Ste-Madeleine de Vézelay, Narthex Tympanum Sculpture

Narthex tympanum, Ste-Madeleine de Vézelay. Image from Sacred Destinations.

The great portal sculpture at Vézelay has received a great deal of attention from art historians, who have offered different interpretations of the scene depicted. The general narrative is clear enough: Christ in the centre is, through his blessing, animating the apostles, whose ecstatic reception is expressed through dramatical torsion in posture and expressive gestures. The surrounding scenes seem to represent the world in which the apostles do their work. But is the exact scene the Pentecost (in which the gift of tongues was bestowed ont he apostles, so that they could be understood by speakers of different languages); or is it the slightly different 'Mission to the Apostles' (when Christ tells them to go out into the world)? and is the scene itself a representation of the work of the Church in the world, or a preaching of the crusade in stone? Could some of these ideas be conflated? Below are some useful links for those who would like to follow up these issues.

Main images with brief French commentary on Vézelay website. Invaluable guide to the sculptures (from Cornell Uni wsebsite), and another useful chart with links to detailed interpretation of the figures.

Basic information is well presented on Sacred Destinations site, which has several further links.

Andrew Tallon (Vassar College) has produced some outstanding photographic resources. See the bottom of his page.

Christian Ann Zeringue, Evaluation of the Central Narthex Portal atr Sainte-Madeleine de Vézelay. Dissertation presented for MA at Louisiana State University (2005):  clear summary and appraisal of scholarship, with useful historical context.

Some of the specific articles drawn on by Zeringue are accessible through JSTOR. These are overwhelmingly to do with theological interpretation:

Adolf Katzenellenbogen, 'The Central Tympanum at Vézelay: Its Encyclopedic Meaning and its Relation to the First Crusade', Art Bulletin, 26 (1944), 141-51.  Argues that sculpture represents the 'Mission to the Apostles'.

Michael D Taylor, 'The Pentecost at Vézelay', Gesta 19:1 (1980), 9-15. As the title suggests, argues that it is indeed the Pentecost.

Peter Low, 'You who were once far off: Enlivening scripture in the main portal at Vézelay' Art Bulletin, 85 (2003), 469-90.

Véronique Frandon, ‘Du multiple à l’Un. Approche isonographique du calendrier et des saisons du portail de l’église abbatiale de Vézelay’, Gesta, 37:1 (1998), 74-87. Analysis of the calendar images on the outer rim of the archivolt.

For the printed word, see:

M F Hearn, Romanesque Sculpture (1981). Final chapter on Vézelay and other theophanies in tympanum sculpture.

Peter Strafford, The Romanesque Churches of France (2005). This review by Eric Griffiths is a nice short piece on the Romanesque style.