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The tympanum of the last Judgement |
At the centre of the tympanum, there is Christ who welcomes the Chosen Ones by raising his right arm. His lowered left hand which designates hell to the Reprobated Ones is effectively the movement of the judge who delivers his verdict. Thus, through these two contrasting motions, Jesus seems to organise the imposing sight which has been going on for over eight centuries above the abbey-church's. square.
Christ sits enthroned in an arcade of glory studded with stars, among the clouds which are represented by five rows of small festoons. His long face which expresses all the Supreme Judge 's solemnity is much more beautiful in profile. His clothes, tunic and coat, are open at the side in order to show the wound probably painted at the origin which has been let by the lance's blow. He seems to be surrounded with all his angels. On his left, one of them swings a finely chiselled thurible, while another one shows the Book of Life widely open. Two knight-angels, armed with a sword and lance, have been commissioned to hold in check the swarming crowd of demons and damned on the borders of hell. At Christ's feet and emerging from a cloud, two angels carry torches given that it is said that on the Last Judgement day : "The sun will become dark, the moon will no longer shine". There is no doubt that among these celestial creatures the most beautiful are the horn ringers which decorate the two corner pieces of the superior register. Finally, the great cross above, Christ, which is carried by two angels also holding one the nail and the other the lance, accentuates the Passion's evocation.
The Chosen Ones people is on the move towards the Lord's right under the leadership of the Virgin Mary followed by Saint Peter who holds the Keys of Heaven. Behind them, the other figures are lacking in nimbus. Indeed, they are not saints because the "master of the tympanum" dared to insert into this triumphant procession the outstanding figures of the monastery of Conques' history : the hermit founder Dadon, then an abbot (probably Bégon) with the crozier in one hand and taking off with the other the emperor Charlemagne, legendary benefactor of the abbey-church. But the latter needed to be forgiven for many reasons and the two monks who follow him, the first carrying a diptych and the second a reliquary laid on a piece of material, show in a way the defence's exhibits, that is the pieces of evidence of his imperial generosity towards the treasure of Saint Foy.
Below Christ, we can see the weighing of souls' scene, which opposes Michael the archangel and a sardonic demon, both giving to the other one a challenging look on each side of the scales. Despite the cheating of the demon who presses his forefinger onto the pan, the weighing is made in favour of good deeds. To the left, the corpses' resurrection develops in the stone as if it was on a screen, a filmed sequence : with the help of the angels who have come to lift the lids, the dead stand up one after the other out of their sarcophagus. In the symmetrical triangle, on the left, small arches call to mind Conques' church itself with the chains, hanging from the vaults, that the prisoners relieved by Saint Foy's protection gave in thanksgiving as was the custom. To the right, Saint Foy bows low before God's hand and intercedes on behalf of the deceased.
The inferior register divides into two parts : on the left, Heaven has been designed under the architectural appearance of the Heavenly Jerusalem with its crenellated towers, columns and arches. The sculptors from Conques' liking for familiar and realistic details shows here through the oil-lamps, the "calels" from Rouergue hanging from the vaults which provide the eternal kingdom's lighting. In the centre, Abraham sits and holds two children in his arms, probably the Holy Innocents. He is surrounded by pairs of figures under each arch : the Good Virgins and their lamps, the martyrs and their palms, the prophets and the scroll and finally the apostles and the book. The nearly monotonous head-on line of these Chosen Ones intends to translate the order and serenity which reign in Heaven. One angel welcomes the Chosen Ones at his door. On the other side of a partition wall, a tousled demon armed with a bludgeon is in charge of shoving the damned into Hell's monstrous jaws.
The sculptor has violently placed the heavenly peace opposite the Hell's chaos and confusion. Satan, Satan, the counterpart of Abraham in the centre of the right lintel, presides over staggering tortures, his feet put on the belly of one of the damned who lays in the flames - the punishing the authors of deadly sins with an obvious pleasure. lazybones, one might say. By his side, a whole hideous people of demons applies to punishing the authors of deadly sins with an obvious pleasure. Under the appearance of a knight wearing his coat of mail, Pride, the first sin, is thrown from his horse with lashes of fork. Both the adulteress with her bare breast and her lover linked by the neck seem to be waiting for Satan's terrible verdict. Greed is hung from on high with his purse round the neck and a toad at his feet. A demon is tearing the tongue of a small seated figure who personifies Slander or Gossip. We need to go and search Anger in the small triangular space on the left above Hell's jaws : here, a devil devours the brain of a damned who commits suicide plunging a knife into his throat. Close by, another hunchbacked devil has just grabbed the harp of a damned and tears his tongue with a hook. This miserable musician and singer probably represents the ham, the public entertainer, symbol of the vanity of the world's pleasures. On the opposite side, the right triangle holds a surprising scene full of irony : above the flames, a man is spit-roasted by two demons among which one has the head of a hare. Should we interpret it as the poacher's torture ? Or, more simply, do we think that in Hell, such a topsy-turvy world, the hunter has become his prey's victim ?
Above the lintel, Hell also takes up two levels on the median register. There, the sculptor was not bound by precise themes any more and he gave free rein to his imagination. In an indescribable tangle of bodies and heads, the diabolical and emaciated creatures, an hideous grin on their face, have a whale of a time and vie in zeal to punish the damned.
On the left panel, a demon is tearing with his teeth the crown of a king who is derisively represented entirely naked. The evil sovereign points his finger towards the Chosen Ones' procession and Charlemagne as if he wanted to express his vexation at not being on the good side. Above, sinister demons brandish axes, maces and even a crossbow which is still exceptionally represented at the beginning of the XIIth century. Such a display could be used as an illustration for the horrors of war.
The right panel is dedicated to a completely horrible torture : a sat damned who has fallen into the hands of a demon with a head of shrew is flayed alive while another satanic creature devours his skin with delight. By their side, the Drunkard brings up the wine he drank too much throughout his life. In 1940, the Conques' tympanum casting for the Museum of French Monuments in Paris allowed to identify the Forger inside the small triangle above the Drunkard. The discovery was possible thanks to the former's equipment : an anvil, a bowl full of coins and overall the currency hallmark, a kind of tube, he holds tight in his hand. The most astounding thing is that the sculptor has taken care to engrave on the end of this tiny instrument - that no one could see from down below - a coin's mould with the cuneiform inscription (hallmark). For this Forger sat in the flames the torture consists in forcibly swallow the molten metal poured by a demon.
On the same level, to the left, Evil Monks have their place in Hell such as Evil kings. An abbot is falling on the floor with his crozier. The hunchbacked demon with a big stomach catches three monks in a fishing net, among them, one with an overturned crozier.
In this Hell, everything has been implemented to inspire fear for those people unable to read - in the majority at that time - as shown by the rude remark engraved at the base of the lintel :
know that you face a formidable judgement.
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Texts from Jean-Claude FAU
Editions of Beffroi - Regional Council of Aveyron Photographs from André KUMURDJIAN Translation from Valérie FABRE |
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