Text and Image on the Great Portals

The goals of this tutorial are fourfold:

  1. To determine how the Great Portal of the twelfth century evolved.
  2. To establish the common features in form and meaning of the Great Portals
  3. To examine the relationship between scriptural text and image at Moissac, Autun, and VÚzelay
  4. To discuss how the images were tailored for their unique historical situations.
  1. Introduction

  2. The Great Portal
    1. Identification of terms (tympanum, lintel, trumeau, embrasure and jambs, door posts, dado, archivolts, voussoirs)
    2. Prototype: destroyed portal of Cluny III, Christ in Majesty. Discussion of Cluny portal and Roman triumphal arch sculpture (enunciation of religious concepts and historical events) cf. Christ in Majesty, Cluny III (destroyed in 1810) with Arch of Titus
    3. Relationship of Portal form and program with that of apse mosaics and frescoes cf. Portal of St.-Pierre, Moissac with Apse of BerzÚ-la-Ville
    4. Common features of Great Portals
      1. scale and size
      2. high degree of stylistic similarity (richly carved linear surface, animated postures, exaggerated movements, distorted figures, packed compositions, plate drapery, dynamic linearism--heritage of Reims school Ebbo Gospel or Utrecht style and related to painting styles such as frescoes of BerzÚ-la-Ville)
      3. technical innovation in terms of tympanum construction and degree of undercutting
      4. themes of theophany or the divine manifestation of God to man--Christ after his Resurrection until his Last Judgment.
    5. A Comparison and Discussion of the Great Portals. Read Biblical Texts as Sources of Imagery.
      1. St.-Pierre, Moissac (Christ and the 24 Elders)
        1. Sculpture as ecstatic vision; limitation of greco/roman classical style based in naturalism to express inner states, or visionary otherworldly realities
        2. Modern vs. medieval sensitivity to images. Describe scene in Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose of pilgrim encountering a Last Judgment portal
      2. St.-Lazar, Autun (Last Judgment)
        1. Events of Doomsday described by Honorius of Autun. The end of the world in a terrifying drama of 5 acts
          1. Precursory signs, the appearance of the four horsemen
          2. Christ appearing at midnight as a Judge
          3. Blast of trumpets calling the resurrection of dead
          4. The Psycho stasis or weighing of souls
          5. Separation of the blessed (dexter side, to gates of heaven, Peter, bosom of Abraham) and the damned (sinister side to the jaws of Leviathan); torture fits deed.
        2. Two figures in lintel indicating pilgrimage as path to salvation vita contemplative and vita activa
        3. The portal as public billboard, clear message of ultimate judgment and guidebook for path to salvation
        4. Text:

          Second Coming of Christ and Last Judgment

          Matthew 25:31-46 When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit in state on this throne, with all the nations gathered before him. He will separate men into two groups, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats to his left.

          Daniel 12:2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will wake, some to everlasting life and some to the reproach of eternal abhorrence.

          Revelations 20:13 The sea gave up its dead, and Death and Hades gave up the dead in their keeping; they were judged, each man on the record of his deeds.

          Matthew 24:31 With a trumpet blast he will send out his angels, and they will gather his chosen from the four winds.

      3. Ste.-Madeleine, Vézelay (Ascension of Christ and Mission of the Apostles)
        1. A conflation of scripture illustrating the Ascension, Pentecost and the Mission of the Apostles. The translation into stone of a sermon commentary on the role of VÚzelay for pilgrims and crusaders.
        2. Crusaders guidebooks and 7th century Encyclopedia of Isidore of Seville provides descriptions of the peoples from the nations of the world illustrated in lintel. Infirmed represented in cartouches.
        3. Vezelay and its relationship to the Crusades
        4. Texts:

          Ascension of Christ (Acts 1:9-12)

          Took place 40 days after his resurrection, standing on Mount of Olives with apostles

          "As they watched, he was lifted up, and a cloud removed him from their sight. As he was going, and as they were gazing intently into the sky, all at once there stood beside them two men in white who said, "Men of Galilee, why stand there looking up into the sky: This Jesus, who has been taken away from you up to heaven, will come in the same way as you have seen him go."

          Pentecost (Acts 2:1-9)

          Ten days after apostles witness the Ascension of Christ.

          "suddenly there came from the sky a noise like that of a storm driving wind, which filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues like flames of fire, dispersed among them and resting on each one. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other tongues, as the spirit gave them power of utterance."

          Mission of the Apostles

          • Christ gave apostles power to save or to condemn (Matthew 18:18, Mark 16:16; John 20:23)
          • Christ gave apostles power to preach the gospels to all nations (Matthew 28:19) or to every creature (Mark 16:15)
          • Christ gave apostles power to heal the sick and to drive out devils (Matthew 10:1,8; Mark 16:17, 18; Luke 9:1)

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Last Updated September 23, 1996 by David M. Cunningham