate the motif to the scale of the cross and to allow the lamb to appear as close as possible to the point where the two arms of the cross meet, an arrangement that will be shown below to be an important one. At Angouleme, the apostles appear on four separate tympana located in the lateral blind arcades of the facade's first register. At Chartres, in the Royal Portals, they appear divided into four groups across the lintel of the main tympanum. Such a division of the apostles into four groups is also found in an eleventh-century Byzantine Gospel book illustration (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. gr. 74, fol. 213r). That this picture depicts the apostles at the moment of their departure is indicated by the fact that the group furthest to the right are shown already in the process of walking away. For an account of this miniature and the Angouleme lunettes as depictions of the theme coined by Katzenellenbogen as the Separation of the Apostles, see idem, "The Separation of the Apostles," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, ser. 6, 35 (1949), pp. 81-98, partic. 87-89.

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twenty-fifth homily, on Luke 6:43-48:96 ...and again [Christ] says to believers..., "But you are fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God, constructed upon the foundations of the apostles and the prophets." For this foundation there were laid great and costly stones to support the entire temple. First of all the patriarchs and the prophets, and afterwards the apostles, were instructed [by Christ] to spread the Church throughout the whole world. The visualizing of the Ephesians passage also allows the main portal scheme to function as a commentary on the possible spiritual implications of Pentecost and, in the process, helps to explain why a christological personification of the Trinity, specifically, was included in the composition. That is, the presence of this figure who as was demonstrated in the previous chapter is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit united as one in the guise of Christ - and the sequence of physical contacts the deity initiates between various figures on the tympanum serve to pictorialize in dramatic fashion the phrase (2:18) "for through [Christ] both of us [meaning Jews and gentiles] have access in one Spirit to the Father." This sequence of contacts begins with the tongues of fire emanating from the central deity's fingertips; it continues with the touching of the tongues to the heads of the apostles on both the

96 Homeliarum Evangelii, Liber Secundus, Homelia 11.25 (CCSL, 122, ed. David Hurst [Tumhout, 1955], p. 374): "-et de quo rursus ad credentes: Sed estis, inquit, d u e s sanctorum et domestici Dei superaedificati super fundamentum apostolorum et prophetarum. In hoc ergo fundamento lapides grandes et pretiosi qui templum omne gestarent sunt positi quia per ipsum ad propagandam toto orbe ecclesiam et prius patriarchae ac prophetae et postmodum sunt apostoli instructi..." English translation adapted from Homilies on the Gospels: Book Two, trans. D. Hurst (Kalamazoo, 1991), pp. 262-263.

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Jewish and gentile sides within the inner tympanum; and it concludes with the welcoming of the peripheral figures by two of these apostles, Peter and Paul, on the right lintel. Given that the central deity was intended to function as a personification of all three Persons of the Trinity, this sequence of contacts visualized between Christ and the other figures on the tympanum necessarily also implies contact with the Father. It thus serves to emphasize, in accordance with the phrase from Ephesians, that with the birth of the Church through the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, access to the Father as well as to the Son, in other words, to salvation, became available to all. In this sense, the main portal scheme should also be understood as visualizing a common allegorical interpretation of the Ephesians passage, articulated by Bede and others, namely, that Christ as the cornerstone united not just the Jews and the gentiles, but also heaven and earth.'7 Indeed, it can be argued that the inner tympanum as a whole was carefully constructed to be readable simultaneously as an image of the historical, terrestial event of Pentecost and as a vision of the celestial realm. Such an intended ambiguity is a characteristic feature of Early Christian apse schemes, the image-type from which all

’’ See Bede, Homeliarum Evangelii, Homelia II.3 (CCSL, 122, pp. 204205) ; see also Jerome, Commentariorum in Matheum Libri IV 3 {CCSL, 77, ed. D. Hurst and M. Adriaen [Turahout, 1959], pp. 184-185); Gregory, Moralia in Job XXVIII.8 (PL, 76, cols. 458-459); and Aelfric, Sermo de Natale Domini, ed. and trans. Benjamin Thorpe, in Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church, 2 vols. (London, 1844-46), vol. 1, pp. 32 and 38.

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sculpted tympana, broadly speaking, ultimately derive.98 It is also a feature of numerous earlier medieval images of Pentecost, specifically, including that in the late ninthcentury San Paolo Bible (fig. 34 )99 and the depiction of the miracle in the late tenth-century Benedictional of Aethelwold (fig. 11), a miniature that has already been posited as one of the possible sources for the main portal composition.100 At Vezelay, the celestial status of the inner tympanum scene is signalled by a number of details: first, the presence of the eternal, enthroned Christ who had already ascended to heaven by the time Pentecost took place; second, the depiction of the seated Peter and Paul as overlapping the borders of Christ's mandorla, and thus as implicitly sharing in the deity's otherworldly space; third, the inclusion of an undulating groundline below the feet of the apostles that is suggestive, simultaneously, of earth and clouds.i01 The notion that Christ as the cornerstone links the celestial and heavenly realms is then emphasized not only through the sequence of contacts between the deity

See, for example, Geir Hellemo, Adventus Domini: Eschatological Thought in 4th-Century Apses and Catecheses, trans. Elinor Ruth Waaler (Leiden, 1989). ” The octagonal, twelve-towered structure in this miniature was intended to function simultaneously as the room in which the miracle occurred and both the earthly and heavenly cities of Jerusalem. See Peter Low, "The City Refigured: A Pentecostal Jerusalem in the San Paolo Bible, " Jewish Art 23-24 (1997-98), pp. 265-274. The apostles in this miniature sit on the heavenly rainbow described as surrounding the throne in Revelation 4:3. See Deshman, Benedictional, pp. 106-108. 101 See above, p. 151 and n. 22.

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and the peripheral figures identified above, but also through the positioning of the upper vertical bar of the trumeau cross. This bar is shown to break through the barrier separating the earthly zone of the periphery from the heavenly zone of the inner tympanum and to join itself, literally, to the base of Christ's celestial mandorla. The portal as a pictorialization of Ephesians 2:11-22 also elaborates on the basic salvific message implied by this joining of the heavenly and celestial realms, by articulating a complicated series of allegories of the Church. As discussed at the beginning of this chapter, the existing play between temporal and physical beginnings sparked by the conjunction of subject (Pentecost: the founding moment of Church) and location (doorway: the lay entrance point to the abbey sanctuary) already serves to emphasize the interchangeability, in a sense, of the Universal Church and this particular basilica. By visualizing a passage that describes the construction of "the household of God" (2:19) in anthropomorphic terms, evocative of the "living stones" described in 1 Peter 2:5/° and by carving this visualization into real stones that are themselves manifestly structural in their function, the portal then sets up a second play between human and built structures, one that suggests that both the individual and the larger community of the faithful are yet further

"Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house [Et ipsi tamquam lapides vivi superaedificamini domus spiritalis] ."

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important figures of "the Church". Indeed, by picturing Christ as the cornerstone-keystone by way of which "the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord," (2:21) and the groups of witnesses/viewers as within either archivolt blocks or lintel slabs that are "built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God," (2:22) and, again, by doing so within the walls of a real sanctuary, the scheme makes clear that the individual Christian, the congregation, the basilica at Vezelay, the Universal Church, and even God himself, as the ultimate destination of the saved, are all linked in a series of microcosmic-macrocosmic relationships. But again, the conjunction of location and subject serves to emphasize that these relationships, and thus the possibility of salvation, can only really begin at the moment the visitor enters the basilica through the doorway below. This thematic linking of redemption to entry is brilliantly repeated, on a metaphorical level, through the form, content, and arrangement of parts in the middle register. The apostles and John the Baptist, first, are not only assimilated to structural elements, in order to visualize the notion that the Church was "built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets," (2:20) as mentioned above. They are also very clearly inserted as frames for the two doorways. Their positioning in this respect, the evidence suggests, was carefully intended to literalize Augustine's claim that the foundations described 192

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in the Ephesians passage should also themselves be understood as portals. As he stated in his Enarration.es in Psalmos:103 I have made the foregoing remarks [in regard to the Ephesians passage] that you may not imagine the portals to be one thing, the foundations to be another. Why are the apostles and prophets foundations? Because their authority is the support of our weakness. Why are they portals? Because chrough them we enter the kingdom of God; for they proclaim it to us. [Author's emphasis] The presentation of the trumeau cross in the specific guise of a foundation stone, in turn, as well as both the merging of the cross with John the Baptist and his column (the most prominent combination of figure and structural component used to articulate the foundation-as-portal metaphor) and the central placement of the medallion of the Lamb of God in the hands of John the Baptist, seem intended, in this particular context, to visualize Augustine's next claim: "and while we enter by their [the apostles' and the prophets'] means, we enter also through Christ, himself being the [true] portal."104 Indeed, other commentators such as Bede and Haymo of Halberstat followed Augustine, but in a certain sense anticipated the Vezelay scheme even more closely, by likening Christ simultaneously to both a portal and a corners tone-foundation stone.105 :01 Enarrationes in Psalmos LXXXVI, 4 (CCSL, 39, p. 1201) : "lam ideo praelocutus sum, ne putetis alia esse fundamenta, alias portas. Quare sunt fundamenta apostoli et prophetae? Quia eorum auctoritas portat infirmitatem nostram. Quare stint portae? Quia per ipsos intramus ad regnum D e i : praedicant enim nobis.* ;:4 Ibid. : "Et cum per ipsos intramus, per Christum intramus: ipse est enim ianua.* See Bede, Homiliae Subdititiae, homilia LXXXVII,

In Die Festo

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By way of their placement and their form, then, these middle register figures and motifs were cleverly manipulated to make the point that the apostles and the prophets, through their missionary work and their pronouncements of divine revelation, are to be understood as functioning simultaneously as supports for, and doorways into, not just this particular abbey sanctuary, which of course they literally do, but the Church as a whole. That they also, as a result, serve as the portals to the kingdom of God, according to Augustine, indicates that many of the microcosmic-macrocosmic relationships articulated above in regard to the tympanum are also expressed in the middle register. That is, these figures, seen through the lens of Augustine's interpretation of the Ephesians passage, help to proclaim once again that this basilica is the symbolic equivalent both of the Universal Church and of heaven itself. In so doing, finally, these figures serve to emphasize, even more forcefully than the Ephesians passage on its own would have allowed them to do, that movement through this particular portal should be seen as making possible the visitor/viewer's eventual passage from the profane realm of this world into the super-sacralized realm of the next. But the real portal to the kingdom of God, the scheme also attempts to make clear, is Christ himself. As Christ states in John 10:9, "I am the gate; whoever enters Sanctae Scholasticae Virginis (PL, 94, col. 481); Haymo of Halberstat, Enarratio in Duodecim Prophetas Minor as, In Zachariam Prophetam, Caput XXV (PL, 117, col. 274).

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by me will be saved."106

Sources This last discussion concerning how the foundations, and foundation stone, described in Ephesians 2:11-22 were also understood as portals indicates that there was already a textual tradition in the Early Christian period for imagining Paul's ecclesiastical metaphor in terms both of real built structures and of entranceways, the passing into and through of which was believed to engender a sanctifying spiritual transformation. Knowledge of this textual tradition certainly provides insight into why and how the Ephesians passage came to be visualized as it did at Vezelay, namely, as a sculptural configuration surrounding the main doorway into a church. By the early twelfth century, however, there was also already something of a pictorial tradition for the representation of Ephesians 2:11-22. As an examination of the evidence will demonstrate, moreover, the earlier visualizations of the passage played a central role in determining both the details and the overall conception of the main portal scheme at Vezelay. The so-called Galba Psalter (British Library, MS.

"Ego siim ostium/ per me si quis introierit salvabitur.” The association of Christ with the door was a common one on Romanesque portals, often being expressed through the inclusion of inscriptions that refer directly to John 10:9. See Kendall, The Allegory of the Church, pp. 51-68. It is also worth recalling that the figure of Christ in the late tenthcentury Udine Sacramentary (my fig. 10), one of the four earlier medieval precedents cited in Chapter Two for the christological personification of the Trinity at Vezelay, holds a book in which are written the words "ego sum ostium. *

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Cotton, Galba A. XVIII) was originally produced probably in the region of Liege in the early ninth century. It was then embellished with various Anglo-Saxon texts and illuminations, most likely at Winchester during the first decade of the tenth century.107 These later English additions initially included five full-page miniatures, two of which depict Christ enthroned amongst a choir of saints (fol. 2v, fig. 76; and fol. 21r, fig. 77) and three of which show scenes from the life of Christ: the Nativity (now in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson B. 484, fol. 85r; fig. 78), the Crucifixion, and the Ascension.109 Robert Deshman has convincingly demonstrated that the two miniatures depicting Christ amongst the saints were together intended to visualize Ephesians 2:11-22.103 In the first composition (fig. 76), the two separate churches of Christianity are signified by small-scale renderings of the heavenly Jerusalem and Bethlehem, located immediately below

Concerning the attribution of the Anglo-Saxon additions to the Galba Psalter (previously known as the "Athelstan Psalter”) to an early ninthcentury Winchester scriptorium, see Deshman, "The Galba Psalter: pictures, texts and context in an early medieval prayerbook, ” Anglo-Saxon England 26 (1997), partic. pp. 109-111 and Appendix, pp. 137-138. Two prefatory quires, containing a decorated calendar, were added to the manuscript at the same time as were the miniatures. The fly-leaf on which the Nativity composition was illuminated was removed from the Galba Psalter at an unknown date and inserted into the Bodleian manuscript cited above. See Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, pp. 36-37; Deshman, "The Galba Psalter," p. 109, n. 2. The Crucifixion composition is no longer extant but its subject matter can be gleaned from off-sets left on its facing page. See ibid., p. 110, n. 4. See "The Imagery of the Living Ecclesia and the English Monastic Reform,” in Sources of Anglo-Saxon Culture, ed. Paul E. Szarmach, Studies in Medieval Culture 20 (Kalamazoo, 1986), pp. 267-273; idem, Benedictional, pp. 21-24; idem, "The Galba Psalter,” partic. pp. 111-128.

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Christ's mandorla.110 In the second composition, these two churches are shown to be united into one, following the Ephesians passage, by the cornerstone-foundation stone of Christ. This is done through the depiction of a single building, now located within the deity's mandorla, directly below Christ’s feet.111 That the cornerstone-foundation stone motif here was intended to be understood as referring to Christ in his sacrificial as well as his eternal aspect, and thus as illustrating the Ephesians phrases "by the blood of Christ"

(2:13) and "by the cross" (2:16), is demonstrated by

the fact that the enthroned deity, in this miniature alone, holds a cross and reveals his bleeding wound.112 The peoples of the two churches mentioned in the Ephesians passage are also included in the Psalter scheme, with Jewish saints being depicted in the first miniature and gentile saints in the second/13 Even their role as building stones (2:22) is clearly visualized, through the presentation of the Jews in the first miniature in a series of lintel-like horizontal blocks and the gentiles in the second miniature in a ::1 As Deshman noted (Benedictional, p. 21, n. 77), the use of single­ building depictions of the heavenly Jerusalem and Bethlehem to symbolize ecclesia ex circumcisione and ecclesia ex gentibus, respectively, was a common Early Christian practice. See also Beat Brenk, Die friihchristlichen Mosaiken in S. Maria Maggiore zu Rom (Wiesbaden, 1975) , pp. 33-34 and 4647. Concerning the motif of the building below Christ's feet as a metaphor for Christ as the cornerstone-foundation stone, see Deshman, "Living Ecclesia," p. 268, and idem, "Galba Psalter," p. 117, n. 38. Idem, Benedictional, p. 22. ;:1 As the inscriptions indicate, the first miniature depicts choirs of angels, patriarchs (mislabeled prophets), prophets and apostles, and the second miniature features choirs of martyrs, confessors, and virgins.

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sequence of archivolt-like compartments. The unification of the Church's two constituent peoples is then suggested on a second level by the actions of the saints themselves, in the sense that they are identified in each composition as comprising choirs and should thus be understood as rendered in the act of joining together to sing the praises of Christ. Deshman has suggested that the motivation for visualizing the Ephesians passage in the Galba Psalter, in regard to the passage's theme of Christ making "both groups into

one" (2:14), was in the endtwofold: first, to

emphasize the unity of the Old and New Testaments as a means of arguing for the christological content of the psalms to follow; and second, to emphasize how Christ's sacrifice on the cross enabled not only the reconciliation of Jews and gentiles, but also the joining of the earthly and heavenly churches,*14 a theme that, as mentioned in the previous section, had been explored by several early medieval commentators.115 Deshman has convincingly argued that the unification of the heavenly and the earthly churches implied by the Ephesians passage would have been understood as actualized, in a sense, through the intended reader's use of the

Concerning the role of the images in emphasizing the unity of Scripture, see Deshman, “Galba Psalter," pp. 111-118. Concerning their role in emphasizing the joining of earth and heaven, see ibid., pp. 118-128. Jerome, Gregory, Bede, and Aelfric all interpreted the Ephesians passage in this manner. See above, p. 189 and n. 97.

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manuscript itself.116 That is, since the first two images present the unification of the saints as being secured through the act of singing praise to God, and since the psalms were themselves understood as hymns of divine praise, the reader of the Psalter would have believed himself or herself, as he or she recited the book's contents, to be joining the depicted celestial choirs (and implicitly the real ones as well) in acclaiming the glory of the Christian deity." The notion that Christ as the lapis angularis joins together the earthly and the heavenly churches also seems to be suggested, however, through the juxtaposition of the two miniatures depicting Christ amongst the choirs of saints in heaven with the next picture in the cycle, that of the Nativity (fig. 78). Deshman did not make this observation, but the Nativity composition clearly visualizes Ephesians 2:11-22 once again, although it locates the passage in the terrestial rather than the celestial realm. Here, Christ as the cornerstone-foundation stone that both joins and supports the two churches through his sacrifice is envisioned by likening his crib to both a church and an altar and by assimilating it with a column that itself both joins and supports the two arches above. These two arches, ':4 Deshman,

"Galba Psalter," pp. 120-121.

In addition to the psalms, the Galba Psalter also contains prayers to Christ and various saints, the reciting of which would equally have suggested union with the celestial choirs. Concerning the relationship of these additional prayers to the manuscript's pictorial imagery, see ibid., pp. 122-126.

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in turn, which are carefully differentiated from each other by color and ornament, were surely intended to stand for the ecclesia ex circumcisione and the ecclesia ex gentibus whose constituent peoples, the Jews and the gentiles, following an established exegetical tradition, are symbolized by the faithful ox and ass below.119 In order to emphasize the unifying power of Christ as the cornerstone even more forcefully, the illuminators rendered the ox and the ass so that they look toward each other as together they venerate the newborn child. Moreover, the illuminators added a single small-scale building between the spandrels of the two arches that is almost identical in appearance to the building-ascornerstone depicted in the second image of Christ amongst the saints.113 This structure certainly emphasizes that a new institution is to be understood as having been created through the reconciliation of the Jews and the gentiles in Christ. But it also sets up a series of visual links amongst the first three miniatures in the Galba Psalter that suggests that these pictures are to be considered as a coherent mini-cycle within the manuscript. That is, just as the first two miniatures, through their visual similarities

lls See Pseudo-Jerome, Expositio quatuor Evangelia, (PL, 30, col. 569B); Pseudo-Walafrid Strabo, Expositio in quatuor Evangelia, [PL, 114, col. 896C); Gregory, Moralia in Job, 33, 8 , (PL, 76, cols. 458-459); Jerome, Commentaria in Esaiam, 1, 1, 3, (CCSL, 73, ed. M. Adriaen [Tumhout, 1963], pp. 8-10). Each of these sources were cited by Deshman in regard to the ox and the ass in the Nativity image in the Benedictional of Aethelwold, to be discussed below, but they are equally relevant, the pictorial evidence suggests, to the ox and the ass in this miniature. The buildings are similarly rectangular, longer in length than width, and feature a simple pointed roof and triangular pediment.

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to each other, indicate that Christ as the cornerstone enabled the joining of the Jews and the gentiles already in heaven, so too do the three miniatures together, again through their visual similarities, indicate that Christ as the cornerstone enabled the joining of the celestial (the heavenly choirs) and terrestial (the very earthly ox and ass) communities of the faithful. The Benedictional of Aethelwold, as noted in the previous chapter, was produced at Winchester between 971 and 984."° Scholars have long accepted that the Galba Psalter pictures served as an important source for those of the Benedictional, and that the Psalter therefore must have been in the Winchester scriptorium at the time the Benedictional was made."1 Included within the Benedictional's remarkably rich and sophisticated program of imagery is a series of full-page miniatures each of which gives pictorial form to some or all of the architectural metaphors initially articulated in Ephesians 2:11-22. One of these miniatures prefaces the blessings for Christmas Day and features an unusual rendering of the Nativity (fol. 15v; fig. 79) . The illuminators of the Benedictional, evidently basing the crib-as-church-as-altar in this image on the similarly architectural crib in the Galba Psalter's own Nativity See above, pp. 77-78 and n. 27. See George Frederic Warner and Henry Austin Wilson, Benedictional (Oxford, 1910) , p. xv; Francis Wormald, Benedictional, p. 12; Deshman, "Anglo-Saxon Art After Alfred," Art Bulletin 56 (1974), p. 197; idem, "Living Ecclesia," pp. 267-268; idem, Benedictional, chaps. 1, 2, and 3, and p. 259.

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scene, rendered this structure's symbolic significance as the cornerstone of the Ephesians passage, already subtly expressed in the Psalter picture, more explicit by enclosing it within a square, stone-like block and by placing it, literally, in the bottom corner of the composition.1" The Psalter's Nativity scene also seems to have been a key source for the Benedictional's depiction of the Presentation in the Temple (fol. 34v; fig. 80), which prefaces the blessings for the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin."3 Most obviously, the later scheme similarly assimilates Christ to a central column and emphasizes that he is to be understood as functioning in his sacrificial aspect by presenting him directly above an altar. In the Presentation composition, however, as in the Benedictional's Nativity miniature, Christ's role as the cornerstone has been rendered even more explicit than it was in the Galba Psalter scene, in this case by turning the altar on a diagonal so that its corner juts out dramatically toward the viewer.‘'4 For comprehensive analyses of the meaning of this miniature, see Deshman, "Living Ecclesia," pp. 262-273; idem, Benedictional, pp. 18-26. Deshman was the first to reveal the iconographical relationships existing between the two miniatures of Christ amongst the saints in the Psalter and the Presentation scene in the Benedictional, in terms of their mutual visualization of the notion of Christ as the cornerstone, but, because he was unaware of the Ephesians content of the Psalter's Nativity composition, he failed to notice the connections between that image and the Presentation miniature. For his analysis of the latter image, see Benedictional, pp. 35-45. “4 The altar in the Presentation miniature has also been carefully assimilated with the base of the column so as to emphasize, as does the crib-as-altar-as-church structure in the Nativity compositions in both the Psalter and the Benedictional, that Christ, the altar, and ecclesia are one.

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This last detail seems to have been derived from the illustration of the canticle of Simeon in the Utrecht Psalter (fol. 89v; fig. 81) .125 Christ was rendered as the cornerstone in both of these images of the Presentation to visualize the exegetical notion of Simeon's reception of the Child at this event, based on the words of Simeon himself recounted in Luke 2:29-32, as a sign of the spread of God's dispensation from the Jews to the gentiles.126 As Simeon states, taking Christ in his arms, "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.""

In the Utrecht Psalter image, the importance of

this moment, in regard to the unification of the two peoples in God that it anticipates, is emphasized not only through reference to the Ephesians passage by way of the altar-ascornerstone, but also by showing separate groups of gentiles and Jews. The gentiles are depicted on the left being literally struck by rays of light, in fidelity to Simeon's words, that emanate out from the altar. The Jews are then shown on the right waving palm fronds in harmonized ■' As Deshman has argued convincingly (Benedictional, pp. 36-37 and chap. 4), this manuscript or a copy of it must also have been available to the Winchester illuminators when they created the Benedictional. Ibid., pp. 39-43. 1:7 "Nunc dimittis servum tuum Domine secundum verbum tuum in pace/ quia viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum/ quod parasti ante faciem omnium populorum/ lumen ad revelationem gentium et gloriam plebis tuae Israhel.”

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acclamation. An identical message of unification is clearly being expressed in the Benedictional's Presentation miniature, and similarly it is being done not only through a turning of the altar on its corner, as mentioned above, but also through the inclusion of figures representing the two constituent churches. The Church of the gentiles is symbolized by the group on the right led by Simeon, who uttered the words announcing the opening of God's covenant to the gentiles and who both literally receives Christ in his arms, as the "light for revelation," and finds himself the direct object of Christ's blessing. The Church of the Jews, in turn, is symbolized by the group on the left led by Mary, who is shown in the midst of participating in the traditional Judaic temple ritual of purification. It was precisely in order to emphasize this point of ecclesiological unification, it can now be seen, that the illuminators of the Presentation miniature in the Benedictional also borrowed the double arch construction of the Galba Psalter's Nativity composition, in addition to its central column. Indeed, the miniature's creators even reversed the location of the Jews and the gentiles in the Utrecht Psalter's illustration of the canticle of Simeon (to the right and left of the altar, respectively) to fit the Galba Psalter scheme, that is, with Jews under the left arch and gentiles under the right. The scene in the Presentation miniature was then inserted within a large single arch supported by two 204

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massive columns, an innovation that effectively transforms this visualization of Ephesians 2:11-22 into an image of a portal and turns its central column into a trumeau. These Anglo-Saxon manuscript illuminations, then, despite obvious differences in style, medium, and scale, feature a strikingly large number of details that anticipate the main portal scheme at Vezelay. The first two miniatures of the Galba Psalter, for example, likewise present the Jews and the gentiles described in the Ephesians passage as moving or gesturing toward an enthroned Christ located in the center of the composition. The crowds of Jews and gentiles in the Galba Psalter miniatures, moreover, are contained within similar lintel blocks and archivolt compartments. As at Vezelay, furthermore, the figures in the lintel blocks are organized into a number of ordered processions and, just like the figures on the tympanum's left lintel, they actually present first fruit offerings of the land and of the harvest."9 What is more, the point of these processions of offering was the same in both schemes: to identify the participating figures as Jews and to emphasize, through the close juxtaposition of the offerings and Christ, that it was by way of Christ's sacrifice on the cross that the Jews and gentiles were ultimately reconciled

"s Abel and another patriarch present a lamb and a vessel of foliage, respectively, at the center of the second register, directly below the enthroned Christ. In other words, they present their offerings, in regard to the enthroned deity, from virtually the same location as do the figures on the left lintel at Vezelay.

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and became one.129 It may even be noted that Peter and Paul appear in the first Galba Psalter miniature in the center of the bottom register, as the first of the apostles on the left and right sides of Christ, respectively, just as they do in the inner tympanum at Vezelay.130 They also appear directly below the models of the heavenly cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the second register, suggesting that they too, as at Vezelay, were intended to symbolize the two constituent churches of Christianity. In other words, both the position and function of these two apostles seem to foreshadow the situation at Vezelay. The depictions of the Nativity in the Galba Psalter and of the Presentation in the Temple in the Benedictional of Aethelwold can be seen to anticipate yet further important features of the main portal composition. First, each of the earlier two schemes, like the scheme at Vezelay, likens Christ as the cornerstone-foundation stone to a central pier that both links and supports architectural elements that are in turn used to symbolize the two peoples of Christianity. Moreover, the two Anglo-Saxon miniatures similarly configure Christ in the role of cornerstone-foundation stone in his sacrificial aspect. In the Nativity and Presentation compositions, this is done by placing the Christ child above The fact chat Abel's offering in the Galba Psalter composition is already a lamb provides yet another connection between the two schemes. Peter can be identified by his tonsure and by the keys he holds in his left hand. Paul can be identified, despite the crudeness of the rendering of this figure, by his receding hairline and by his relatively pointed beard.

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an altar. In the main portal, it is done by employing the symbols of the cross and the lamb. Indeed, even the placement of the Christ child in the two earlier miniatures anticipates that of the lamb at Vezelay, that is, directly in front of the central column and immediately below the point where the two horizontal architectural elements join together. The composition as a whole in the Presentation miniature, furthermore, is already arranged as a portal, one that is simply depicted in two dimensions rather than real. Both portals, moreover, are surmounted by a single large arch resting on piers and are divided into two doorways by a central trumeau that in turn supports a tympanum-like space above. That the Vezelay scheme actually derives from the scheme in the Presentation miniature, or from a common model, is all but confirmed by a detail that has previously puzzled scholars. On the back of the main tympanum are inscribed two smaller blind arches that are of exactly the same dimensions, relative to the whole, as those in the Presentation miniature and that are similarly joined and supported by the central pier (fig. 82) .lJl If the tympanum were transparent, then, a composition would emerge that is surprisingly close to that of the Presentation miniature, with the two smaller arches spanning the Jewish and gentile halves of the tympanum and meeting just above the motif of

Salet, for example, (La Madeleine de Vezelay, p. 44) speculated that these blind arches may be surviving witnesses of an original but ultimately rejected plan to erect two smaller tympana - one over each entranceway - in the space now filled by the main tympanum.

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the lamb. That this combination of a single larger arch over two smaller arches supported by a central column was in fact understood at Vezelay to be part of a single scheme is demonstrated by the fact that it was used approximately twenty years later by the abbey's builders to decorate the interior face of the central doorway of the west facade of the narthex, in other words, the wall that directly faces the main portal composition across the space of the narthex (fig. 83). Several other miniatures in the Benedictional of Aethelwold repeat this arrangement of double arches joined by a single central column within a larger arch supported by columns. A number of them, moreover, introduce yet a further significant precedent for the scheme at Vezelay. The fullpage portrait of St. Swithun (fol. 97v; fig. 84), which prefaces the blessings for the feast day of the Deposition of that saint, demonstrates this precedent most effectively. In the miniature, the figure of Swithun not only is centered between the two larger outer columns, and thus occupies the space normally occupied by the central column, but he is actually assimilated to the column itself: he stands with his feet resting on the column base; his stance and vestments are unusually rigid and vertical, in comparison to those of other figures in this manuscript, suggesting the shaft of a column; and his head is located precisely where the capital would be, namely, at the point where the two smaller arches join together. 208

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Deshman has suggested that this figure of "living architecture," as it were, was inspired by the text of the mass celebrating Swithun's translation into the New Minster church at Winchester,132 which described the saint as an "Olympic column of shining glory" and which likened him to "one of the apostles."1” This text, Deshman has further proposed, was itself inspired by Galatians 2:9, which identifies the apostles as columns and which had already by the tenth century engendered an exegetical tradition of describing the apostles and other figures important to the establishment and growth of the Church as columns.”4 While these sources were no doubt significant in the conception of the St. Swithun portrait, the placement of the figure of the saint within the larger architectural scheme originally devised as a means of visualizing Ephesians 2:11-22 in both

'u See "Living Ecclesia,* pp. 261-262; and idem, 3enedicdonal, pp. 138-139. '!i The Missal of che New Minscer, Winchester (Le F.arvre, BiblioCheque municipale, MS. 330), ed. Derek H. Turner, The Henry Bradshaw Society, vol. 93 (Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, 1962), pp. 125, xxiv, n. 6: "Tu [Deus] idem quoque columnam rutile claritatis olimpicam sanctum pontificem suuithunum. . .contulisti; 0 felicem anglorum gentem cui aominus rerum talem concessit patronum: ut merito ad predictarum populis gentium colatur quasi unus apostolorum." '!< Deshman was himself basing much of this analysis on the claims of Bruno Reudenbach, in "Saule und Apostel. Uberlungen zum Verhaltnis von Architektur und architekturexegetischer Literature im Mittelalter,* Fruhmittelalterliche Studien 14 (1980), pp. 310-351. Galatians 2:9, which immediately follows Paul's claim concerning the establishment of the Jewish and gentile missions cited above (p. 156, n. 26) , and which is tightly tied up with the very notion of Christianity's two constituent churches, reads: ". . .and when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged columns, recognized the grace that had been given to me [Paul] , they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the gentiles and they to the circumcised [...et cum cognovissent gratiam quae data est mihi/ Iacobus et Cephas et Iohannes gui videbantur columnae esse/ dextras dederunt mihi et B a m a b a e societatis/ ut nos in gentes ipsi autem in circumcisionem] (author's emphasis) .”

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the Galba Psalter Nativity composition and the Benedictional's Presentation miniature suggests that this Pauline passage, and more precisely its claim that the Church is built "upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets" (Eph 2:20), also served as an important inspiration. Such an assertion is based not only on the architectural framework of the Swithun portrait, however. It is also based on the fact that column-like figures, similarly fixed into an architectural framework like that of the Presentation miniature, appear in an earlier series of images in the Benedictional, a series that itself, through a different route, is also undoubtedly derived from the visualizations of Ephesians 2:11-22 found in the Galba Psalter. As Deshman and others have already noted, the entire hierarchy of saints that are rendered in lintel- and archivolt-like compartments as they sing praise to the enthroned Christ in the first two full-page miniatures in the Galba Psalter (figs. 76 and 77) were repeated in the Benedictional in the form of a more extensive prefatory picture cycle.135 This cycle of full-page miniatures originally seems to have begun with an image of Christ enthroned, followed by the same sequence of saints (angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, and

‘!5 See Warner and Wilson, Benedictional, p. xv; Wormald, Benedictional, pp. 12-13; Deshman, Benedictional, pp. 146-148, 258-260.

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virgins), likewise identified as "choirs", but now arranged in such a way that representatives of each type are rendered in separate pairs of miniatures.136 While most of the pages from this cycle are lost, one of the miniatures depicting the choir of confessors {fol. lr; fig. 85) and the complete pair featuring the choir of virgins (fols. Iv and 2r; figs. 86 and 87) have survived. As is readily apparent, the three confessors appearing in the foreground in the first miniature and the virgins standing in the center in each of the other two miniatures are assimilated to columns in the same manner as is St. Swithun on folio 97v. Moreover, they appear in the same Ephesians-inspired architectural framework originally constructed for the Galba Psalter Nativity composition. What seems to have occurred, then, is that the makers of the Benedictional borrowed the idea of likening sacred figures to architectural elements in order to emphasize their role as members of the Universal Church already found in the visualizations of Ephesians 2:11-22 in the Galba Psalter, but adapted the scheme somewhat. That is, they decided to present the saints not as the faithful who, in Ephesians 2:21-22, are described as building themselves into the superstructure of the Church (2:22), but rather as the foundations described in the next-to-preceding verse (2:20). This change was achieved by rendering the saints in the new scheme as columns rather than as lintel or archivolt :14 All twelve apostles were then depicted again, at the end of the cycle, in a series of four miniatures featuring three apostles on each page. All four of these compositions have survived (fols. 2v-4r).

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blocks, and by placing them under the double-arched structure that had already been used, in the Psalter Nativity composition, to symbolize the unified Church. The decision to render the saints as columns in this location, in turn, was undoubtedly inspired by the juxtaposition of the Christ child with the central column in that same Nativity miniature, a juxtaposition that had itself been arranged to emphasize Christ's own role as the Church's foundation, that is, in his guise as cornerstone-foundation stone. The saints in the Benedictional's prefatory miniatures, however, are no longer simply assimilated with the central column supporting the two arches as in the Galba composition. They are now located within a structure that the viewer is compelled to construe, as has been noted in regard to the Presentation miniature, as a doorway. Moreover, only one of the saints stands directly in front of the central column in each miniature, while the rest fill the space of the implied entranceways on either side. These two changes, namely, the transformation of the ecclesiological structure into a doorway and the filling of that doorway's openings with column-saints-as-foundations, were surely intended to visualize Augustine's gloss of Ephesians 2:20 discussed in the previous section, in which the bishop of Hippo argued that the apostles and prophets in their role as foundations of the Church should also be

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understood as portals.137 Thus, even the ingenious rendering of John the Baptist and the apostles at Vezelay, as both foundations of and portals into the Church, was already part of how Ephesians 2:11-22 was pictorialized in the Benedictional of Aethelwold.138 As a careful examination of the relevant evidence indicates, then, a series of closely related images in the Galba Psalter and the Benedictional of Aethelwold can be identified as, at the very least, witnesses to the ultimate source for most of the salient features of the main portal scheme at Vezelay. It is impossible to determine to what extent these Anglo-Saxon visualizations of Ephesians 2:11-22 participated in a larger English pictorial tradition and thus whether or not the direct models for the scheme at Vezelay were the actual miniatures in the Galba Psalter and the Benedictional of Aethelwold, an intermediary cycle of images, or a cycle upon which all of these visualizations, in England and at Vezelay, were based. Whatever the case, the great achievement of the narthex composition’s makers was to select a range of important elements present in the different extant Anglo-Saxon visualizations of the Pauline ‘3

See above, pp. 192-195.

138 In fact, even Che repetition and quadripartite division of the apostles in the middle register at Vezelay seem to be anticipated in the Benedictional: as mentioned in n. 136 above, the apostles appear at the end of the hierarchy of saints scheme for a second time, in this case, as at Vezelay, divided into four group portraits of three figures each, suggestive of the four c o m e r s of the world to which they are implicitly about to spread the good news. Again as at Vezelay, moreover, Paul and Peter, appearing directly below the central capitals in their respective compositions, are the only two apostles with identifiable attributes, a widow's pea k and pointed beard in the case of Paul (fol. 3v; m y fig. 88)

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passage and to bring them together, in some instances in a transformed or reconceived state, to create a single, astonishingly multivalent sculptural ensemble. The first step of the monumental program's makers in this process was to take the depicted portal structure that appears in several of the Benedictional's miniatures and to turn it into a real doorway, but with the two smaller arches of the original scheme being replaced, on the west face of the portal, at least, by horizontal lintels, in order to create the large pictorial field of the tympanum. The implicit meaning of the two smaller arches within the original scheme was then made explicit by way of the tympanum's figural content. To this end, the motifs of the people-filled lintel blocks and archivolt compartments, used to express the literally edifying role played by the Jewish and gentile saints in the creation of the heavenly Church in the first two miniatures in the Galba Psalter, were brought together and filled, on the left, with the soon-to-be members of the earthly Church of the Jews and, on the right, with the soon-to-be members of the earthly Church of the gentiles. To visualize the notion that these two constituent peoples of Christianity were united in the cornerstonefoundation stone of Christ, the portal's makers then appropriated the conceit of the sacrificial Christ as central column, expressed in the Psalter's Nativity and keys in the case of Peter

(fol. 4r; ray fig. 89).

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composition and in the Benedictional's Presentation miniature by placing the child in front of the column and above an altar, but did so through the new motif of the cross. This new motif was devised, presumably, not only because the cross is explicitly mentioned in the Ephesians passage, but also because it was deemed capable of expressing in graphic terms the notion of the cornerstonefoundation stone as both joining and supporting the two churches, a function that became impossible for the column to perform on its own once the two arches had been straightened out into flat lintel blocks in the new scheme. The notion of the apostles and prophets operating as both foundations of and portals into the Church was then visualized by taking the motif of the central column-figure found in the Benedictional's images of the choirs of the saints, and of St. Swithun, and multiplying it. The result was the figures of John the Baptist assimilated to a column on the west face of the trumeau and of the apostles assimilated to pilasters both on the lateral faces of the trumeau and on the jambs. The motivation for multiplying the column-figure in this fashion was in turn twofold. First, the new arrangement allowed the sculptural composition to express more accurately the Ephesians passage's claim that both apostles and prophets played the role of foundation for

:3’ With flat lintel blocks, in other words, the column became able to express only a supporting function.

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the Church. Second, it allowed the monumental scheme to articulate the Augustinian idea that these foundation figures should also be understood as portals. This idea was successfully conveyed in the Benedictional's first three images of the choirs of saints through the placement of numerous saints in the portal's two openings. Such a solution, however, would obviously not have been possible in a real doorway so the column-figures-as-foundations-asportals were simply moved to the frames. The makers of the Vezelay scheme then visualized the further Augustinian point that Christ himself should be understood as the true portal of the Church, a point perhaps already implicitly expressed in the Benedictional's Presentation miniature through its adoption of a portal-like superstructure, by two means: first, by affixing the motif of John the Baptist fused to a column, itself already designated as both foundation and portal, onto the vertical bar of the trumeau cross; and second, by prominently displaying a medallion of the lamb of God in John's arms. Indeed, even this last combination of motifs, namely, the lamb, the cross, and the Baptist, may have been suggested by the Anglo-Saxon imagery, for the Nativity miniature in the Galba Psalter already combines an image of the sacrificial Christ, merged with a central column, and an allusion to baptism, in the form of the depiction of Christ being bathed by the midwives directly below.140 Concerning Che deeper significance of this combination of motifs at

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In order to render explicit the fact that this visualization of Ephesians 2:11-22 was to be understood as an image of the creation (and thus the "beginning") of the Church, finally, and to make the scheme both accord as accurately as possible with the Pauline passage's trinitarian content and express the notion that Christ as the keystone-cornerstone-foundation stone united the celestial and terrestial realms as well as the Jews and gentiles, the makers of the narthex portal composition placed a christological personification of the Trinity enthroned in heaven dispensing the tongues of fire at Pentecost in the inner tympanum. As mentioned in the previous chapter, an image of Pentecost (fig. 11) directly precedes a christological personification of the Trinity enthroned in heaven in the Benedictional (fig. 1) ,'il Indeed, the two miniatures seem to have been intended to be understood as virtually component parts of a single composition, making them the only known example of such a conflation before the main tympanum. The Pentecost miniature itself, moreover, anticipates the composition at Vezelay in that it is similarly enclosed in a portal-like frame and likewise seems to suggest the unification of the two churches, in its own case through the inclusion of two small-scale buildings, reminiscent in their symbolic function of those present in the first miniature of Christ Vezelay, see below, pp. 286-288. See above, pp. 90-92 and n. 57.

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amongst the choirs of saints in the Galba Psalter, in the spandrels of the portal's arch.142 Whether or not the content of the two illustrations was already actually merged in the portal scheme's direct model, therefore, if that model was a pictorial cycle other than that in the Benedictional itself, the various elements of the Pentecostal composition at Vezelay were all close at hand. Remarkably, an image of the miracle that combines features found separately in the Benedictional in a manner that prefigures the more complex arrangement of elements in the main portal can be cited. The so-called Benedictional of Archbishop Robert (Rouen, Bibliotheque Municipale, MS. Y.7) was produced at Winchester likely in the second quarter of the eleventh century and seems to have been based directly, in terms of both its text and images, on the Benedictional of Aethelwold.143 This manuscript's miniature of Pentecost (fol. 29v; fig. 91) includes the same portal-like frame and pair of small-scale buildings, which here look more explicitly like churches, that appear in the Pentecost composition in the Benedictional of Aethelwold. The makers Bianca Ktihnel has cited a number of other manuscript images dating to the ninth and tenth centuries that feature similar twin structures at the upper c o m e r s of the frame and that were also likelyintended to symbolize the theme of the unification of ecclesia ex circumcisione and ecclesia ex gentibus. One miniature discussed by Ktihnel, which depicts Saint-Bertin and two other monks and which was produced in Boulogne around the year 1000 (Bibliotheque Municipale, MS. 107, fol. 6v; my fig. 90) is a particularly relevant and convincing example. The two church-like structures in this picture are linked by a medallion image of the Lamb of God, in what appears to be yet another reference to Christ in his role as the unifying keystone. See From the Earthly to the Heavenly Jerusalem, pp. 134-135. See Deshman, Benedictional, pp. 267-268.

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of the eleventh-century illumination, however, have added the Ephesians-inspired architectural scheme of the two smaller arches supported by a column found in so many of the miniatures in the tenth-century manuscript. Moreover, they have transferred Peter from the right to the left side of the composition, presumably to maintain the symbolic associations of the architectural scheme active in the Presentation miniature in the Benedictional of Aethelwold and the Nativity composition in the Galba Psalter, that is, with the left arch signifying the Church of the Jews and the right arch signifying the Church of the gentiles.IU The creators of the Pentecost composition in the Benedictional of Archbishop Robert, finally, have even included the eternal deity in the scene, in the form of the hand of God. While the hand is only a summary version of the christological personification of the Trinity associated with the Pentecost miniature in the Benedictional of Aethelwold, this motif does introduce the notion of the deity as the sending agent of the tongues of fire. It was then left for the makers of the Vezelay main portal scheme, apparently, or the makers of a possibly more immediate model, to combine the hand and the christological personification of the Trinity, in order not only to express more accurately the trinitarian content of the Ephesians

144 The first of the apostles on the right side of the composition may well have been intended to be understood as Paul, given the figure’s long pointy beard, but the absence of any unambiguously Pauline attributes means that such an identification must remain speculative.

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passage, as just mentioned, but also to visualize the filioque. The correspondences that have been demonstrated to exist between the main portal scheme and the Anglo-Saxon images under consideration, then, provide rare and valuable insight into how a complicated monumental pictorial program like that at Vezelay might have come into being, with the help of existing manuscript imagery. Such a process, the previous pages suggest, necessitated many changes as well as continuities, in order to adapt the model's (or models') content to shifts in scale, medium, and context. Moreover, the evidence indicates, this process could clearly be accomplished without the replication of stylistic idioms. Admittedly, an intervening cycle of images, if it once existed, might have narrowed the stylistic divide apparent between the quintessentially Romanesque sculptures at Vezelay and their Anglo-Saxon precursors, but it could never have done away with this divide entirely. The correspondences revealed between these various works of art are perhaps even more significant for other reasons. First, they provide further, indeed irrefutable, proof that the main portal at Ste. Madeleine does in fact visualize Ephesians 2:11-22. Second, it should be remembered that a considerable body of evidence, written as well as visual, was presented in Chapter Two that suggests Anselm of Canterbury and/or his entourage were involved in the conceptualization of the christological personification of 220

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the Trinity at Vezelay.145 An occasion for the exchange of ideas and pictorial material between these English churchmen and those responsible for the erection of the abbey sculptures was also identified, namely, the years of Anselm's exile in Lyon (1099-1105) when Renaud of Semur, the soon-to-be abbot of Vezelay, was still a resident of the nearby monastery of Cluny. This issue will be discussed in greater depth in Chapter Five. It is worth noting here, however, that the correspondences demonstrated to exist between the main portal imagery at Vezelay and the AngloSaxon visualizations of Ephesians 2:11-22 provide compelling evidence that Anselm or his followers were involved not just in the conception of the trinitarian figure, but in the devising of the narthex portal program in its entirety.

See above, pp. 82-92.

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Chapter Four: The Three Portals The previous chapter revealed that the main portal at Vezelay visualizes an important ecclesiological metaphor found in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians (2:11-22) that describes the creation of the Universal Church in terms of the reconciliation of Jews and gentiles in the lapis angularis of Christ. The evidence presented to demonstrate this claim included not only the content of the main portal, but also a series of Anglo-Saxon images a) that themselves visualize all or part of the same Ephesians passage, b) that already contain virtually all of the essential components of the composition at Vezelay, and c) that therefore must be understood either as the direct pictorial models for the narthex main portal scheme or as closely related witnesses of those models. The extra-Biblical details enumerated at the outset of Chapter Three, such as the international and often contemporary character of the miracle's witnesses, the myriad physical and moral afflictions with which these peripheral figures were frequently invested, the rendering of many of them as pilgrims, and their depiction as increasingly less deformed and diseased as they approach their destination - details that do not appear in any of the Anglo-Saxon visualizations of the Ephesians passage - were clearly added as a means of adapting the Pauline scheme to its new context, namely, above and on each side of the main doorway for the laity into an important monastic pilgrimage 222

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church. These additions would have helped the lay and primarily pilgrim audience to imagine itself as included in the portal's vision of the Church, and would also, indeed, as a result, have likely rendered the program's complicated imagery both more memorable and easier to comprehend.1 But was the composition intended to do more? In particular, was it designed to speak in any way of what the lay visitor was to do once he or she had entered the basilica? The evidence suggests that the sculptures in fact have much to say on this question. An investigation of the nature of their claims in this regard, moreover, will reveal how all three of the narthex portals were intended to work together as a unified and coherent program. It will be useful to begin this examination of the relationship of the sculptures to the function of the sacred spaces they announce by looking more closely at the activities taking place on the main portal's two lintels.

The Mass As Ephesians 2:11-22 makes clear, the right lintel depicts gentiles being welcomed into the Christian community by Peter and Paul. That they are heeding Paul's urgings, articulated in the epistle, to join the Church specifically

Concerning the important remarkably complex sculptural would even have been intended constituents of its audience,

question of the degree to which this program would have been understood - or to be understood - by the various see below, pp. 330-345.

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in a state of peace,2 is demonstrated by the explicitly peaceful actions of the leading figures in the procession, the first of whom hands Peter and Paul a sword, blade downward, and the third of whom carries a shield under rather than over his arm, in a graphically non-combative gesture (fig. 92). The figures on the left lintel, in turn, as was revealed in the first section of the last chapter, are involved in the Jewish festival of first fruits, which occurs on the same day as Pentecost and which was itself already known by that name because it took place on the fiftieth day after Passover (fig. 59).3 Following the scriptural instructions for this festival, the Jews on the left lintel are shown presenting their first fruits of the herd and of the land as sacrificial offerings: the group of figures closest to the trumeau are about to slay an ox while the figures behind present such items as a fish, a loaf of bread, and a bowl of grapes. The goal in depicting this ceremony was certainly in part, as already noted, to identify these figures on the left lintel as members of the Church of the Jews and to emphasize that the offerings of this Old Testament festival are to be considered as types both of the offering of Christ at the Crucifixion and of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The typological relationship between these offerings and Christ at the Crucifixion is ' See Ephesians 2:14, 15, and 17. 3 See above, pp. 155-158.

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emphasized with particular force through the juxtaposition of the sacrificial ox and the cross and the lamb on the trumeau. When the activities of the two lintels are considered together, however, a further set of meanings reveals itself. First, the very pairing of scenes showing sacrificial offerings and the acquisition of peace conveys an important and commonly expressed spiritual message concerning the nature and rewards of Christian piety. That is, the scenes of Judaic offering symbolize the offering of the heart to God that each Christian is expected to make upon entering the Church, while the peaceful reception of the gentiles symbolizes the eternal peace in the next world that awaits all such true believers.4 Second, these two lintel scenes both constitute processions and as such evoke two of the 1 These concepts received perhaps their most extensive articulation in Augustine's De Civitace Dei, one of the most widely read texts of the Middle Ages. In Book X, chapter 5 of this treatise, for example, Augustine stated in regard to Old Testament sacrifices (CCSL, 47, edited by Bernard Dombart and Alphons Kalb [Tumhout, 1955], p. 278): "The instructions about the multifarious sacrifices in the service of the Tabernacle or the Temple are recorded in Scripture as divine commands. We see now that they are to be interpreted as symbolizing the love of God [Quaecumque igitur in ministerio t a b emaculi siue templi multis modis de sacrificiis leguntur diuinitus esse praecepta, ad dilectionem Dei~significando referuntur]." In Book XIX, chapter 11, in turn, he stated in regardto the true meaning of peace, (CCSL, 48, edited by B. Dombart and A. Kalb [Tumhout, 1955] , p. 675): "...we have to say that the end of this City [of God], whereby it will possess its Supreme Good, may be called either ’peace in life everlasting’ or ’life everlasting in peace.’ For peace is so great a good that even in relation to the affairs of earth and of our mortal state no word ever falls more gratefully upon the ear, nothing is desired with greater longing, in fact, nothing better can be found [...profee to finis ciuitatis huius, in quo summum habebit bonum, uel pax in uita a e t e m a uel uita a e t e m a in pace dicendus est, ut facilius ab omnibus possit intellegi. Tantum est enim pacis bonum, ut etiam in rebus terrenis atque mortalibus nihil gratius soleat audiri, nihil desiderabilius concupisci, nihil postremo possit melius inueniri].* This latter claim is followed by a long discussion (Book XIX, chapters 12-28) on the nature of Christian peace and its status as the ultimate reward of all those who maintain proper faith and obedience to God.

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most important activities to be performed by the laity during the Mass: on the left, the presentation of offerings and, on the right, the reception of the Eucharist. The presentation of offerings, commonly known as the Offertory Procession, originated in the early Christian period as an informal activity wherein the faithful moved forward at the beginning of the sacrifice element of the Mass and placed their gifts of bread and wine on the altar, or on a side table, for use during the Communion to follow.' By the early Middle Ages, the procession had become an established component of liturgical ceremony but, from the ninth century onward, it began to lose its specifically Eucharistic connection, involving instead gifts of other kinds, including such products of rural industry as those depicted on the left lintel.’ While these more diverse gifts were clearly no longer for use during the Mass, they were still conceived of as types of the Eucharistic offering and were explained in the same way, that is, as thank-offerings by the people to God. The continuing symbolic relationship between the procession's offerings and that of the Eucharist is made clear on the tympanum through the inclusion of gifts of grapes and bread and through their depiction as alone 5 See Joseph A. Jungmann Jr., The Mass of the Rowan Rite: Its Origins and Development, trans. Francis A. Brunner, 2 vols, (New York, 1955), vol. 2, pp. 1-10; Robert Cabie, The Church at Prayer, An Introduction to the Liturgy; Volume II: The Eucharist, trans. Matthew J. O'Connell, ed. Aime G. Martimort (Collegeville, 1986), pp. 77-78. In addition to food, the faithful were also known to offer utensils for use in the church, deeds of land, and increasingly, from the eleventh century on, coin money. See Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, vol. 2, pp. 10-17.

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being presented with covered hands, as was traditional for these most sacred of oblations (fig. 93) .7 It is also made clear through the very choice of subject matter on the left lintel, for the Old Testament sacrifices held by these participants in the festival of first fruits were already themselves, as a whole, commonly interpreted as types of the Eucharistic offering.3 The reception of Communion by the congregation, in turn, is traditionally seen as the exact counterpart to the Offertory, in the sense that the Offertory initiates lay involvement in the sacrifice element of the Mass while Communion culminates it.' The Communion rite, moreover, although impossible to establish in its specifics at twelfth-century Vezelay, was itself undoubtedly initiated, as it was elsewhere, by a series of prayers or gestures each of which took as its central theme the acquisition of peace: the Pax Domini, the Kiss of Peace, and sometimes further The customary of Ulrich, believed to have been written at Cluny in the 1080s, emphasized that the bread and the wine were to be carried on such cloths. See tldalrici Consuetudines Cluniacense, III, 12 (PL, 149, col. 756A). 1 As Augustine stated in De Civitace Dei, for example, after describing the body and blood of Christ placed on the altar table (Book XVII, chap. 20; [CCSL, 48, p. 588]): "For that is the sacrifice which superseded all the sacrifices of the old covenant, which were offered as a foreshadowing of what was to come [Id enim sacrificium successit omnibus illis sacrificiis ueteris testamenti, quae immolabantur in umbra futuri].* See Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, vol. 2, p. 344. Indeed, Augustine saw these two processions, in their early Christian form, as so integrally related to each other that he described them as recapitulating the miraculous contract, as he saw it, of the Incarnation. That is, he argued that the Offertory and Communion processions echoed Christ's reception/assumption of our humanity (the offerings) in return for his bestowal upon us of his divinity (the Eucharist). See Enarrationes in Psalmos CXXXX, 7 (CCSL, 40, edited by E. Dekkers and J. Fraipont [Tumhout, 1956], pp. 1894-1895). See also Cabie, The Church at Prayer, vol. II, pp. 78-80.

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prayers pleading, exactly as does the Ephesians passage, for peace and concord within the Church.10 The liturgical correspondences to the main portal imagery do not end there, however, for the prayer that follows these ritual requests for peace is the Agnus Dei, whose object of address was once visible on the disc held by John the Baptist on the trumeau. In a sense, the Agnus Dei, which was sung by the people and the clergy, often while the celebrant took Communion," serves to link the two lay processions thematically, just as the disc itself does physically. That is, the prayer addresses Christ specifically as he is believed to be present in the Eucharistic offering, thereby alluding to the events of the left lintel; at the same time, it ends with the words "dona nobis pacem [give us peace],"" thereby alluding to the content of the right lintel as well. Indeed, the Agnus Dei, given that it is recited three times, a number suggestive of the Trinity, even seems to establish a thematic link between the disc and the christological personification of the 'J The exact arrangement of these prayers and ritual gestures varied from church to church. Unfortunately, no documents survive concerning the performance of the Mass at Vezelay. For the existing sources in regard to the use and meaning of the Pax Domini, the Kiss of Peace, and the changeable prayer for peace, see Jungmann, The Mass of Che Roman Rite, vol. 2, pp. 321-332. " See ibid., pp. 332-338; Edward Foley, "The Song of the Assembly in Medieval Eucharist," in Medieval Liturgy: A Book of Essays, ed. Lizette Larson-Miller (New York and London, 1997), pp. 209-210. “ This phrase seems to have been used increasingly from the eleventh century on, being cited during the prayer's third and final recitation. The first two recitations concluded with the older plea, "miserere nobis [have mercy on us] .* See Jungmann, The Mass of Che Roman Rice, vol. 2, pp. 338339.

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triune deity depicted directly above it. What seems to be presented at Vezelay, then, is not just an image of Pentecost fused with a visualization of Ephesians 2:11-22, but also a vision of the Mass itself, in the form of the public Missa Major.13 In this regard, the left lintel shows the Offertory Procession of the people in the moments before the actual reception of the gifts by the monks while the right lintel shows the lay congregation's Communion procession in the moments before their actual reception of the Eucharist.14 The Eucharist itself is then symbolized by the lamb and the cross on the trumeau, which of course are located directly on axis with the main altar. Indeed, the precise arrangement of these trumeau motifs sets up an undoubtedly intended progression that speaks of the visitor's entrance into the church and participation in Communion, from the lamb held by John the Baptist, which would have been encountered first by the lay visitor, which refers to a prediction of Christ's sacrifice, and which represents the event most symbolically, to the cross behind The Missa Major was celebrated every day in Cluniac foundations but was probably open to the public only on Sundays and most major feast days. The frequency of lay participation in the Mass certainly varied from foundation to foundation, however, and unfortunately no information exists on this question in regard to Vezelay. Concerning the Missa Major at Cluny at the beginning of the twelfth century, see Noreen Hunt, Cluny under Sainc Hugh, 1049-1109 (Notre Dame, 1968), pp. 99-114, 208-210. Judy Feldman Scott was the first to raise the possibility that these lintel processions were intended to speak of real liturgical ceremonies. She even went so far as to suggest that the left lintel represented the Offertory Procession of the major feast day masses. Because she was unaware of the sculptures' relationship to Ephesians 2:11-22, however, and thus of the peace theme at work on the right lintel, and because she did not see the composition, as a whole, as an image of the public Missa Major, she was unable to identify the processions' more precise significance. See "The Narthex Portal at Vezelay," pp. 60-68.

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John the Baptist, which would have been encountered next, which refers to Christ's historical sacrifice, and which represents the event more concretely, to the Eucharist on the altar, which would have been encountered last, which when consumed by the lay visitor would have constituted a reenactment of Christ's sacrifice, and which is therefore not a representation at all but a reality. Within this scheme, finally, the apostles of the inner tympanum function as an image of the monks in the choir behind, involved not just in the generalized activities of reading and prayer, as suggested in the previous chapter, but in the specific act of performing the liturgy. Christ, in turn, serves as a figure of the abbot-priest distributing his blessings to the congregation. In this regard, it is worth noting that the abbot of each monastery is implicitly identified in the Rule of Benedict itself as an imago Christi.‘5 The miracle of Pentecost, moreover, was already interpreted in the Benedictional of Aethelwold, a manuscript

’■ The comparison of the abbot to Christ is made, for example, at the beginning of chapter five (flenedicti Regula; CSEL, 75, ed. Rudolph Hanslik, 2nd ed. [Vienna, 1977], p. 35): "The first degree of humility is prompt obedience. This is necessary for all who think of Christ above all else. These souls, because of the holy servitude to which they have sworn themselves, whether through fear of hell or expectation of eternity, hasten to obey any command of a superior [that is, the abbot] as if it were a command of God. As the Lord says, 'At the hearing of the ear he has obeyed me' (Ps. 17:44). And He [the Father] says to the teacher [the Son]: 'He who hears you, hears me' (Lk. 10:16) [Primus humilitatis gradus est oboedientia sine mora./ Haec conuenit his, qui nihil sibi a Christo carius aliquid existimant,/ propter seruitium sanctum, quod professi sunt, seu propter metum gehennae uel gloriam uitae a e t e m a e , / mox aliquid imperatum a maiore fuerit, ac si diuinitus imperetur, moram pati nesciant in faciendo./ De quibus dominus dicit: Obauditu auris oboediuit mihi./ Et item dicit doctoribus: Qui uos audit, me audit]." English translation from Anthony C. Meisel and M. L. del Mastro, The Rule of St. Benedict (New York, 1975), pp. 54-55.

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now known to have exercised an important influence on the portal program, either directly or through an intermediary, as a type for the blessings received from the priest by the faithful during the Mass. The middle verse of one of its blessings for the Saturday after Pentecost states, for example: "And may he, who gave the same Holy Spirit in tongues of fire to his disciples, completely purify your hearts [through this blessing] by its illumination...Amen. "18 The liturgical meaning of the main portal, and particularly the Eucharistic significance of the trumeau and two lintels, seems also to be hinted at through the content of the bottom medallions of the archivolt cycle of the Labors of the Months and Signs of the Zodiac (figs. 94 and 95). These two medallions, effectively located at the end of each lintel, depict seated figures, on the left, holding a loaf of bread and, on the right, holding a chalice.1' Apparently functioning as personifications of the months of January and December, respectively,18 they were also likely

Warner and Wilson, Benedictional, p. 26: "Quique eundem spiritum sanctum in igneis linguis discipulis suis dedit ipsius illustratione corda uestra perlustret...Amen.* :7 To my knowledge, Veronique Frandon was the first to suggest the possible Eucharistic significance of these medallions, although she did not attempt to associate them in this regard with the imagery of the tympanum. See ”Du multiple a I'Un. Approche iconographique du calendrier et des saisons du portail de 1 ’eglise abbatiale de Vezelay,* Gesta 37 (1998), n. 60. ;s The seated man in the right medallion, the last in the cycle, is explicitly identified in a now-fragmentary inscription running around the medallion's frame as December: "omnibus in membris designat imago decembris." The man in the left medallion, the first in the cycle, has been interpreted by virtually all scholars, in light of this inscription, as a figure of January. Most recently, see Frandon, La Patrimoine de la Basilique de Vezelay, pp. 66 and 73.

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to have been intended to emphasize the regular performance of the Missa Major, in its public form, throughout the calendar year. *

★

★

Early Christian apse and nave mosaics were commonly invested with liturgico-Eucharistic associations of one kind or another, so the main portal at Vezelay, in terms of its liturgical content, can be said to participate in a longstanding tradition of monumental church decoration. What is perhaps more significant for an understanding of the origins of these aspects of the Vezelay scheme, however, is the fact that the Anglo-Saxon visualizations of the Ephesians passage, identified in the previous chapter as likely sources for the narthex portal program, were already themselves heavily invested with liturgical symbolism. Each of the motifs used to designate Christ as the cornerstone-foundation stone in the relevant miniatures in the Galba Psalter and the Benedictional of Aethelwold, for example, in some cases in conjunction with the central column, clearly configure Christ also as the Eucharist. In the Nativity compositions in both the Psalter and the Benedictional (figs. 78 and 79), this was done by rendering the infant Jesus in a crib depicted in the form of an altarchurch."9 In the Benedictional's Presentation miniature (fig.

One of the Christinas blessings that the Nativity miniature in the Benedictional prefaces makes this Eucharistic association explicit, for it describes Christ in the crib-altar-comerstone as "the bread of the angels,... the food of the faithful animals in the crib of the church [qui eum qui panis est. angelorum, in praesepi ecclesiae cibum fecit esse

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80), in turn, this was accomplished by showing the Christ child directly above a somewhat more naturalistic rendering of an altar. At least three of the Anglo-Saxon pictures discussed in the previous chapter, moreover, contain references to the Offertory. The first miniature of Christ amongst the choir of saints in the Galba Psalter (fig. 76) shows Abel and another patriarch, in the lintel directly below the deity, offering up a lamb and a bushel of wheat, respectively. The Eucharistic significance of their sacrifice is highlighted not only by the nature of the objects offered (the lamb as a symbol of Christ's blood/wine, the bushel of wheat as a symbol of his body/bread), but also by the fact that the two patriarchs present their offerings, just as do the two figures presenting bread and grapes in the left-lintel procession at Vezelay, with covered hands. The Presentation miniature in the Benedictional, in turn, shows Christ himself being offered up as the sacrifice,*0 and while Mary does not present Christ with covered hands here, he is certainly received in this manner by Simeon. Indeed, the importance of this aspect of the offertory ritual is particularly emphasized, through the depiction of the top

fidelium animalium] ." Concerning the Eucharistic significance of Christ in this miniature, see Deshman, "Living Ecclesia,* pp. 262-267; idem, Benedictional, pp. 20-21. ;; As Deshman has demonstrated (Benedictional, pp. 35-36), the doves on Mary's head should also be understood as offerings to God, in accordance with the Old Testament purification law articulated in Leviticus 12:7.

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surface of the altar as yet another pair of covered hands."1 Deshman has demonstrated, finally, that the figures holding palm fronds behind Christ in the miniature depicting the Entry into Jerusalem in the Benedictional (fol. 45v; fig. 96) were also intended to be understood as types of the congregation participating in the Offertory Procession of the Mass." The last two images are particularly relevant precedents for the scheme at Vezelay. First, the miniature of the Presentation in the Benedictional seems to anticipate the very arrangement of liturgical components on the main portal. That is, it similarly depicts a group presenting offerings on the left side of the trumeau-as-cornerstone and another group being welcomed by personifications of the Church on the right (Peter and Paul, in the case of the main portal, the Christ child in the case of the miniature). Indeed, given that Simeon actually describes Christ as the bringer of peace at the moment he accepts the child into his arms (Luke 2:29),"3 the group on the right, composed of

Concerning Che complex meaning of this unusual motif, see ibid., pp. 39-43. Aelfric and Aethelwold both noted that the congregation carried palms into the church on Palm Sunday, as part of the reenactment of Christ's entry into Jerusalem, and then presented them during the Mass as their offering. Even more generally, however, the Offertory Procession was likened by medieval commentators such as Amalarius of Metz and Honorius Augustodunensis to the multitude who followed Christ into Jerusalem at the time of his entry. See ibid., pp. S3-84; Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, vol. 2, p. 9, n. 38. "Lord, now you are dismissing/forgiving your servant in peace, according to your word [nunc dimittis servum tuum Domine secundum verbum tuum in pace]." As Deshman noted (Benedictional, pp. 40-41), it was in large part because Christ was described by Simeon as the bringer of peace that the former was compared by Ambrosius Autpertus at his Presentation to

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Simeon and his assistant, can already itself be characterized as a peace procession. The tympanum of the depicted portal in the Presentation miniature, moreover, also already features an image of the blessing deity, one that is in fact far more explicit in its signification than that at Vezelay, given that it takes the form of the hand of God arranged in a two-fingered gesture of benediction."1 The Benedictional's depiction of the Entry into Jerusalem, in turn, anticipates the main portal by representing a biblical event as a type of a contemporary liturgical rite involving, very specifically, the laity, for the palm-carrying multitude who followed Christ into Jerusalem are stated in the medieval sources to prefigure the people's Offertory Procession, not the monks'.^ It is more than likely, therefore, that the idea of transforming a visualization of the Ephesians passage into an image of the Mass was inspired by the liturgical content already present in the main portal's Anglo-Saxon precursors. The makers of the sculptural scheme at Vezelay, or perhaps its more immediate model, if such a model existed, simply the cornerstone. As Ambrosius stated, taking on the voice of Simeon: "You dismiss in peace, because according to your promise through the mystery of the incarnate Word, enmities having been cancelled, I merited to be reconciled to you. You dismiss in peace, because I see peace. For he himself is our peace, who made the two one (Eph 2:14) [Dimittis in pace, quia secumdum promissionem tuam per incamati Oerbi mysterium, solutis inimicitiis, tibi merui reconciliari. Dimittis in pace, quia uideo pacem. 'Ipse enim est pax nostra, qui fecit utraque unum']." From Ambrosius Autpertus, Sermo in Purificatione Sanctae Mariae, 8; CCCM, 27B, ed. Robert Weber, (Tumhout, 1979), pp. 992-993. ;; Concerning the full meaning of this manus Dei, see Deshman, Benedictional, pp. 35-38. 25 For these sources, see above, p. 234, n. 22.

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adapted that content to suit the portal's very different physical and functional context. That is, they turned this composition decorating the lay entrance into the nave into a more detailed and thus more empirically accurate vision of the Mass, as a means of declaring to the abbey's visitors the precise nature of the activities in which they were to participate in the sacred spaces on the other side of the threshold. To accomplish this change, the scheme's authors included references to a larger number of liturgical activities than appear in any one of the extant Anglo-Saxon images (the offertory and peace processions, the Agnus Dei, the Eucharist, the monks' performance of the Mass, and the priest's blessing). They also filled the composition with more figures, to reflect more faithfully the actual numbers that (ideally) would have been involved in the public Missa Major. Moreover, they seem to have designed the composition literally to look like the choir behind. This is true not only in the sense that the semi-circular shape of the tympanum would have repeated the semi-circular shape of the semi-dome of the original Romanesque apse, and that the central figure of Christ in the mandorla would almost undoubtedly have been echoed by a similar central figure of Christ in a mandorla painted on the surface of the apse wall, but it is also true in the sense that a real cross, like the one carved on the trumeau, would have sat on the altar. Moreover, this cross would similarly have been located, because of the decoration of the apse above, below 236

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an image of Christ enthroned.26 In this last respect, yet another Anglo-Saxon miniature produced at Winchester seems to stand as a significant, and potentially inspirational, precedent. The composition in question shows King Cnut and his wife Queen Aelfgyfu donating a cross to the New Minster church (fig. 97). Appearing in the so-called New Minster Liber Vitae (London, British Library, MS. Stowe 944, fol. 6r), a manuscript probably produced in 1031,2' the picture is certainly unlike the tympanum scheme in terms of its vertical, rectangular dimensions and its limited number of figures. Nonetheless, it anticipates the later composition in many important ways. First, the Anglo-Saxon image similarly attempts to locate its protagonists in the real space of a choir: the king and queen are shown actually placing the cross on the abbey church's main altar. As a result, the miniature not only features the same arrangement of a cross positioned directly below a figure of Christ enthroned in a mandorla, but it likewise leaves ambiguous what is to be understood as an image within an image and what is not. At Vezelay, this

‘‘ As noted above (p. 11), the present Gothic choir was erected between 1180 and 1215, replacing the east end likely completed during the abbacy of Artaud (1096-1106). This earlier choir, undoubtedly built in a Romanesque style similar to the roughly contemporary choirs of Sainte- Foy, Conques, Cluny III, Paray-le-Monial, and Berze-la-Ville (my fig. 51), would have featured frescoes on the solid wall of the conch of the apse. While the exact subject matter of these frescoes is unknown, the imagery would certainly have centered around a figure of the enthroned Christ, as does the surviving imagery at Berze-la-Ville. This date is inscribed on f. 33v of the manuscript, in a passage on the six ages of the world, by the scribe responsible for the bulk of the text. See Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, pp. 95-96.

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ambiguity pertains to Christ and the twelve apostles in the inner tympanum, who can simultaneously be read as the abbotpriest and his brethren performing the liturgy and as depicted figures in the apse composition that would have existed above them. In the Liber Vitae picture, the ambiguity again pertains to the enthroned Christ and the figures that flank him,:s along with the pair of half-length angels attending to Cnut and his wife, but is founded on the viewer's inability to discern whether these figures are heavenly apparitions or part of the choir's painted decoration.'3 The similarities do not end there, however, for the Anglo-Saxon miniature also anticipates the main portal scheme both in its emphasis on the participation of the laity in activities around the altar (the king and queen, like the figures on the lintels at Vezelay, rush from left and right toward the cross), and in its apparent metaphorizing of the resident monks as both columns and foundations. At Vezelay, the monks are implicitly characterized as column/foundations in the sense that the monks-as-apostles in the main image appear for a second time in the middle register, assimilated to pilasters, as the literal, Ephesians-inspired supports for the tympanum above. '* It may no coincidence that the figures flanking Christ in both images are the abbeys' patron saints: Peter and Paul in the case of Vezelay, the Virgin Mary and Peter in the case of the New Minster at Winchester. *’ In both instances, it is worth noting, a similar indeterminacy exists not only between what is real and what is depicted within the composition, but also between what is to be interpreted as belonging to the earthly realm and what to the celestial.

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In the Liber Vitae miniature, in turn, the monks have been likened to column/foundations by two means: first, they are similarly positioned at the bottom of the composition and thus play a literally supportive role for the main actions of the event portrayed in the miniature,-30 second, the monks are themselves similarly assimilated to columns, through their careful placement between the columns of the depicted ambulatory arcade.31 ★

*

*

The numerous parallels apparent between the composition at Vezelay and the Liber Vitae miniature certainly both shed further light on the representational goals of the main portal and add to the plethora of evidence of English participation in its conception. The later sculptural program, however, articulates a further theme of arrival and departure that is absent, to my knowledge, from all of its Anglo-Saxon precursors. Kristin Sazama has already begun to

The m o n k s ' role as foundations is further emphasized through the use of the semi-circular upper boundary of the arcade as the groundline for the king, queen and altar. This conceit creates an intriguingly ambiguous spatial relationship between the monks, on the one hand, and the king, queen, cross, and altar, on the other, the latter appearing to be located simultaneously above and in front of the resident brethren. K It would be pushing the evidence too far to argue that this picture was itself intended to be understood as a visualization of Ephesians 2:1122. As mentioned above (see pp. 208-210), the characterization of important figures of the Church, whether they be apostles, later saints, or contemporary monks, as columns had widespread purchase and many different sources. Moreover, Christ is not likened to a keystone or cornerstone in the miniature. The illuminators of the Liber Vitae, however, were clearly familiar with the imagery in the Benedictional of Aethelwold (see Deshman, Benedictional, pp. 74-75, 88, 106, 148) so it is entirely possible that in making this composition they were directly inspired by the Benedictional's various visualizations of the Ephesians passage.

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explore the means by which this theme is expressed.32 She has argued that the inclusion around the tympanum's periphery of an array of the peoples of the world, which imbues the composition with allusions to the Mission of the Apostles, sets up two opposing directional thrusts: from the periphery toward the center in regard to the witnesses of Pentecost, who rush toward the site of the miracle, and from the center to the periphery in regard to the apostles, who will implicitly soon travel across the globe to fulfill their missionary objectives. While Sazama's hypothesis is generally convincing, the identification of Ephesians 2:11-22 as the main portal's key textual source now makes possible a more precise assessment of how this theme is articulated and for what purpose. That is, the content of the Ephesians passage has revealed that it is the apostles in the middle register, in their role as the evangelizing foundations of the Church, rather than those receiving the tongues of fire in the inner tympanum, that should be understood as about to embark to the four corners of the earth. It was in large part to express this fact, as was noted in Chapter Three, that the apostles of the middle register were arranged in four separate groups.33 When this theme of arrival and departure, and the manner in which it is expressed, are considered in the context of the main portal as a visualization of the public See above, pp. 60-63; "Spiritual and Temporal Authority,* pp. 58-95. ” See above, pp. 186-188.

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Missa Major, moreover, two further aspects of the theme's meaning emerge. First, the departing apostles-as-foundations in the middle register can themselves be understood as an important component of the portal's vision of the Mass. After all, the very name by which the Mass came to be known in the early Middle Ages, missa, means "to dismiss" or "to send forth." This epithet speaks of a widely endorsed notion of the Mass as a gathering together of the members of the Church to share in the body of Christ (a notion that is effectively expressed at Vezelay through the depiction of Christ as the unifying lapis angularis), members who, after having been cleansed and fortified by Communion and its related blessings, are then sent out into the world to relay the Good News and to stand as examples for the less pious to follow.14 The idea of the Mass as a form of evangelicallymotivated gathering and dismissal is actually expressed in the last words uttered by the celebrant to the people before their departure, "Ite missa est [Go, you are sent/ dismissed]."15 These words, which seem to have given rise to the name of the Mass in the first place, refer both to the blessing of the people that immediately precedes their utterance (and indeed to all of the blessings received during the ceremony) and to the congregation itself which,

See Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, vol. 1, pp. 173-175. See Ludwig Eisenhofer and Joseph Lechner, The Liturgy of the Roman Rite, trans. A. J. and E. F. Peeler (New York, 1961), p. 330; Bernard BoCte and Christine Mohrmann, L'Ordinaire de la Messe; Texte Critique, Traduction et Etudes (Paris, 1953), pp. 145-146.

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as just noted, is now being sent out implicitly to spread the faith beyond the church's doors. The second aspect of the theme's meaning in this context follows from the first. That is, the depiction of the Mass on the main portal as a gathering and dismissal demonstrably involves an important transformation, for those shown to be arriving around the tympanum's periphery are non-apostles while those shown to be departing in the middle register are apostles. The non-apostles, moreover, are shown, as discussed in Chapter Three, to be plagued by illness, injury and vice while the apostles, being the recipients of the sanctifying blessing depicted in the inner tympanum, are shown as free of all affliction. The intended message, then, is clear: those members of the sinful outside world who imitate the piety of the monk-apostles of Vezelay by presenting offerings (of their heart as well as of material goods), by partaking in Communion, and by reciting the Agnus Dei, will likewise receive a blessing. As a result, they too will be purified of their spiritual and/or physical imperfections and will thus themselves depart, effectively, as apostles. The sculptural imagery, however, emphasizes that this act of transformation from arriving and afflicted non­ apostle to departing and faith-spreading apostle will actually require more on the part of the lay congregant participating in the Mass than the giving of offerings, the receiving of Communion, and the reciting of the Agnus Dei; 242

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and, indeed, it is in the articulation of this claim that the three portals together can be seen to find their meaning and coherence.

The Creed In Chapter Two, it was demonstrated that the central deity of the main portal at Vezelay was carefully designed to visualize and validate the filioque, the theologically controversial clause officially added by the Latin Church to the Nicene Creed at the Council of Bari in 1098. More specifically, it was established that the depiction of the tongues of fire radiating directly from the fingertips of this christological personification of the Trinity was designed both to verify the claim that the Holy Spirit proceeds simultaneously from the Father and the Son and to prove the claim's orthodoxy, following the arguments made by Anselm of Canterbury at the Council of Bari and again in his De Processione Spiritus Sancti of 1102-03, by showing that the simultaneously-sent Spirit nonetheless proceeds from a single source.56 It is important to understand in this context that the original creed was believed from the Early Christian period onward to have been composed by the apostles following their

" The Greeks argued that the filioque implies the operation of two separate divine sources, and as such suggests the existence of more than one God. Concerning the trinitarian deity at Vezelay as a visualization of the filioque, see above, pp. 68-100.

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reception of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.37 As one eighthcentury sermon, thought in the Middle Ages to have been written by Augustine, stated:36 On the tenth day after the Ascension, when the disciples were gathered together in fear of the Jews, the Lord sent the promised Paraclete among them. At His coming they were inflamed like red-hot iron and, being filled with the knowledge of all languages, they composed the creed. The ultimate goal of this legend was to demonstrate the divine origins of all of the creeds and thus to establish their absolute authority. As has been discussed, Anselm used a similar strategy to argue for the addition of the filioque to the Nicene Creed, in particular, by claiming that the content of the clause was actually implied in Christ's own promises, recounted in the Gospel of John, that the Holy Spirit would be sent both by him (15:26) and by the Father (14:26) .!9 In the narthex portal sculptures, the visual evidence suggests, these two strategies were ingeniously merged. That is, the portal program not only visualizes both John 15:26 and 14:26, as noted in Chapter Two, but it also depicts, through its Pentecostal content, the very instant at which the apostles conceived the Creed. Thus, the chattering See Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, pp^. 1-4; Jean-Paul Bouhot, "L'origine apostolique du Symbole au Moyen Age," in Pensee, image et communication en Europe medievale (Besanpon, 1993), pp. 159-162. Sermo 240 {PL, 39, col. 2189) : "Decimo die post ascensionem, discipulis prae timore Judaeorum congregatis, Dominus promissum Paracletum misit: quo veniente ut candens ferrum inflainmati, omniumque linguarum peritia repleti, Symbolum composuerunt.* See above, pp. 86-87.

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disciples in the inner tympanum should be understood as involved in the act of communicating their new, divinely ordained doctrine, which is then being written down, it seems, in a conflation of successive moments, by the two apostles seated in the lowest archivolt compartment on the left. Scribes record the content of a creed as it is being composed in precisely this manner in the illustration accompanying the Athanasian Creed in the Utrecht Psalter (fol. 90v; fig. 98),

the only differences in the earlier

miniature being that

the composers of the creed, rather than

the scribes, are located on the periphery and that these composers are seventy-eight clerics attending a church council, rather than the twelve apostles at Pentecost.40 The scheme at Vezelay, however, goes one step further than the Psalter illustration, in that at least one of the key tenets that the apostles in the inner tympanum proclaim is actually depicted in the sculptures, namely, the procession of the Holy Spirit from both the Father and the Son. The aim of this scheme, in turn, was no doubt to emphasize the truth of the filioque, but it

was also to demonstrate the validity of

the claim often madeby Western theologians that

the

filioque clause had implicitly been present in the Nicene Creed, and indeed in all creeds, from the very moment of the

Concerning the possible identity of this council, see Christopher C. Walter, L 'iconographie des conciles dans la tradition byzantine (Paris, 1970), pp. 53-55; and Suzy Dufrenne, Les illustration du Psautier d'Utrecht (Strasbourg, 1987), p. 63 and n. 205.

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first creed's apostolic creation.41 The assertion that the apostles are depicted in the inner tympanum in the process of articulating the creed raises an important question: how can they be both reciting this text and performing the liturgy, as they were demonstrated to be doing in the preceding section of this chapter? The answer is that the two tasks were intended to be understood as one and the same. The single remaining essential act performed by the laity during the public Missa Major that has yet to be mentioned is the profession of none other text than the Nicene Creed. Included by the end of the eleventh century in all Sunday masses and in those masses celebrating, at the very least, feasts mentioned in its verses,42 the Nicene Creed was recited by the people, along with the monks, after the Gospel lection but before the Offertory.41 As such, this proclamation of proper faith served as a means both of affirming the doctrinal correctness of the epistle and gospel readings that had just been concluded and of cleansing the faithful, as it were, in preparation for their participation in the upcoming

11 This assertion, made by Paulinus of Aquileia and Humbert of Silva Candida, among others, was made to counter Greek claims that it was heretical to tamper with the wording of creeds fixed by earlier ecumenical councils. See Pelikan, The Spirit of Eastern Christendom, pp. 191-192. For sources, see Jungmann, 469-470 and ns. 50 and 51.

The Mass of the Roman Rite, vol. 1, p.

See, for example. Hunt's reconstruction of the Missa Major as performed at Cluny in the later eleventh century, in Cluny under St. Hugh 1049-1109, pp. 208-210. Concerning the notion of the Nicene Creed as a Credo specially for the people, see Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, vol. 1, pp. 471-472.

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sacrifice element of the Mass. The apostles in the inner tympanum, then, are being shown in the process of composing/proclaiming the Nicene Creed, as part of their performance of the public Missa Major. Moreover, the controversial new addition to the Creed, the filioque clause, is itself actually visualized, through the actions of the central deity. Given the Nicene Creed's importance to the laity's overall experience of the liturgy, and given the fact that the main portal contains pictorial allusions to all of the other key component parts of the public Missa Major, from the point of view of its lay participants, this added conceit makes perfect sense. More, however, can be said on this matter. Indeed, the evidence indicates that the three portals together were actually intended to function as a visualization of the Nicene Creed's entire contents. At the outset, it must be emphasized that the sculptures do not pictorialize the Creed in any literal, word-for-word manner. Rather, their component parts should be understood as having been carefully designed simply to confirm the truth of each of the tenets of faith articulated in the creedal text. To make this scheme successful, it will be shown, certain motifs were imbued with an ingenious and astonishingly rich multivalence, the goal being to allow them to serve different, although always related, iconographic functions in different contexts. In pictorializing the Creed, the three portals should 247

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also be understood as constituting a single composition, made up of two distinct registers (fig. 99). The lower register, originally linked by a stringcourse that ran uninterrupted along its base, joining the three portals,’4 is composed of the central trumeau and jambs (that is, the middle register of the central portal), and of the two side tympana.45 The upper register is composed of the main tympanum alone. This two-tiered system, it will become clear, was designed to organize the Creed's various claims into two separate categories, with those concerning primarily the terrestial realm being depicted in the lower register and those concerning the interaction of the terrestial and the celestial realms being depicted in the upper register. The deeper motivation for presenting the creedal material in this fashion was to allow the sculptures to express the fact that the Nicene Creed, although formulated in three separate articles, declares a belief in just two fundamental principles, namely, the Trinity and the Incarnation. To understand precisely how the Nicene Creed is visualized at Vezelay, it will be useful, first, to cite

4* See Salet, La Madeleine de Vezelay, pp. 42-43, and above, pp. 16-17. ‘r’ when the three portals are considered separately, of course, the trumeau and jambs of the central doorway constitute that doorway's middle register, which is how they have been characterized up to this point. The side tympana, in turn, constitute these portals' upper register, technically speaking. Because the lowest register in each portal does not play a role in the visualization of the Creed, however, it would be confusing, and indeed misleading, to describe it as part of the creedal composition.

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this Creed's text in full:'16 We believe in one God, the Father, almighty, maker of heaven and earth; of all things visible and invisible; And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance through the Father, through whom all things came into existence, who because of us men and because of our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man, and was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures and ascended to heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father, and will came again with glory to judge living and dead, of whose kingdom there will be no end; And of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and life-giver, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is together worshipped and together glorified, who spoke through the prophets; in one holy Catholic and apostolic Church. We confess one baptism to the remission of sins; we look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen. The first article ("We believe in one God, the Father, almighty, maker of heaven and earth; of all things visible and invisible"), together with the first section of the second article ("And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only *" "Credo in unum Deum Patrem omnipotentum, visibilium omnium et invisibilium.

factorem caeli et terrae,

Et in unum Dominum Jersum Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum, et ex Patre natum ante omnia saecula. Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero, gentium, non factum, consubstantialem Patri: per quem omnia facta sunt. Qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem descendit de caelis. Et incamatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est. Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato; passus et sepultus est, et resurrexit tertia die, secundum Scripturas, et ascendit in caelum, sedet ad dexteram Patris. Et iterum venturus est cum gloria judicare vivos et mortuos, cujus regni non erit finis. Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem; qui ex Patre Filioque procedit. Qui cum Patre et Filio simnl adoratur et conglorificatur; qui locutus est per prophetas. Et unam sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam. Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum. Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen." From Botte and Mohrmann, L'Ordinaire de la Messe, p. 66.

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begotten Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, through whom all things came into existence") articulate two important beliefs: a) God's role as the creator of the cosmos, and b) the unity and eternal co-existence of the Father and the Son. The latter belief is easily understood to be visualized at Vezelay through the conjunction of the central deity, as a christological personification of the Trinity, and of the framing cycle of the signs of the zodiac and the labors of the month, given the framing cycle's role as a representation, generally speaking, of the entirety of time in the universe.4 Indeed, the unity and co-existence of the Father and the Son seem to have been explicitly emphasized, as noted in Chapter Two, through the placement of exactly three strange creatures above the head of the deity in the archivolts, in an interruption of the archivolt's calendar cycle, creatures who, as symbols of eternity, pull the ends of their own bodies toward their heads to create three never-ending circles.48 The notion of God specifically as the creator of the cosmos is suggested initially by the figure and actions of * Concerning the significance of the medieval calendar cycle as a representation of time, see Marjorie Jean Hall Panadero, "The Labors of the Months and the Signs of the Zodiac in Twelfth-Century French Facades,* Ph.D. dissertation, the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, 1984), partic. pp. 118-257. Concerning the significance of the calendar cycle at Vezelay, specifically, as a representation of time, see ibid., pp. 24-44 and 243249. See also Frandon, "Du multiple a l*Un,* pp. 74-87. See above, pp. 96-100.

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the trinitarian deity. After all, the world was believed by medieval Christians to have been created by the three persons of the Trinity together.” This conviction no doubt inspired Anselm, for example, to include a reference to the Creator in his argument in De Processione Spiritu Sancti, already cited in Chapter Two, concerning the oneness of the Father and the Son in relation to the Holy Spirit:50 But if [the Greeks] argue that the Holy Spirit cannot exist from two causes or two sources, then we make the following reply. Just as we believe that the Holy Spirit exists not from that in virtue of which the Father and the Son are two but from that in virtue of which they are one, so we say not that He has two sources but that He has one source. Indeed, when we call God the source of creation, we understand the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to be one source, not three sources; similarly, although the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are three, [we understand them to be] one creator and not three creators [author's italics]. Moreover, and as this passage by Anselm implies through the very conjunction of its topics, the creation of the world was itself believed to have begun, like the establishment of the Church at Pentecost, with a divine sending of the Holy Spirit.51 As such, Creation was seen to prefigure Pentecost

** See, for example, Adelheid Heimann, "Trinitas Creator Mundi," The Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 2 (1938-39), pp. 42-52; Peter Springer, "Trinitas-Creator-Annus," Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 38 (1976), pp. 17-45. Trans. Hopkins and Richardson, Anselm 3, p. 214, De Processione Spiritus Sancti (Opera Omnia 2, p. 205) : "Quod si dicunt non eum posse esse de duabus causis sive de duobus principiis, respondemus quoniam, sicut non credimus spiritum sanctum esse de hoc unde duo sunt pater et filius, sed de hoc in quo unum sunt: ita non dicimus duo eius esse principia, sed unum principium. Quippe cum dicimus deum principium creaturae, intelligimus patrem et filium et spiritum sanctum unum principium non tria principia, sicut unum creatorem non tres creatores.* This belief was based on Genesis 1:2, which describes the initiating act of Creation as: "the Spirit of God swept over the waters [Spiritus Dei ferebatur super aquas]." See Heimann, "Trinitas Creator Mundi,* p. 42. It

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as an instance during which the Father and the Son exhibited their unity of substance and action. This fact is demonstrated, for example, by the Creation miniature in the Lothian Bible (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS. 791, fol. 4r; fig. 100), produced at St. Albans or Oxford in the early thirteenth century," which is clearly inspired by the Pentecost miniature in the Bury Gospels (fig. 15), or a common model. As in the earlier composition, which was shown in Chapter Two to be one of the most important contemporary parallels to the Pentecost scheme at Vezelay, the unity of the Father and the Son in the Creation miniature is proclaimed through the depiction of the deity as a single figure with two heads and torsos.” The oneness of the first two persons of the Trinity in the sending of the Holy Spirit is then likewise emphasized through the portrayal of the Father and the Son as both holding on to the edge of the mandorla, from which, at another point, the Holy Spirit in the form of the dove is dispensed into the world.” The only differences between the two compositions, in regard to their is worth noting that at Vezelay, this typology between the beginning of the world and the beginning of the Church would have been felt to be all the more apt because of the portal's own function as a place of beginning/entrance. See Nigel Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts [I]: 1190-1250, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, vol. 4 (London, 19S2), pp. 79-81. ’! See above, pp. 93-96. M The Creation miniature in the Lothar Bible portrays the Spirit in this regard passing over the waters (Gen 1:2). Above, on each side of the mandorla, are included nine tiers of angels. Directly below the mandorla appear the fallen angels. To their right are depicted the four rivers of paradise. The six medallions in the lower half of the composition all feature events related to the six days of creation.

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depiction of the Trinity and their visualizing of the filioque, are that the mandorla in the later miniature is quatrefoil rather than almond-shaped, that the Holy Spirit emerges from the lower left quadrant of the mandorla rather than from its base, and that the unity of all three persons of the Trinity in the sending of the Holy Spirit is emphasized through a second rendering of the dove between the two heads of God the Creator, rather than through a repetition of the deity's hands below the mandorla, as in the Bury Gospel drawing.55 The central deity's trinitarian identity and act of sending the Holy Spirit, however, are not the only component parts of the tympanum composition that allude to the moment of Creation. The framing cycle of the signs of the zodiac and the labors of the month is also important in this respect. Marjorie Jean Hall Panaaero has convincingly demonstrated not only that calendar cycles like that at Vezelay were intended to be understood throughout the Middle Ages as representations of the passage of time, but also that such representations, because of time's status as a creature of God, implicitly allude as well to God's very act of bringing time, and the world it encompasses, into existence.56 Indeed, it was undoubtedly this mode of thinking As discussed above (pp. 93-94), the unity of the three persons of the Trinity in the sending of the Holy Spirit in the Bury Gospels miniature is expressed through the repeated depiction of the hands of the Father and the Son, immediately below the mandorla, holding the dove, from which radiate the tongues of fire. 5” See "The Labors of the Month,* partic. pp. 129-130, 185-192, 210213, and 256-257.

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that led to the production of such images as the Creation embroidery located in the treasury of the Gerona Cathedral (fig. 101). This wall hanging, woven around 1100 but now partly destroyed, features an image of a central deity surrounded by several of the specific acts of creation cited in the first chapter of

the Book of Genesis and by

personifications of the

four winds. The composition is then

framed on both sides and along the top, in an arrangement analogous to that at Vezelay, by a cycle of the labors of the month, at the center of which, in the upper border, appears a personification of the year.57 The point of the embroidery scheme, in turn, seems to have been, at least in part, to emphasize that the coming into being of everything depicted within the composition's borders was made possible by God's creation of time itself, referred to by way of the framing calendar cycle. The same point is arguably being made at Vezelay, but with the signs of the zodiac having the labors of the month

been included as

in order to allow the scheme

wellas to

allude more accurately to the Creed's claim that God is the "maker of heaven and earth; of all things visible and invisible." That is, while the labors of the month refer to : This figure is inscribed ANNUS. In its original form, the border frame also included personifications of the four rivers (at the c o m e r s ) , personifications of the sun and the moon (in the lowest compartment on each of the side panels), and single figures of Hercules and Samson (in the compartments closest to the c o m e r s along the top) . A cycle recounting the discovery of the True Cross originally ran along the bottom of the composition, perhaps in three registers. For a detailed discussion of the date and content of the embroidery, see Pedro de Palol, "Une broderie catalane d'epoque romane: La Genese de Gerona,* Cahiers archeologiques 8 (1956), pp. 175-214 and 9 (1957), pp. 219-252.

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the existence of terrestial time, and thus to the creation of all earthly, visible phenomena, the signs of the zodiac refer to the existence of celestial time, and thus to the creation of all heavenly, invisible phenomena.58 The ability of the calendar cycle to function in this manner as a symbol of the entire cosmos created by God was undoubtedly part of the motivation for locating visualizations of the Apostles' Creed in the pages of actual calendars, with one of the Creed's twelve articles being illustrated each month, a tradition that began in the mid-thirteenth century but that is best exemplified by the calendars appearing in the Breviary of Belleville (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. lat. 10483), probably illuminated between 1323 and 1326, and the Hours of Jeanne de Navarre (Paris, BN, MS. nouv. acq. lat. 3145), probably illuminated between 1336 and 1340.'* Concerning the notion of the labors of the month as marking terrestial time and the signs of the zodiac as marking celestial time, see Panadero, "Labors of the Month," pp. 132, 168-169, and 210-213. It is interesting in this context that the signs of the zodiac are used to decorate the calendar that appears between the two images of Christ amongst the choirs of saints in the Galba Psalter that, as discussed in the previous chapter, visualize Ephesians 2:11-22. Here, the zodiacs certainly represent the passage of celestial time, as was traditional, but they also seem to designate the celestial realm itself, and thus anticipate their proposed dual function at Vezelay, in the sense that the calendar they illustrate, by citing all of the saints whose feasts are celebrated throughout the year, effectively functions as a source text for the vision of heaven that appears in the framing pair of miniatures. Concerning the role of the calendar cycle in the Galba Psalter as a symbol of the celestial community, see Deshman, "The Galba Psalter," pp. 126-128. The earliest known manuscript to visualize the Creed in the context of the calendar is a psalter now in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (MS. 36-1950) that was likely produced just after 1257. See Francis Wormald and Phyllis M. Giles, A descriptive catalogue of additional illuminated manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum acquired between 1895 and 1979 (excluding the McClean Collection), vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 414-429. Regarding the Belleville Breviary and the Hours of Jeanne de Navarre, as well as the tradition of associating the Apostles’ Creed with the calendar, more broadly speaking, see Anne Ritz-Guilbert, "Aspects de 1 ’iconographie du Credo des Apotres dans 1 1enluminure medievale," in Pensee, image et communication en Europe medievale (Besangon, 1993), pp. 102-104.

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The clouds that appear above the outstretched arms of the deity in the inner tympanum may also have been intended to allude, on one level, to the Creation-oriented content of the Creed's first article. The differences between these two cloud masses, which are rendered as a series of gently undulating contours on the left and of vigorously undulating contours on the right, have yet to receive adequate explanation. As noted in Chapter One, Katzenellenbogen's widely repeated hypothesis that they help to designate the left side of the tympanum (the side to Christ's right) as the realm of the saved and the right side of the tympanum (to Christ's left) as the realm of the damned must be rejected, given that the portal's content is otherwise devoid of such left-right symbolism, at least in terms of the Last Judgement.60 The notion that these differences are the meaningless result of inconsistency on the part of the tympanum's carvers is also untenable, given the visual prominence of the cloud masses within the scheme as a whole.61 Walter Cahn, in discussing a similarly located pair of masses composed of calm and undulating contours on the

See above, pp. 35-38, and 43-44, n. 61. It may be true that the gently undulating contours at the right edge of the right cloud mass are a mistake that resulted from the difficulties inherent in carving a complex composition such as the main tympanum in separate pieces on the ground, before installation. After all, these gently undulating contours were indeed carved on a separate block from the rest of the right cloud m a s s . A keen attention to detail is too consistent and widespread a characteristic of the portal program, however, for the larger differences between the left and right cloud masses to be explained as similarly accidental.

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tympanum of the Portal of Sainte-Anne at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris (fig. 102), likely carved in the 1160s, argued that they alluded to the sun and the moon as described in Genesis 1:14-19163 And God said, 'Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and iec chem be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.' And it was so. God made the two great lights - the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night - and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. In this regard, Cahn claimed that these two masses of undulating contours were not clouds but rays of light, vigorous on the left, suggesting the fire-like radiance of the sun, and calm on the right, suggesting the less intense emanations of the moon.1,4 Cahn's argument is persuasive, to a degree, but his analysis of the visual evidence is incomplete. Indeed, a close examination of these two motifs on the Sainte-Anne

For the evidence of the portal's date, see Kathryn Horste, "'A Child is B o m ' : The Iconography of the Portail Ste.-Anne at Paris," Art Bulletin 69 (1987), p. 187. ” "Dixit autem Deus/ fiant luminaria in firmamento caeli ut dividant diem ac noctem/ et sint in signa et tempora et dies et annos/ ut luceant in firmamento caeli et inluminent terram/ et factum est ita/ fecitque Deus duo magna luminaria/ luminare maius ut praeesset diei/ et luminare minus ut praeesset nocti et Stellas/ et posuit eas in firmamento caeli/ ut lucerent super terram et praeessent diei ac nocti/ et dividerent lucem ac tenebras/ et vidit Deus quod esset bonum/ et factum est vespere et mane dies quartus." 04 See "The Tympanum of the Portal of Sainte-Anne at Notre Dame de Paris and the Iconography of the Division of the Powers in the Early Middle Ages,* Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 32 (1969), pp. 60-61 and n. 20.

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Portal reveals that the vigorously undulating contours on the left are enclosed by a single, more gently undulating band while the gently undulating contours on the right are encompassed by a single, vigorously undulating band. These two exterior strips, in all probability, were directly derived from the scheme at Vezelay05 and hold the key to the significance of the cloud masses, on one level, on the earlier portal.06 That is, these two strips in the SainteAnne Portal, like the entire series of contours on both sides at Vezelay, represent clouds that are intended to be understood as calm and translucent on the left, to allow the "greater light to rule the day," according to Genesis 1:16, and stormy and opaque on the right, to create an environment in which the "lesser light" will "rule the night." In functioning in this manner, these motifs help their respective tympanum compositions to visualize the literal point of the Genesis passage, which is that God, on this fourth day, created, and created a distinction between, day and night and light and darkness. The makers of the tympanum at Notre Dame, perhaps feeling that this point was expressed too subtly at Vezelay, simply added the light itself, behind the clouds, depicting the fiery beams of the sun on the left and the suffused rays of the moon on the right. The fact Concerning the Sainte-Anne Portal's many other evident debts to the narthex portal scheme at Vezelay, see Horste, "A Child is B o m , ' pp. 198-200. That these motifs are indeed clouds at Vezelay is indicated by their similarity to the clouds that appear in the Annunciation scene on the south portal.

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that these two types of light happen to look like the calm and wavy contours of the clouds at Vezelay, but with their positions switched, is no more than a coincidence. The tympanum at Conques (fig. 46) provides further support for the claim that the clouds at Vezelay were intended to allude to the light sources described in Genesis 1:14-19. Here, personifications of the sun and the moon, identifiable by inscription, appear above the left and right arms, respectively, of the cross located in the composition's upper register (fig. 103). The head of each personification is surrounded by a halo-like disc in relief.”7 Marked by undulating borders and articulated within by a series of radiating ridges and crevices, reminiscent of rays of light, these discs seem to express the notion that the two personifications are both light-emitting entities. This is true as well of the attributes they hold, which appear to be, in each case, a pair of torches. The personification of the sun is then surrounded by a second, larger disc that likewise features an undulating border and radiating internal ridges and crevices, and that was no doubt intended to identify the sun as the greater of the two light sources. The personification of the moon, by contrast, is surrounded from the shoulders down by storm clouds, articulated, as are those on the right at Vezelay, by way of a series of wavy contours, as a means of emphasizing that

"7 The head of LUNA seems to have been damaged and restored, but it is unlikely that the iconography has been changed.

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the moon, like storm clouds themselves, emits only a weak light and is thus ultimately the bearer of darkness.68 Perhaps the most convincing indication that the differently articulated clouds at Vezelay were intended to function as symbols of the "greater" and "lesser" lights of Genesis 1:14-19, however, is a miniature found in a psalter likely produced at Norwich in the 1270s (London, Lambeth Palace Library, MS. 368, fol. 12v; fig. 104).1,9 As does the main portal composition, this miniature shows Christ enthroned between two cloud masses located on either side of the deity's head and above his shoulders. Moreover, the miniature configures these clouds in an identical manner, with the cloud mass on the left being delineated by a gently undulating contour and the cloud mass on the right being delineated by a vigorously undulating contour. Unlike the main portal composition, however, the psalter image renders the reasons for these differences in the articulation of the two cloud masses explicit, by depicting the sun within the cloud mass on the left and the moon within the cloud mass on the right. The evidence of the tympana at Paris and Conques, then, and of the thirteenth-century psalter miniature of Christ Enthroned, all but confirm that the clouds at Vezelay were intended to allude to God's creation, on the fourth day, of Concerning the identification of the various motifs associated with the personifications of the sun and the moon at Conques, see Bonne, L 'art roman de face et de profil, p. 37. ,9 See Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts, vol. 2, pp. 185-186.

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a "greater" and "lesser" light, the respective sources of which were commonly understood to be the sun and the moon. If this interpretation of the clouds' meaning is correct, the tympanum composition can be seen to function in a manner similar to that of the influential Creation image that once adorned the nave wall of St. Paul's basilica in Rome and that likely originated within the pictorial program at Old St. Peter's (fig. 105).° In this composition, the sun and the moon appear on the left and right side of the trinitarian Creator, respectively, above personifications of light and darkness that are intended to emphasize, like the clouds at Vezelay, the relative strengths of these two light sources. The position of the clouds in the main portal, however, at the top of the semi-circle of the inner tympanum, allows the sculptures to visualize even more effectively than does the image at St. Paul's the biblical claim (Gen 1:14) that these sources of light were placed "in the dome of the sky." The presence of these visual references to God's creation of the two light sources, moreover, helps to tie the content of the inner tympanum all the more tightly to the framing calendar cycle, for these light sources are described in the Genesis narrative (1:14) as being "for the signs and the seasons," the very temporal markers of the year that the surrounding signs of the zodiac

The composition of the Creation of the World at St. Paul's was frequently copied in monumental decoration in the Middle Ages, particularly in the twelfth century. See the influence of this image, see, for example, Kessler, "Old St. Peter's and Church Decoration," pp. 403, 414-415.

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and labors of the month were intended to symbolize. If the clouds in the main tympanum at Vezelay were indeed designed to function as allusions to Genesis 1:14-19, as all the evidence suggests, one question remains to be answered: why did the makers of the tympanum, for the sake of clarity, not just include depictions of the sun and moon themselves? The answer is twofold. First, the aim of the biblical account is to characterize the two types of light created by God during the fourth day, rather than to identify their sources (indeed, the sun and the moon are never mentioned), an aim that the clouds effectively fulfill. Second, and as will become clear below, the makers of the narthex portals wished to depict clouds, specifically, in this location on either side of the deity in order to allow the scheme to allude as well to other important events cited in the Nicene Creed. The idea for using clouds as a means of expressing ideas on the nature of light, in turn, may have derived, like so much of the narthex portal material already discussed, from the scheme's Anglo-Saxon sources. The evidence in this respect is varied. First, many of the miniatures in the Benedictional of Aethelwold, although none illustrate Genesis 1:14-19 specifically, feature lightfilled clouds; indeed, this motif, presented in a variety of innovative forms, is perhaps the most prevalent and most thematically important in the entire manuscript. 1 Second, ' Light-filled clouds appear in 21 of the Benedictional's 30

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the one extant miniature that explicitly reveals the lightconducting function of the differently rendered clouds at Vezelay, that of Christ Enthroned in Lambeth MS. 368 (fig. 104), was itself, as noted above, produced in an English scriptorium. Finally, Don Denny has argued convincingly that the tympanum composition of the Last Judgement at Conques, which similarly uses clouds to express the light-emitting properties of the sun and the moon, was also largely derived from English pictorial models. 3 Indeed, Denny cited certain miniatures in the mid-twelfth century Winchester Psalter as providing particularly close parallels. The Winchester Psalter, as its name suggests, was produced at Winchester, like the Galba Psalter and the Benedictional of Aethelwold two hundred years earlier. 3 Moreover, two of its Last Judgement miniatures (figs. 67 and 68), which are known to have been based directly on the two Ephesians-inspired compositions of Christ amongst the choirs of saints in the Galba Psalter (figs. 76 and 71),'* have already been identified in Chapter Three as the sole surviving witnesses to the ultimate source of one of the most unusual figures in the archivolt compartments at Vezelay, that of the Jewish official (?) dressed in a gown featuring one sleeve that is

miniatures. Their rich and varied significance is explored in detail by Deshman throughout Benedictional. See pp. 282-283 for index citations. See "The Date of the Conques Last Judgement,’ pp. 7-14. 3 See Haney, Winchester Psalter, pp. 7-9. '* See Deshman,

"The Galba Psalter," p. 112.

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much longer than the other.75 While differently articulated, light-emitting clouds admittedly are not found in the Winchester Psalter itself, the fact that clouds of similar form and meaning appear in three different compositions - at Vezelay, Conques, and in M S . 368 - that are so closely interwoven in terms of their models and that all can trace their origins to English prototypes, strongly suggests that the cloud motif has a similar, Insular provenance. Returning to the issue of the entire Creed's pictorial evocation at Vezelay, it can be seen that the text's next few verses, dealing with the incarnate Christ's experiences on earth, are visually verified through the content of the two side tympana and the trumeau of the main portal. The first of these verses ("[We believe...in one Lord Jesus] Who because of us men and because of our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man") is alluded to by way of the Infancy cycle of the south tympanum (fig. 3), which depicts the Annunciation, Visitation, and Nativity along the lintel, and the Adoration of the Magi in the main scene above. The imagery of this portal certainly functions as more than a literal illustration of the creedal text, for reasons to be discussed in the next section, but the iconography of the Annunciation composition, at least, seems to have been carefully designed to correspond to the precise phrasing of the verse just cited. That is, the unusual, and unusually 5 See above, pp. 168-170.

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prominent, detail of the dove emerging from a mass of clouds, located in the composition's upper right corner, appears intended to emphasize, in accordance with the creedal verse, both the Holy Spirit's crucial role in the Incarnation and the belief that the Incarnation involved the divine Christ's descent from heaven. The former claim is expressed through the presence

of the

dove while thelatter

is expressed through the motif

of the

cloud. Clouds,after

all, which are not mentioned in either of the Annunciation narratives included in the Bible (Matt 1:118 and Luke 1:35), were commonly used in medieval

art to

mark the pointat

which the heavenly and earthly zones meet, their function being to emphasize both the division and contiguity between the two zones. The presence of the clouds in the Annunciation scene, then, would immediately have reminded viewers of what existed above them, namely, the heavenly realm from which Christ came. Second, and more important in the context of the Incarnation, the cloud was frequently described in medieval exegesis as the means by which God manifested himself on earth, both earlier in sacred history and at the time of the Annunciation. 6 Jerome, for example, in interpreting one of Isaiah's prophecies (19:1: "Behold the Lord will ascend upon a light cloud and will enter into Egypt")

argued: "Certainly [the light cloud is] his

# See William Loerke, "Observations on the Representation of Doxa in the Mosaics of S. Maria Maggiore, Rome, and St. Catherine’s, Sinai," Gesta 20 (1981), pp. 15-22; and Deshman, Benedictional, partic. pp. 10-12. 1 "Ecce Dominus ascendet super nubem levem et ingredietur Aegyptum. *

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[Christ's] own body, which was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And he entered into the Egypt of this world."78 The likening of Christ to a cloud and, more specifically, as in this last passage, of Christ's assumed humanity to a cloud, appears in the writings of many early medieval commentators 8 as well as in the Christmas liturgy.80 Even more significant, perhaps, is the fact that this notion is clearly expressed through the presence of similarly prominent cloud forms not only in the Annunciation composition in the Benedictional of Aethelwold (fol. 5v; fig. 106), but also in several of the miniatures in this same manuscript that have already been cited for their importance as precedents for other aspects of the imagery at Vezelay (figs. 7, 29, 79) .,l Given the Deshman [Benedictional, p. 11) has argued convincingly that "levem" in this passage should be understood to mean "light" rather than "swift." ’ Commencaria in Esaiam, 7, 19, 2-4, (CCSL, 73, p. 278: "Vel certe suum corpus, quod de Spiritu sancto conceptum est. Et ingressus est in Aegyptum huius m u n d i .* ' Ambrose, Expositio Psalmi 118, 3, 19, and 5, 3 [CSEL, 62, ed. Michael Petschenig [Vienna, 1912], pp. 51, 83-84; idem, Expositio Evangelii secundum Lucam, 10, 42 (CCSL, 14, ed. M. Adriaen [Turnout, 1957], p. 357; Isidore of Seville, Mysticorum Expositiones Sacramentorum, 18, 1 (PL, 83, col. 296B); Hrabanus Maurus, Commencaria in Ecclesiascicum, 5, 13 (PL, 109, cols. 925-926) ; idem, De Universo, 22, 9, 18 (PL, 111, col. 276A-B); Bede, In Lucae Evangelium Expositio, 1 (CCSL, 120, ed. D. Hurst [Tumhout, 1960], pp. 33-34); Aelfric, Homilies, 2, p. 201. ,0 The first two responses in the first n o c t u m for the initial Sunday in Advent, for example, state: "Looking from afar, behold I see the power of God coming, and a cloud covering the whole earth," and "I beheld therefore in a vision of the night, and behold, the Son of man came in the clouds of heaven (Dan 7:13-14)." Corpus Antiphonalium Officii, ed. Renatus-Joannes Hesbert, vol. 4 (Rome, 1963-79) p. 32, nos. 6129, 6128: "Aspiciens a longe, ecce uideo Dei potentiam uenientem, et nebulam totarn terram tegentem." "Aspiciebam in uisu noctis, et ecce in nubibus coeli Filius hominis uenit." This second response, as Deshman has noted (Benedictional, pp. 11-12), was interpreted by Amalarius as a specific reference to Christ's human birth. See Liber de Ordine Anciphonarii, 8, 7, in Amalarii Episcopi Opera Liturgica Omnia, vol. 3, ed. Joanne M. Hanssens (Vatican City, 1950), p. 38. 81 Concerning the symbolism of clouds in the Benedictional as a bearer

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prevalence of this symbolism elsewhere, then, particularly in these demonstratively influential pictures in the Benedictional, it is highly probable that the extra-biblical clouds in the lower left scene in the south narthex portal were likewise included as a means of alluding to the Creed's claim that "the Lord Jesus," depicted in Majesty in the main tympanum, "came down from heaven" at the time of the Annunciation to begin his incarnate life. The following verse of the Creed, "and [Christ] was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered" is visually confirmed, in turn, by the arrangement of motifs on the central trumeau. That is, the cross and the lamb allude effectively both to the Crucifixion and to Christ's physical suffering, the salient features of the Savior's death. The event was rendered in symbolic fashion and is left devoid of explicit references to Pontius Pilate, of course, in order to allow the main portal scheme additionally both to visualize Ephesians 2:11-22 and to evoke certain other aspects, particularly the Eucharist, of the Missa Major. The creedal passage "and was buried, and rose again on the third day according to Scriptures" is then verified by the imagery of the north tympanum (fig. 4). Again, as has been the case with all of the verses examined so far, the sculptures here were not designed to function as a literal

of Christ's humanity at the Incarnation, see Deshman, Benedictional, pp. 10-13 (Annunciation; my fig. 106), 24-25 (Nativity, my fig. 79), 52 (Baptism; my fig. 29), 99-101 (Triune God, my fig. 7).

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illustration of the Creed's contents.92 Nonetheless, they demonstrate the passage's essential point: that Christ was resurrected after dying on the cross. The lower register depicts in three scenes the story of the resurrected Christ's appearance to two disciples at Emmaus. In the first scene, the disciples encounter Christ on the road into the town; in the second, they share supper with him, at which time he reveals his true identity before disappearing; in the third, the two disciples rush back to Jerusalem to tell others of their miraculous encounter. In the main composition, above the lintel, Christ in the center reaches out and blesses the gathered apostles. This scene is surely the so-called Blessing at Bethany that was once represented, for example, in the bottom panel on the south wall of the nave of Old St. Peter's (figs. 107 and 108 ). 93 Luke recounts (24:50) that the scene occurred in the instant immediately before the Ascension: "Then [Christ] led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven."94 a‘ The reasons for Che lack of literalism in Che pictorial evocation of the relevant verses in the north tympanum will be discussed in the next section of this chapter. See below, pp. 303-311. 41 The scene was recorded by Grimaldi in the seventeenth century. Regarding this image within the context of the program at Old St. Peter's as a whole, see William Tronzo, "The Prestige of Saint Peter’s: Observations on the Function of Monumental Narrative Cycles in Italy,* Studies in the History of Art 16 (1985), pp. 93-112; Kessler, "Old St. Peter's as the Source and Inspiration of Medieval Church Decoration," in Studies in Pictorial Narrative, partic. pp. 452-457. 4< "Eduxit autem eos foras in Bethaniam et elevatis manibus suis benedixit eis/ et factum est dum benediceret illis recessit ab eis/ et ferebatur in caelum."

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The next verses in the Creed concern precisely this subsequent event, Christ's Ascension, as well as the Second Coming: "...and he [Christ] ascended to heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father, and will come again with glory to judge living and dead, of Whose kingdom there will be no end." For confirmation of the truth of these verses, the viewer is required to return to the main tympanum. Scholars have long argued for the presence here of visual references to both the Ascension and Last Judgement, and their efforts have been largely convincing.35 The findings of the previous chapters, however, indicate that this issue needs to be revisited, to allow new evidence to be added to the old. A close examination of the central figure of Christ dispensing the Holy Spirit indicates that he is seated on a throne and is enclosed in an almond-shaped mandorla. His feet do not touch the ground, the folds of his cloak flap as if indicating movement, and his body is positioned in such a way that he appears to be breaking through the clouds depicted to the left and right of his shoulders, above his hands. Taken together, these details suggest that this image of the enthroned Christ in heaven was carefully designed to allude as well to the means by which he got there, namely, his Ascension. In this respect, the details just mentioned can be said to be drawn equally from the two most common iconographic formulae used to depict the event before the 15 See, for example, Fabre, ”L'Iconographie de la Pentecote," pp. 3940; Katzenellenbogen, "The Central Tympanum at Vezelay," pp. 141-142; Hearn, Romanesque Sculpture, pp. 172-173.

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twelfth century. On the one hand, the enthroned Christ in a mandorla derives from the type that emphasized the Ascension's timeless and triumphal conclusion: the Son's return to rule in heaven. Examples include those compositions found on a seventh-century ampulla in Monza (fig. 109) and, more significantly, given the discoveries of the previous pages, in the Galba Psalter (fig. 110). On the other hand, the clouds can be said to derive from the type that emphasized Christ's actual physical passage from the earthly to the heavenly realm, as described in the Book of Acts (1:9): "...as [they] were watching,

[Christ] was lifted

up, and a cloud took him out of their sight."’6 Representations of this type depict Christ either striding toward the clouds, and often grasping the outstretched hand of the Father, as in the frontispiece to the Book of Acts in the late ninth-century San Paolo Bible (fig. 34), or disappearing into them, as in the Ascension miniatures found in the Tiberius Psalter (fig. 36), produced like the Galba Psalter at Winchester, and in the so-called Cotton or Hereford Troper (London, British Library, MS. Caligula A.XIV, fol. 18r; fig. Ill), probably produced either at Canterbury or Winchester around the middle years of the eleventh century.9, "™videntibus illis elevatus esc/ ec nubes suscepit eum ab oculis eorum." For the provenance of the Tiberius Psalter, see Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, pp. 115-117. For that of the Cotton Troper, see ibid., pp. 113-115; see also, Teviotdale, who has entertained the possibility of a Winchester origin for the manuscript, "A Study of an Illustrated English Troper," pp. 277-283.

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The last two images are particularly relevant precedents for the main portal scheme at Vezelay. As Deshman has shown, they are examples of a new type of Ascension composition that began to appear around the year 1000 and that was designed not only to illustrate the Acts narrative, but also to speak both of the importance of the Ascension as the event during which the witnessing apostles finally realized the divinity of Christ, and thus that Christ and the Father were one, and of the inability of material pictures to represent this divine aspect of God.88 These two claims were expressed in the new iconography through the presentation of the upper half of Christ's body, symbolic of his divinity, as either partly or wholly hidden by clouds markers of the border between heaven and earth - and thus as hidden from the eye of the viewer as well. At Vezelay, of course, no such visually explicit attempt was made to declare God's unrepresentability. An attempt does indeed seem to have been made, however, to emphasize the other central idea conveyed by the so-called Disappearing Christ, as a means of alluding to the content of the Creed. That is, the disjunctive rendering of the deity's upper and lower body (flat, frontal and symmetrical above the waist, threedimensional, diagonally-positioned and asymmetrical below), discussed at length in Chapter Two as symbolizing the Son's dual nature, gives visual, plastic expression to the notion that the Ascension involved the merging of Christ's humanity See "Disappearing Christ," pp. 518-546.

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with the trinitarian deity in heaven, articulated metaphorically through the creedal words " [Christ] ascended to heaven, and sits on the right of the Father." The location of the clouds, in turn, seems designed to help the viewer understand how this process unfolded. That is, the clouds, which run from the bottom to the top of Christ’s torso, and thus effectively cover the entire length of his "divinized" upper body, seem to emphasize that it was precisely during the act of rising through the clouds, in other words, of passing from the earthly to the heavenly realm, that the historical Christ became reunited with the eternal, celestial divinity. These remarkably multivalent clouds were likely intended to remind viewers not only of Christ's departure at the Ascension, however, but also of his triumphal return at the end of time, for according to Matthew 24:30 clouds will be an important indicator of the Savior's Second Coming: "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see 'the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with great power and glory. '1,89 By alluding simultaneously in this manner to Christ's past ascent and future descent, the clouds play a similar role to the two men in white in many

” "Et tun parebit signum Filii hominis in caelo/ Et tunc plangent omnes tribus terrae/ et videbunt Filium hominis venientem in nubibus caeli cum virtute et maiestate.” For a detailed discussion of Matthew's account of the Last Judgment, see Yves Christe, La Vision de Matthieu (Matth. 2425); origines et developpement d'une image de la Seconde Parousie, Bibliotheque des Cahiers Archeologiques, no. 10 (Paris, 1973) .

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Ascension images, who are described in the Book of Acts (1:10-11) as having appeared at the Ascension to inform the apostles of their Messiah's ultimate return: "While [Christ] was going and [the apostles] were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said ’Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. '"M Indeed, many Ascension compositions include both clouds and the men in white, undoubtedly as a means not only of illustrating more completely the description of the event in the Book of Acts, but also of emphasizing that Christ will return "in the same way as you saw him go, " namely, in "the clouds of heaven." This is true of three of the Ascension miniatures cited above, those in the San Paolo Bible, the Galba Psalter, and the Cotton Troper. It is also true of the Ascension miniature in the Benedictional of Aethelwold (64v; fig. 112).?1 Indeed, the connections between Christ's past ascent and future descent that are suggested by the clouds and the two men in white are further underscored in the Benedictional through the repetition of the striding figure "Cumque intuerentur in caelum eunte illo/ ecce duo viri adstiterunt iuxta illos in vestibus albis/ qui et dixerunt/ viri galilaei quid statis aspicientes in caelum/ hie Iesus qui adsumptus est a vobis in caelum/ sic veniet quemadmodum vidistis eum euntem in caelum." In the Ascension miniatures in both the Galba Psalter and the Benedictional, the "men in white" are depicted as half-length angels, below another pair of angels, who address the apostles as they gesture toward the ascending deity. The similarity of this scheme in the two pictures has led Deshman to posit that the Galba Psalter composition served as one of the models for the Benedictional image. See Benedictional, p. 59.

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of Christ in the Ascension miniature, shown surrounded by clouds and enclosed within an unusual three-dimensional, almond-shaped mandorla, in the manuscript's composition of the Second Coming (fol. 9v; fig. 113) .5: Clouds and the two men in white seem to have been included as well, finally, in the west portal tympanum at Cluny III, which has long been thought to have been closely related to the main portal at Vezelay in terms of date, location, and institutional milieu, and which similarly presented a vision of Christ enthroned in heaven. Destroyed in the early nineteenth century but convincingly reconstructed by Kenneth Conant (figs. 114 and 115), the main tympanum at Cluny, conceived and erected between approximately 1088 and 1115,93 seems to have featured two angels carrying Christ's mandorla through a bank of clouds.94 The two men in white then seem to have appeared along with the Virgin and the witnessing apostles in the lintel below.55 At Vezelay, of course, the two men in white could not be included because of the main portal's primary role as a visualization of Ephesians 2:11-22, so the

Ibid., pp. 62-69. 93

Conant has speculated that the west portal program was completed either by 1112 {Cluny: Les eglises et la malson du chef d'ordre (Cambridge, Mass. and Macon, 1968), pp. 100-101) or by 1115 ("The Third Church at Cluny, * in Medieval Studies in Memory of A. Kingsley Porter, 2 v o l s . [Cambridge, Mass., 1939], vol. II, p. 335. ‘4 These angels visually interpret another aspect of the Book of Acts verse cited above (1:9), namely, that Christ "was lifted up* into heaven. ,s Conant has discerned other scenes on the lintel as well such as the Three Marys at the Sepulchre and perhaps Christ with the pilgrims at Emmaus. See Cluny, p. 103. See also, Hearn, Romanesque Sculpture, p. 136.

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clouds were left to articulate the association of the Ascension with the Second Coming on their own. As does the main tympanum at Cluny III, however, the central portal at Vezelay contains further allusions to Christ's final return. At Cluny, this event was additionally hinted at through the presence of the Four Beasts around the enthroned deity and of the twenty-four elders in the archivolts, all of whom are mentioned in the description of the Second Coming in the Book of Revelation (4:4-11).96 At Vezelay, Christ's final return is alluded to, first, through the presence of the apostles in the inner tympanum. That is, this image of Christ enthroned in a mandorla and surrounded by his twelve similarly enthroned disciples would undoubtedly have reminded its viewers of Christ's own descriptions of the Last Judgement recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. As Matthew 19:28 states, "Jesus said to (the apostles],

'Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all

things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'"9, And as Christ told the apostles in Luke 22:28-30, "'You are those who have stood by me in my trials; and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom, so that you may Conant believed that the twenty-four elders may have been depicted as patriarchs and prophets, rather than kings, because none of the extant heads appear to be wearing crowns. See Cluny, p. 103. 9’ "Iesus autem dixit illis/ amen dico vobis quod vos qui secuti estis me/ in regeneratione cum sederit Filius hominis in sede maiestatis suae/ Sedebitis et vos super sedes duodecim/ iudicantes duodecim tribus

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eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'"” In fact, these biblical predictions of the Final Day are visualized on the late eleventh-century west tympanum of the Cluniac foundation at Charlieu (fig. 116) by way of a very similar presentation of Christ enthroned in a mandorla along with twelve smaller, seated apostles.” The depiction of the apostles at Vezelay seated on either side of the enthroned Christ, however, was not the only feature of the inner tympanum composition that would have evoked thoughts of the Last Judgement in the mind of the portal's viewers. Indeed, the very event in which the apostles are involved, namely, Pentecost, was commonly understood as a type of the Second Coming. The source for this point of view was the biblical account of Pentecost itself. As the Book of Acts states (2:17), Peter told those who had just witnessed the miraculous descent of the Holy Spirit onto the apostles that, "'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. '"iC0 This association by Peter of Pentecost with Israhel." ” "Vos autem estis qui permansistis mecum in temptationibus meis/ et ego dispono vobis sicut disposuit mihi Pater meus regnum/ ut edatis et bibatis super mensam meam in regno/ Et sedeatis super thronos iudicantes duodecim tribus Israhel." ” The apostles appear in the lintel at Charlieu rather than in the tympanum itself, but the overall arrangement of elements in still the same. Concerning the date of the tympanum at Charlieu and its relationship to the Cluny west portal, see Elizabeth R. Sunderland, "The History and Architecture of the Church of St. Fortunatus at Charlieu," Art Bulletin 21 (1939), pp. 68, 87-88; Hearn, Romanesque Sculpture, pp. 135-137. "Et erit in novissimis diebus dicit Dominus/ effundam de Spiritu meo

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Christ's return at the end of time, along with Christ's own claim that the twelve apostles will join him in judgement on that Final Day, led to the two events being conflated in art as well.101 Two examples, already discussed as important to the program at Vezelay for other reasons, are worth citing. The first appears on the arch over the sanctuary- at S. Maria di Grottaferrata (figs. 13 and 14). Here, a mid-thirteenth century fresco image of the Trinity surrounded by heavenly hosts, which itself was derived from a twelfth-century Byzantine manuscript illustration of none other text than the Nicene Creed, was added to an earlier mosaic rendering of Pentecost in order to create a new composition suggestive of Byzantine Last Judgement schemes.10' That this new, hybrid Pentecost composition was indeed intended to carry eschatological connotations is demonstrated by a Latin inscription that once appeared on the arch: "The assembly of apostles, sitting with the judge, decides the rewards earned in this [image of] judgement."101 The second, and even more significant example, is the Pentecost miniature in the Benedictional of Aethelwold (fig. 11). In this miniature, the judgemental import of the seated apostles is rendered

super omnem c a m e m . " See, for example, Ernst Kitzinger, "The Mosaics of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo," Art Bullecin 31 (1949), pp. 299-300. For a discussion of the motivations and meaning of this complicated scheme, see Kessler, "Old St. Peter's and Church Decoration in Medieval Latium," pp. 135-144. ::I "Caetus apostolicus residens cum iudice, Praemia iudicio meritis d e c e m i t in isto." See Kitzinger, "Cappella Palatina Mosaics,* n. 55.

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explicit through the inclusion of the apocalyptic rainbow, upon which the apostles sit, which is described as surrounding the throne of God in the Book of Revelation (4:3) and which appears as the throne of the trinitarian deity as well in the manuscript's succeeding image (fig. 7) .104 While the composition at Vezelay does not include the heavenly hosts of the Grottaferrata arch composition nor the apocalyptic rainbow of the Benedictional1s Pentecost miniature, as explicit evocations of Christ’s return, it does include the clouds upon which "the Son of Man" will come at the end of time "with power and great glory" (Matt 24:30) . When the composition is read as an image of the Last Judgement, moreover, these clouds take on yet further eschatological significance. It will be remembered that when they were viewed in terms of their differences from each other, rather than their similarities, the calm cluster on the left and the stormy one on the right were likely intended to serve as indicators, respectively, of the greater and lesser lights that were brought into existence by God on the fourth day of Creation, the sources of which were believed to be the sun and the moon. As obfuscators of light in this manner, they were also likely intended, in this new context, to illustrate another aspect of Christ's prophecy of the Last Judgement as recounted by Matthew “4 Concerning the complex significance of the rainbow motif in the miniatures of Pentecost and the Triune deity in the Benedictional, see Deshman, Benedictional, pp. 93-108.

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(24:29) : "Immediately after the suffering of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. "i05 Indeed, the sun and the moon in the Last Judgement composition at Conques (figs. 46 and 103), discussed above, appear in the same location as do the calm and stormy clouds at Vezelay, that is, on the left and right sides of the head of Christ, respectively, precisely as a means of alluding to this Gospel passage. The sun and moon appear likewise to the left and right of Christ's head, and for the same reason, in the west tympanum composition of the Last Judgement at nearby Saint-Lazare, Autun (fig. 47), a composition produced soon after the narthex portals at Vezelay, and likely by some of the very same sculptors.106 The clouds, moreover, were likely not the only Creation motifs at Vezelay intended to double as allusions to the Last Judgement. The framing cycle of the signs of the zodiac and the labors of the month, as a representation of the passage of both earthly and heavenly time, would have reminded viewers not only of time's initiation by God at the beginning of the world as discussed above, but also of its cessation at Christ's return on the Final Day. It was certainly for this reason, for example, that a similar cycle of the signs of the zodiac and the labors of the month was "Statim autem post tribulationem dierum illorum sol obscurabitur/ et luna non dabit lumen suum." ‘°6 Denis Grivot and George Zamecki, for example, suggested that Gislebertus, the putative master sculptor at Autun, may have spent time both at Cluny and at Vezelay, before moving on to Autun. See Gislebertus. Sculpteur d'Autun (Paris, 1960), pp. 151-156.

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used to frame the Last Judgement composition at Autun. The clouds both as clouds and as obfuscators of light, the Pentecostal arrangement of Christ surrounded by the seated apostles, and the framing calendar cycle, however, are not the only component parts of the main portal scheme that would have helped to confirm for its viewers the truth of the creedal claim that Christ "will come again with glory to judge living and dead, of whose kingdom there will be no end." Indeed, the metaphor of Christ as the keystonecornerstone, so important to this sculptural program in its role as a visualization of Ephesians 2:11-22, is articulated elsewhere in the Bible by Christ himself in specifically eschatological terms. As he states in 1 Peter 2:6-8, citing in turn Isaiah 28:16, Psalm 117:22, and Isaiah 8:14-15:*°' For it stands in scripture: "See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner," and "A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. This notion that the cornerstone was "rejected" and then made "the head of the corner" was interpreted as a veiled reference to the fact that Christ had been humiliated and crucified during his first advent but will come in glory at

" "Propter quod continet in scriptura/ ecce pono in Sion lapidem suinmuin angularem electum pretiosum/ et qui crediderit in eo non confundetur/ vobis igitur honor credentibus/ non credentibus autem lapis quem reprobaverunt aedificantes/ hie factus est in caput anguli/ et lapis offensionis et petra scandali/ qui offendunt verbo nec credunt in quod et positi sunt.*

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the time of his second advent.108 The idea that, for the unbelievers, the cornerstone will also be "a stone that makes them stumble" and "a rock that makes them fall" was in turn read as an allusion to Christ's awaited acts of judgement on that Final Day. Christ makes this point even more explicitly in Matthew 21:42-44:109 Jesus said to [the priests in the temple], "Have you never read in the scriptures: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes'? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls." The eschatological connotations of the cornerstone were already expressed in the earliest extant Anglo-Saxon visualization of Ephesians 2:11-22, for the two miniatures of Christ enthroned amongst the choirs of saints in the Galba Psalter are both invested with allusions to the Last Judgement. In the first miniature (fig. 76), Christ is shown with the instruments of his Passion (the lance, the cross and the sponge) and, in the second (fig. 77), he displays the wound on his side. Each of these details would later become common features of Last Judgement compositions, such as that at Conques (fig. 46), as would the choirs of saints

■j4 See Deshman, Benediccional, p. 67. "Dicit illis Iesus/ numquam legistis in scripturis/ lapidem quem reprobaverunt aedificantes hie factus est in caput anguli/ a Domino factum est istud et est mirabile in oculis nostris/ ideo dico vobis/ quia auferetur a vobis regnum Dei et dabitur genti facienti fructus eius/ et qui ceciderit super lapidem istum confringetur/ super quem vero ceciderit conteret eum.*

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that appear in both miniatures.110 Indeed, even the Churchas-cornerstone located below the feet of Christ in the second miniature in the Galba Psalter appears in a number of Last Judgement tympanum compositions produced in the Gothic period, such as those at Notre-Dame in Sille-le-Guillaume": and Notre-Dame in Paris (fig. 117) .112 The decision to situate a number of the visualizations of Ephesians 2:11-22 in the Benedictional of Aethelwold in portal-like frames, in turn, may also have been motivated by a desire to invest these images with eschatological associations.113 After all, Psalm 118:22, which is cited by Christ in each of his discussions of the keystonecornerstone metaphor (Matt 21:42-44, Mark 12:10-11, Luke 20:17-18, and 1 Peter 2:8), is part of a larger encomium to God in his guise as the gate through which the saved will enter into heaven (Ps 118 :19-23):

See Deshman,

"Anglo-Saxon Arc After Alfred," pp. 179-181.

l" See ibid., p. 181 and fig. 7. ‘l* See Paul Williamson, Gothic Sculpture 1140-1300 (New Haven, 1995), pp. 48-52. The feet of che Judging Christ in the central tympanum of the west facade at Notre-Dame in Amiens do not rest on a building, but they do rest on a smooth rectangular object that looks very much like a stone. The likelihood that this object was intended to symbolize the lapis angularis is particularly high given that, as Stephen Murray has convincingly observed, the jamb figures at Amiens, through their unusually rigid, columnar character, seem themselves designed to allude to Ephesians 2:19-22. See Notre-Dame, Cathedral of Amiens: The Power of Change in Gothic (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 113-114 and plate 127. That these column-figures, and indeed the entire Gothic portal system of decoration, are ultimately the progeny of the narthex portal scheme at Vezelay will become clear below, pp. 345-358. :'1 The Choir of Confessors (fol. 1), the two Choirs of Virgins (fols. lv and 2), the Presentation (fol. 34v) , Pentecost (fol. 67v) , and St. Swithun (fol. 97v) all appear in portal-like frames. "* "Aperite mihi portas iustitiae/ ingressus eas confitebor Domino/ haec est porta Domini iusti intrabunt in earn/ confitebor tibi quoniam

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Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. At Vezelay, all of these various ideas associating Christ as the cornerstone with Christ as the judge on the Final Day seem to be expressed together. The notion that Christ as the cornerstone was first "rejected" at the Crucifixion but will later return in glory as "the head of the corner" is alluded to by way of the cross on the trumeau and the figure of the enthroned deity directly above it, both of which, as has been demonstrated, were designed to visualize the metaphor of Christ as the lapis angularis. The idea that Christ as "the head of the corner" will also prove to be "a stone of stumbling" to unbelievers, in turn, appears to be evoked through the actions of the three creatures above the head-as-keystone of the central deity. As was discussed in Chapter Two, these creatures - a dog, an acrobat, and a siren - are all likely figures of evil who have bound themselves into circles of eternal powerlessness under the force of the presence of the triune god below. Holding their heads to their feet in dramatic poses of instability on the very surface of the keystone of Christ, these signifiers of sin do indeed also appear to be "stumbling." Even the notion articulated in Matthew 21:43 exaudisti me et factus es mihi in salutem/ lapis quem reprobaverunt aedificantes/ factus est in caput anguli/ a Domino factum est istud/ hoc est mirabile in oculis nostris."

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that only those who "produce the fruits of the kingdom," meaning the gifts of faith and devotion to God, will avoid the "stone of stumbling" seems to be visualized, by way of the offertory procession on the left lintel. Such an interpretation involves reading the participating figures as well as the figures on the right lintel, in the particular context of the Second Coming, as those awaiting judgement, which is precisely how lintel figures were intended to be understood on virtually all subsequent tympanum renderings of the Last Judgement, beginning with that at Autun. The lintel figures at Vezelay, however, are not similarly organized into the saved on the left and the condemned on the right; rather, they are portrayed as all having the potential for redemption, with the figures on the left presenting the proper offerings and the figures on the right embracing Christ's call for peace. The makers of the tympanum no doubt avoided depicting the actual moment of judgement in part because the Nicene Creed does not itself discuss the division of souls. But their primary motivation was likely a desire to emphasize that every member of the lay congregation who participated in the Mass, which is also being represented here, it will be recalled, were capable of being saved. The presence of the three strange creatures "stumbling" on the keystone above, however, would have served to remind the tympanum's audience that God still held the power to render a negative judgement, should he deem it necessary. The construction of this entire composition, 284

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finally, as a real portal allows the scheme to allude to the notion that God as the cornerstone and as the judge will also, according to Psalm 118:19-22, be the gate through which the righteous will enter on the Final Day into the celestial kingdom, a kingdom to which the Creed makes clear "there will be no end." Turning to the Creed's third article, it can be seen that the truth of its first verse, which speaks of "...the Holy Spirit, the Lord and life-giver, Who proceeds from the Father and the Son, Who with the Father and the Son is together worshipped and together glorified," is confirmed both by the identity and actions of the central deity and by the responses of the surrounding figures. That is, the depiction of the christological personification of the Trinity dispensing the tongues of fire demonstrates the validity of the filioque and shows that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one, while the christological deity's presence on a heavenly throne, his enormous scale, and his status as the focal point of the peripheral figures' awe-filled attention verify that the Three Persons are now and will forever be together venerated and exhalted. The truth of the verse to follow, in turn, describing the belief that the Holy Spirit "spoke through the prophets" is visually confirmed by the presence of John the Baptist on the trumeau who, as was demonstrated in Chapter Three, is here depicted as a representative of all of the prophets, in his Ephesians-inspired role as part of the foundation for, 285

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and as one of the gates into, the Universal Church. The content of the next verse, "one holy Catholic and apostolic Church" is pictorialized and validated, of course, by the main portal composition as a whole, in its role as a vision of the Universal Church, according to Ephesians 2:1122. Indeed, it can now be said that the fundamental reason why the makers of the narthex portal program felt compelled to create such a detailed, transtemporal rendering of the Church above and around the main entranceway, made up of Jews and gentiles from all parts of the world but founded and lead by the apostles at Pentecost, must have been to provide the scheme's viewers with precise visual confirmation of this short but important creedal passage. The next verse, stating that "we confess one baptism to the remission of sins," is alluded to, like the earlier claim that the Holy Spirit spoke through the prophets, by way of the figure of John the Baptist on the trumeau (fig. 118) . Indeed, the need to provide pictorial verification for both of these verses explains why John the Baptist, and not any other prophet, was used to represent the prophets as a group within the Ephesians scheme. That the trumeau figure was intended to function in this manner as both a prophet and a reminder to the baptized faithful that their sins can be forgiven is demonstrated by the content of the disc that John holds in his hands. As discussed in previous chapters, this disc once depicted a lamb in its center and featured an inscription around its rim that together would have recalled 286

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the Baptist's prophecy in John 1:29, proclaimed as he caught sight of Christ across the River Jordan: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world."115 That this prophecy refers to the salvific implications of Christ's sacrifice at Golgotha, moreover, rather than to John's own activities, and that a cross was placed directly behind the Baptist on the trumeau, suggest that the portal's makers wanted to establish an association here between baptism and the Crucifixion. Such an association, particularly when considered in conjunction with the figure of Christ enthroned in heaven directly above, serves to visualize Paul's claim in Romans 6:3-4:116 "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life." By visualizing Romans 6:3-4, in turn, these motifs not only emphasize the sin-cleansing powers of baptism, but they also allude to the Creed's next and final verse, "we look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come." This last verse, which describes how eagerly the believers are awaiting the promised outcome of the sacramental remission of sin, is

"Ecce agnus Dei qui tollit peccatum mundi." The words PECCATOR MUNDI can still be seen on the rim of the disc. 116 "An ignoratis quia quicumque baptizati sumus in Christo Iesu/ in morte ipsius baptizati sumus/ consepulti enim sumus cum illo per baptismum in mortem/ ut quomodo surrexit Christus a mortuis per gloriam Patris/ ita et nos in novitate vitae ambulemus."

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also alluded to through the content of the tympanum as a whole. That is, and as has already been demonstrated above, Peter and Paul on the lintel should be understood on one level as about to welcome the approaching peripheral figures into the earthly, historical Church, which is signified by the apostles in the inner tympanum. On another level, however, the two apostles should be seen as poised to receive the eager participants of each lintel procession into the heavenly realm itself, which the seated apostles, as noted above, along with the enthroned triune deity that they flank, also represent. The visual evidence indicates, then, that the three narthex portals at Vezelay were together designed to provide pictorial confirmation of the truth of each of the component claims of the Nicene Creed. In order to achieve this end, the makers of the program arranged the narthex portal imagery in two registers, with those events that are mentioned in the Creed and that concern the eternal Trinity and its direct interaction with the terrestial realm (namely, Creation, Ascension, Pentecost, and Second Coming) being alluded to through the content of the upper register, that is, the main tympanum, and with those events that concern the Incarnation (namely, Christ's birth, death and resurrection) along with the initiating sacrament of the Church, of which the incarnate Son was the first beneficiary (namely, baptism), being alluded to through the content of the lower register, that is, the central trumeau and the two 288

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side tympana. The scheme as a whole thus both depicts the apostles composing the Creed at the moment of Pentecost, in fidelity to legend, and displays the very substance of their utterances. ★

*

*

One intriguing precedent for this remarkably ingenious scheme is a miniature found in a copy of Hrabanus Maurus' De Universo, produced at Monte Cassino around 1023 (Monte Cassino, Archivio, MS. 132, p. 73; fig. 119).117 This composition, accompanied by the titulus De diffinitionibus secrete fidei et ecclesiasticorum dogmatum, anticipates the sculptural imagery at Vezelay in several important respects: it depicts the Trinity flanked by six seated apostles on each side; the apostles here seem likewise rendered in the act of composing/proclaiming the Creed;118 and the two groups of apostles appear similarly intended to signify the two churches united by the keystone-cornerstone-foundation stone of Christ, in this case through the placement of the two See Ambrogio Amelli, Miniacure sacre e profane d e l l 'anno 1023 illustranti 1'enciclopedia medioevale di Rabano Mauro (Monte Cassino, 1896); Herbert Bloch, "Montecassino, Byzantium and the West in the Early Middle Ages," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 3 (1946), p. 198 and n. 109; idem, Monte Cassino in the Middle Ages, 3 vols. (Rome, 1986), vol. 1, pp. 68 and n. 4, 69 and n. 1. Concerning the complicated question of the sources of this manuscript's images, see, for example, Adolf Goldschmidt, "Fruhmittelalterliche illustrierte Enzyklopadien,' Vortrage der Bibliothek Warburg 3 (1923-24), partic. pp. 215-220; Fritz Saxl, "Illustrated Encyclopedias I," (1939), reproduced in Lectures, ed. Gertrud Bing (London, 1957), pp. 228-241; Erwin Panofsky, "Hercules Agricola: A Further Complication in the Problem of the Illustrated Hrabanus Manuscripts," in Essays in the History of Art Presented to Rudolf Wittkower, eds. Douglas Fraser, Howard Hibbard, and Milton J. Lewine (London, 1967), pp. 20-28. 118 Concerning the notion that the apostles are proclaiming the contents of the Creed in this miniature, see Boespflug and Zaluska, dogme trinitaire," pp. 231-232 and n. 250.

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"Le

groups of apostles under church-like buildings featuring crosses on their gables that are physically joined into a single structure by the three archways enclosing the three Persons of the trinitarian godhead.119 The trail of precedents for the creedal components of the narthex portal program leads most forcefully, however, back once again to the English, pre-Conquest milieu centered on Canterbury and Winchester. First, the Pentecost miniatures in the Benedictional of Aethelwold (fig. 11) and in the Benedictional of Archbishop Robert (fig. 91) both already contain many of the significant details found in the Monte Cassino Credo image, such as the arrangement of the apostles in a semi-circle on each side of the deity, the depiction of Peter as tonsured, and the inclusion of two church structures, located directly above each group of apostles. The Pentecost miniature in the Benedictional of Aethelwold, moreover, when considered in conjunction with its accompanying texts, seems itself also to have been intended to be understood as an image of the apostles creating the Creed.120 That is, part of the blessing that immediately follows the miniature implies that this confession of faith is precisely what the apostles began to

“ 9 For an interpretation of the meaning of this miniature within MS. 132 as a whole, see Marianne Reuter, Text und Bild im Codex 132 der Bibliothek von Montecassino "Liber Rabani De originibus rerum'’: Untersuchungen zur mittelalterlichen Illustrationpraxis, Munchener Beitrage zur Mediavistik und Renaissance-Forschung, vol. 34 (Munich, 1984), partic. pp. 49-53. See Deshman, Benedictional, p. 104.

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articulate in unison, although in different languages, after their reception of the tongues of fire:121 And may he who deigned to unify the diversity of tongues in the confession of one faith, cause you to persevere in the same faith, and by this to come from the hope to the vision [of God]. Second, the miniature accompanying the Apostles' Creed in the Utrecht. Psalter (fig. i3), a manuscript which as has been noted was known to have been at Canterbury by the year 1000 ,122 presents a visualization of the Creed's contents that anticipates the scheme at Vezelay both in its conception and in its physical arrangement. In terms of its conception, the miniature in the Psalter likewise, and uniquely before the narthex portal program at Vezelay, the evidence suggests, attempts to allude to each of the verses in the creedal text and to merge these various pictorial allusions into a single composition.121 Although the Psalter illustration is neither as symmetrical in its arrangement of parts, in turn, nor as strictly organized into two registers, it similarly positions the Trinity in heaven directly above the Crucifixion and then displays the remainder of its scenes within a horizontal band that

"l Corpus Benediccionum Poncificalium, no. 948; Warner and Wilson, Benedictional, p. 25: "Quique dignatus est diuersitatem linguarum in unius fidei confessione adunare, in eadem uos faciat fide perseuerare, et per hanc ab spe ad speciem peruenire." See above, pp. 102-103 and n. 76. Concerning the content of the Utrecht Psalter Creed image, and its conceptual uniqueness before the early twelfth century, see F. Boespflug, "Autour de la traduction picturale du Credo au Moyen Age (Xlle-Xve s .),* in Melanges offerts a Pierre-Marie Gy, edited by P. de Clerck and Eric Palazzo (Paris, 1990), pp. 65-67.

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stretches to either side of the cross. Both compositions, despite the fact that the two schemes visualize different creeds, thus require the viewer interested in identifying the allusions to each of the creedal verses as they appear in the text to embark on a looping examination of their contents. In each case, the viewer following the text begins with the celestial triune deity, returns to it to find allusions to Christ's Ascension and heavenly reunification with the Father, and returns to it yet again, as a vision of heaven, to discover allusions to the declaration of belief in eternal life with which the text concludes. The Psalter illustration, moreover, may also anticipate the sculptural scheme in certain more specific details. First, and as was discussed in Chapter Two, the deity in both schemes, albeit in each case in a different manner, seems to visualize not only the unity of the trinitarian godhead, but also the presence within it of both the eternal Son and the incarnate Christ.124 Second, the Utrecht Psalter image may similarly include an allusion to Christ as the cornerstone. The "holy Catholic Church" mentioned in the Apostles' Creed seems to be visualized in the miniature by way of the building that appears just to the right of Christ's tomb and just below the depiction of the Ascension. It is a structure similar to that of the temple portrayed in the illustration of the canticle of Simeon (fig. 81) that appears on the facing

:;4 Concerning the meaning of the deity group in the Utrecht Psalter composition, see above, pp. 101-103.

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folio and that has already been discussed as a probable source for the Presentation composition in the Benedictional of Aethelwold (fig. 80) .125 Like the temple structures in these two miniatures, the building in the illustration of the Creed features an altar positioned diagonally so that its "corner" juts out toward the viewer, an arrangement that in the other two compositions, at least, serves to designate Christ as the lapis angularis .126 The makers of the triple-portal composition at Vezelay, then, appear to have arrived at their scheme by combining the idea of showing the apostles in the midst of composing the creed at Pentecost, taken from the Benedictional of Aethelwold's rendering of that event, or from a related image (of which the Monte Cassino image is also itself perhaps a witness), with the idea of visualizing the actual contents of the Creed, taken from the illustration of the symbolum apostolorum in the Utrecht Psalter, or again from a related image. The narthex portal composition departs from both of these extant precedents, however, in its additional articulation of themes both of arrival and departure, and of transformation from non-apostle to apostle. At the conclusion of the previous section, the argument was made that the main portal scheme as a visualization of the Mass

See above, pp. 202-204. :;s As Deshman has noted (Benedictional, p. 42, n. 171), altars appear on the diagonal in many images in the Utrecht Psalter, making it difficult to conclude with certainty that this motif signifies Christ as the cornerstone in every instance.

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was designed to indicate to the abbey's lay congregants that if they were to imitate the piety of the monk-apostles in the inner tympanum by presenting offerings (of a spiritual as well as of a material nature), by receiving Communion, and by reciting the Agnus Dei, they would transform themselves into apostles, as the monks had already demonstrably done, and then depart into the surrounding countryside, and beyond, as apostle-like examples for the rest of the lay population to follow. The discoveries of the preceding pages suggest that the portal scheme was further designed to emphasize to the abbey's lay viewers that, in addition to the duties outlined above, they were required during the Mass also to recite the Nicene Creed, which the apostles in the inner tympanum themselves seem in the midst of articulating and the content of which is effectively displayed across the three portals. Only then, the scheme appears to suggest, could the members of the audience hope to be blessed, that is, to be infused with the saving grace of the Holy Spirit, and thereafter continue on their way in the world as true apostles of the Lord."'

The message of the portal program in this regard may help to explain a curious, and previously ignored, detail in the Nativity scene in the south tympanum (my fig. 3). Here, along with Mary, Joseph, and the Christ child, is depicted a fourth figure. She stands beside the infant Jesus, her arm outstretched toward him. This figure is surely Salome, one of Mary's two legendary midwives. A doubter of Mary's virginity, she was punished for her scepticism with a wizened hand. This hand was subsequently restored by Christ, however, when she touched his garments or crib, depending on the version, after which she became a believer in the miracle of His birth. This moment, then, of Salome being about to touch or having just touched the Christ child is what is shown on the tympanum. Emphasizing the miracle and authenticity of the Incarnation, which is certainly appropriate given the scene's role in helping to visualize the Creed, this figure of Salome was also likely intended to function as a symbol of the sinner transformed (or soon to

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Arrival and Departure: Further Reflections Conrad Rudolph has demonstrated that the monastic communities of the first half of the twelfth century, both reformist and traditional, were unusually concerned with the question of the value and function of images in a monastic context.1"3 He has argued convincingly, moreover, that Abbot Suger's new program of decoration at the royal abbey of Saint-Denis, including the sculpted portals of the west facade, were intended as a justificative response to these concerns."9 More specifically, he has suggested that the sculptures of the west facade, like the relief panels around the main altar and the stained glass windows in the choir behind, were designed to rival and perhaps even to surpass written exegesis, in terms of their intellectual sophistication, as a means of demonstrating that images could be an effective source of spiritual edification, rather than distraction, for the abbey's resident monks.uo

be transformed) by the acquisition of faith, in other words, by the learning of, and belief in, the Nicene Creed. Concerning the textual sources of the Salome legend, and her appearance and meaning in several other medieval works of art, including the Benedictional of Aethelwold, see Deshman, "Servants of the mother of God in Byzantine and medieval art," Word & Image 5 (1989), pp. 33-70. See "The “Principal Founders' and the Early Artistic Legislation of Citeaux, " Cistercian Art and Architecture 3 (1987), pp. 1-45; "Bernard of Clairvaux's Apologia as a Description of Cluny, and the Controversy over Monastic Art," Gesta 21 (1988), pp. 125-132; Artistic Change at St-Denis; idem. The "Things of Greater Importance'; Bernard of Clairvaux's Apologia and the Medieval Attitude Toward Art (Philadelphia, 1991) . See Artistic Change, partic. pp. 64-75. 190 Kessler has more recently made a convincing case that the program of the Allegorical Window, at least, was designed to speak directly of the superiority of images over words as aids in the quest for divine

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Rudolph has argued that the decorative program was, at the same time, carefully conceived to deliver the greatest possible impact on the senses, as a means of justifying its presence with respect to the abbey's lay visitors. These visitors, Suger believed, according to Rudolph, would be moved to a higher level of piety and to a more intense yearning for the spiritual by the scale, color, luminosity and other impressive physical properties of the art works they encountered. As Calvin Kendall has shown in his recent study of Romanesque portal inscriptions, however, considerable anxiety existed over this question as well.1" That is, numerous portal inscriptions attest to a concern among twelfth-century church authorities that these new, gigantically-scaled, three-dimensional sculptural compositions - many of which, like that at Vezelay, were originally brilliantly colored132 - might lead impressionable viewers to mistake the sacred figures represented for the real thing. At St. Emmeram at Regensburg, for example, the seated figure of Christ above the north transept portal, probably created around 1050, carries an inscription that truth. See “The Function of Vi trim Vestitum and the Use of Materia Saphirorum in Suger's St. Denis," Cahiers du Leopard d'Or 5 (1996), pp. 179-203. ‘31 See The Allegory of the Church, pp. 80-91. ~3~ Concerning polychrome traces found on the sculptures at Vezelay, see Salet, La Madeleine de Vezelay, p. 145; N. Stratford, "Romanesque sculpture in Burgundy. Reflections on its geography, on patronage, on the status of sculpture and on the working methods of sculptors", in Artistes, artisans et production artistique au Moyen Age (Paris, 1986), p. 245.

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seems designed to remind the beholder that this sculpture is indeed no more than a man-made object: "Since Christ is called a rock on account of his firm majesty, it is fitting enough that his image be in stone."133 An inscription around a sculpted figure of Peter on the tympanum of the south portal to the cloister at Saint-Pierre at Vienne, likely created in the second quarter of the twelfth century, is even more explicit: "This stone is not Peter. Peter is at Rome and in heaven above. In his likeness the form of this statue is made."134 An equally clear message appears to have been conveyed by a contemporary inscription on the Portal of the Months on the south facade of the cathedral at Ferrara: "The image which you see is neither God nor man in the flesh, but it is God and man in the flesh which the image signifies."135 Even the famous inscription below the figure of Christ on the west tympanum at Saint-Lazare, Autun (fig. 47), which appears to declare Gislebertus' authorship of the portal, can be interpreted as a similar kind of warning. Kendall has noted that the phrase "Gislebertus hoc fecit [Gislebertus made this]" diverges from the normal authorial

U1 +CVM PETRA SIT DICTVS STABILI P[ro]NVMINE / XP[istu]C ILLIUS / IN SAXO SATIS APTE CONSTAT IMAGO. See Kendall, The Allegory of Che Church, pp. 80 and 261. :!4 +NON PETRVS HEC PETRA / ROMaE PETRVS ET SVPer aETHRA // +AD FORMAM CVIVS / SPECIES FIT IMAGINIS HVIVS. See ibid., pp. 81 and 300. '!,i Nec Deus est, nec Homo praesens quam c e m i s imago / Sed Deus est, & Homo praesens quam signat imago. The portal was destroyed in 1718 but its pictorial and textual elements were described and published by Borsetti and others in the eighteenth century. See ibid., pp. 81 and 225-226.

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attribution formula, "(X) me fecit [(X) made me]."136 He has argued that this change of wording was devised as a convenient means of avoiding the awkward situation, given that the tympanum's verses are all in the voice of Christ, of appearing to declare in stone that Gislebertus was the maker of God. Kendall's argument is a convincing one, but the inscription as it stands also seems designed to convey a specific message about the status of the sculpture as an image. That is, the inscription enables God himself, as the speaker of the inscription's content, to emphasize to the tympanum's (literate) viewers that the awesome figure of Christ the Judge that looms above them is a work created by the hand of a human being and nothing more. "Hoc," Christ implicitly insists through the inscription, is not "me." The theme of transformation identified at the end of the previous section may also have been designed to allow the narthex portal sculptures at Vezelay to justify themselves in regard to both of the concerns investigated by Rudolph and Kendall, namely, that images are of doubtful spiritual value within the monastery and that they might be all too easily confused with the actual holy figures and events that they depict. To understand how this was the case, it is necessary, first, to note that the Creed as proclaimed by the apostles at Pentecost, and as depicted across the three narthex portals, was commonly understood as nothing less than the New Law, intended to replace the Old ‘!s Ibid., p. 91.

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Law given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Wishing to emphasize this fact, medieval makers of images often depicted Moses' reception of the stone tablets as a prefiguration of the apostles' reception of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. In the San Paolo Bible, for example, the typological associations between the two events were highlighted through the creation of a series of formal and iconographic parallels that visually link the first frontispiece for the Book of Leviticus (fol. 30v; fig. 120), which depicts the Giving of the Law, to the frontispiece for the Book of Acts (fig. 34), which depicts the descent of the tongues of fire.‘3' In the miniature of Pentecost in the Drogo Sacramentary (fig. 12), in turn, an image already discussed for its visualization of both the Trinity and the filioque, the typology was established through the inclusion of a second hand descending from heaven holding a scroll, a motif that itself sometimes appeared in depictions of Moses receiving the Law.138 The connections between the two events were also, and in a related manner, emphasized in depictions of the foundation of the Church that portrayed that event in the form of a traditio legis, in which Christ is shown presenting a scroll of the New Law to Peter.lj9 The fresco See Herbert Schade, "Studien zu der karoiingischen Bilderbibel aus St. Paul vor den M a u m in Rom. 2. Teil,” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 22 (1960), partic. pp. 30-42. ::a See Leesti, pp. 210-213.

"The Pentecost Illustration in the Drogo Sacramentary,"

Concerning the meaning of the traditio legis, see, for example, Hellemo, Adventus Domini, pp. 65-89.

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decorating the apse at Berze-la-Ville (fig. 51), created around 1100 and depicting Paul on the left and Peter receiving the Law on the right, is perhaps the closest example of this image-type, in terms of its location and date, to the narthex portal sculptures at Vezelay. The narthex portal sculptures arguably express a similar typology, in order to emphasize that the Creed should be understood as the New Law, initially through the very conjunction of subject matter and materials. That is, these sculptures, which constitute a pictorial version of the Creed, are carved in stone, a fact that undoubtedly would have reminded the portal's viewers of the Old Law that the Creed replaced, the original of which was itself, of course, carved on stone tablets. That this play on materials was a conscious one on the part of the program's authors is indicated by the unusual depiction of the tongues of fire, described so many times above, as issuing specifically from Christ's fingertips. What this detail was surely intended to declare, in addition to visualizing the filioque, was that the New Law, just like the Old before it, according to Exodus 31:18,140 was "written by the finger(s) of God." Indeed, precisely this conceit was articulated by Augustine, as yet another innovative means of emphasizing the typological connections between the Giving of the Old Law

:i: "When God finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God [Dedit quoque Mosi conpletis huiuscemodi sermonibus in monte Sinai/ duas tabulas testimonii lapideas scriptas digito Dei].*

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and the dispensing of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. As he stated in De Civitate Dei: "...it was during the fiftieth day that the Holy Spirit came down from heaven. The Spirit is called in the Gospel 'the finger of God'

[Luke 11:20] to

bring to our minds the remembrance of that original symbolic event, since we are told that the tables of the Law also were written by the finger of God."141 As discussed in the previous section, the portal program seems intended to declare to its lay viewers that they will only be transformed from sinning non-apostles into blessed apostles if they recite the Creed visualized across the three portals. The assumption here is that in reciting the Creed the lay congregants will have already come to understand and believe its contents; in other words, they will have made its tenets part of their very being. The calculated presentation of the Creed across the narthex portals as the New Law was likely intended to reiterate this point, for the New Law is by definition a law of the Spirit, "carved" by the finger of God not into stone, like the Old Law, but into the heart and soul of each of the faithful. Indeed, it is the New Law's very potential for embodiment, which makes possible a truly redemptive communion with its divine source, that renders it superior to the Old, a law which tragically bound its adherents to the letter and thus

Book XVI, Chapter 43 (CCSL, 48, p. 549): "-.quinquagensimo die ueniret de caelo Spiritus sanctus, qui dictus est in euangelio digitus Dei, ut recordationem nostram in primi praefigurati facti memoriam reuocaret, quia et legis illae tabulae digito Dei scriptae referuntur.*

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to the earthly, non-spiritual object of its articulation, namely, the stone tablets. As Paul states in his second Epistle to the Corinthians (3:6), the New Law and the covenant it encompasses are "expressed not in a written document," the letters of which he makes a special point of emphasizing in the next verse were carved in stone ("deformata in lapidibus"), "but in a spiritual bond; for the written law condemns to death, but the Spirit gives life. "142 When this aspect of the narthex portal program is considered in light of the contemporary anxieties over the spiritually distractive and idolatrous potential of monumental sculptures discussed above, the program's theme of transformation takes on yet another level of meaning, turning the portal scheme in the process into nothing less than a discourse on the proper use of images. In order for its lay viewers to be successfully transformed from non­ apostles into apostles, the program seems to declare, these viewers must learn what is visualized across the three portals, must take the sculptures' content into their hearts - and must thus themselves render the New Law a matter of the spirit - and must then leave the actual stone carvings, which are no more than material traces of the abrogated, earth-bound Old Law, behind. Pay attention to and commit to memory what these sculptures represent, the scheme seems to emphasize to its viewers, but do not allow yourself to 142 "...non litterae sed Spiritus/ littera enim occidit Spiritus autem

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imagine that the sculptures themselves, as physical objects, have any independent value or meaning. The New Law belongs only and always to the eternal realm of the spirit; any excessive lingering on the material object of its articulation will constitute a turning away from God. By conveying this message, in turn, the narthex portal sculptures also seem to declare that their primary role is didactic, rather than merely decorative, just as Rudolph has argued is the case with the sculptures and stained-glass at Saint-Denis. Unlike at Saint-Denis, however, the intended audience of the sculptures at Vezelay was the lay population whose members would have been arriving and departing at a steady rate through these narthex doorways. ★

★

★

As noted in Chapter One, the monastery at Vezelay had become one of the great pilgrimage centers of Western Europe by the early twelfth century. It was successful in this regard in part because of its popularity as a destination for those wishing to venerate the relics of Mary Magdalen housed in the church's crypt, relics that were considered amongst the most significant in France. The abbey was also successful, however, because of its role as a departure point for pilgrimages farther afield, particularly to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. Indeed, Vezelay was located at the very beginning of the Via Limovicense, one of the four roads leading to the famous shrine at Compostela. vivificat."

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The theme of arrival and departure demonstrated above to have been developed in the main portal to allow the sculptures to speak of ideas related both to the Mass and to the reciting of the Nicene Creed seems to have been designed to speak as well of these two pilgrimage functions, as a means of articulating all the more comprehensively the experience of the laity visiting the abbey at Vezelay. In this respect, it is worth noting, first, that several of the scenes in the side tympana treat of themes relevant to pilgrims. In the south tympanum (fig. 3), the Adoration of the Magi appears as the main scene. As Gary Vikan has shown, the Magi were particularly important models for pilgrims.143 Not only were they considered the archetypal gift-givers journeying to present their offerings to Christ, anticipating the activities of every pilgrim who brought a gift to be donated at the shrine of a saint, but they were also considered the archetypal divinely guided and protected travellers, a point that would not have been lost on all those pilgrims worried about the dangers that might lie in store for them on the road ahead.144 In the north tympanum, three scenes from the story of the disciples at Emmaus appear in the lower lintel: on the "41 See "Pilgrims in Magi's Clothing," pp. 103-104. "u As Vikan has convincingly argued, it is likely for these reasons that the Adoration of the Magi appears more than twice as often as any other scene from Christ's life on surviving Early Byzantine pilgrims' tokens, and that two pilgrims dressed as Magi are depicted adoring the cross in an image of the Crucifixion imprinted on a late sixth-century ampulla from Palestine now at Dumbarton Oaks. See ibid., partic. pp. 102105 and fig. 19.

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left, the two disciples encounter Christ, whom they mistake for a normal traveller; in the center, while sharing their dinner, they recognize him; and on the right, they return to Jerusalem to tell the other apostles of the miracle they have just witnessed. As one of the central themes of the Emmaus story suggests, namely, contact with the divine while travelling, this biblical narrative was often characterized in contemporary works of art as a pilgrimage experience, with Christ and the disciples actually being depicted as pilgrims. Such is the case, for example, in a bas-relief carved around 1100 that decorates the cloister of the Spanish pilgrimage church of San Domingo de Silos and that shows Christ carrying a staff and wearing a scrip inscribed with the pilgrim's symbol of the scalloped shell (fig. 121).145 It is also the case in a northern Spanish ivory dated to the early twelfth century (fig. 122), in which Christ is again depicted with a staff and a scrip, the scrip here being inscribed with a cross, while one of the disciples is shown using a pilgrim's walking stick.‘4,> In the Ingeborg Psalter (Chantilly, Musee Conde, MS. 1695), finally, dated to the end of the twelfth century,147 Christ

'*5 See Robert Plotz, "Imago Beati Iacobi. Beitrage zur Ikonographie des hi. Jacobus Maios im Hochmittelalter," in Wallfahrt kennt keine Grenzen: Themen zu einer Ausstellung des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums und des Adalbert Stifter Vereins, eds. Lenz Kriss-Rettenbeck and Gerda Mohler (Munich, 1984), p. 254. ' > r i x i X

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Fig. 73: London, Brit. Lib., MS. Add. 19352, fol. 20r. Illustration of Psalm 18.

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Fig. 74: Cathedral of Saint-Pierre, Angouleme. West Fagade.

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Fig. 75: Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Chartres. West Fagade. Central Tympanum.

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Fig. 76: London, Brit. Lib., MS. Cotton, Galba A. XVIII, fol. 2v. Christ Enthroned Among the Gentile Saints.

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Fig. 77: London, Brit. Lib., MS. Cotton, Galba A. XVIII, fol. 21r. Christ Enthroned Among the Gentile Saints.

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Fig. 78: Oxford, Bod. Lib., MS. Rawlinson. B. 484, fol. 85r. Nativity.

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Fig. 79: London, Brit. Lib., MS. Add. 49598, fol. 15v. Nativity.

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Fig. 80: London, Brit. Lib., MS. Add. 49598, fol. 34v. Presentation in the Temple.

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View of East Face of West Wall of Nave.

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Fig. 83: Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. View of East Face of West Wall of Narthex.

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Fig. 84: London, Brit. Lib., MS. Add. 49598, fol. 97v. Saint Swithun.

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Fig. 85: London, Brit. Lib.. MS. Add. 49598, fol. Ir. Choir of Confessors.

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Fig. 86: London, Brit. Lib., MS. Add. 49598, fol. Iv. Choir of Virgins.

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Fig. 87: London, Brit. Lib., MS. Add. 49598, fol. 2r. Choir of Virgins.

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Fig. 88: London, Brit. Lib., MS. Add. 49598, fol. 3v. Paul and Two Apostles.

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Fig. 89: London, Brit. Lib. MS. Add. 49598, fol. 4r. Peter and the Two Apostles.

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Fig. 90: Boulogne, Bib. Mun. , MS. 107, fol. 6v. Saint Bertin.

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Fig. 91: Rouen, Bib. Mun., MS. Y.7, fol. 29v. Pentecost.

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Fig. 92: Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Detail of Right Lintel.

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Fig. 93: Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Detail from Left Lintel.

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Fig. 94: Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Detail of January.

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Fig. 95: Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Detail of December.

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Fig. 96: London, Brit. Lib., MS. Add. 49598, fol. 45v. Entry into Jerusalem.

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Fig. 97: London, Brit. Lib., MS. Stowe 944, fol. 6r. King Cnut and Queen Aelfgyfu Donating Cross to New Minster Church, Winches ter.

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Fig. 98: Utrecht, Bib. der Rijk., MS. 32, fol. 90v. Illustration of Athanasian Creed.

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Fig. 99: Diagram of Narthex Portal Sculptures. Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Based on Drawing by Violletle-Duc.

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Fig. 101: Cathedral of Gerona. Embroidered Hanging. The Creation.

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Fig. 102: Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris. West Fagade. Sainte-Anne Portal. Detail of Tympanum.

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Fig. 103: Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy, Conques. West Fagade. Tympanum. Detail of Sol and Luna.

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Fig. 104: London, Lambeth Pal. Lib., MS. 3 68, fol. 12v. Christ in Majesty.

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Fig. 105: Vatican, Bib. Apost., MS. Barberini, 4406, p. 25. Copy of fresco of Creation of the World. Basilica of St. Paul, Rome.

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Fig. 106: London, Brit. Lib., MS. Add. 49598, Annunciation.

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107: Giacomo Grimaldi. Vatican, Bib. Apost., MS. Barberini, lat. 2733, fols. 113-114. Copy of New Testament Scenes from Left Wall of Nave of Old Saint Peter's, Rome.

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Fig. 108: Giacomo Grimaldi. Vatican, Bib. Apost., MS. Barberini, lat. 2733, fol. 113. Copy of New Testament Scenes from West Wall of Nave of Old Saint Peter's, Rome. Detail of Blessing at Bethany.

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Fig. 109: Cathedral Treasury, Monza. Pilgrim's Flask. Ascension.

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Fig. 110: London, Brit. Lib., MS. Cotton, Galba A. XVIII, fol. 120. Ascension.

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Fig. Ill: London, Brit. Lib., MS. Cotton, Caligula, A. XIV, fol. 18r. Ascension.

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Fig. 112: London, Brit. Lib., MS. Add. 49598, fol. 64v. Ascension.

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Fig. 113: London, Brit. Lib., MS. Add. 49598, fol. gv . Second Coming.

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Fig. 114: Abbey Church of Saint-Pierre, Cluny. Reconstruction of Tympanum of West Portal by K. J. Conant.

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j id Fig. 115: Cluny, Musee du Farinier. Abbey Church of SaintPierre, Cluny. Model of West Portal by K. J. Conant.

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Fig. 116: Abbey Church of Saint-Fortunat, Charlieu. West Tympanum.

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Fig. 117: Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris. West Fagade. Central Tympanum.

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Fig. 118: Abbey Church of Sainte-Madeleine, Vezelay. Narthex. Central Portal. Trumeau. Detail of John the Baptist.

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Fig. 119: Monte Cassino, Arch., MS. 132, p. 73. Credo.

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Fig. 12 0: Rome, San Paolo fuori le Mura, Bible, fol. 31v. First Frontispiece to the Book of Leviticus.

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Fig. 121: Abbey Church of Santo Domingo de Silos. Cloister. Journey to Emmaus.

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Fig. 122: New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ivory plaque. Journey to Emmaus, and Noli me tangere.

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Fig. 123: Chantilly, Musee Conde, MS. 1695, fol. 30v. Journey to Emmaus, and Mary Magdalen Before the Apostles

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