Moissac Tympanum



Image: Web Gallery of Art

The tympanum at Moissac, c.1115-1135, depicts Christ in majesty surrounded by the tetramorph, the symbols of the four evangelists. Beyond the tetramorph are accompanying angels. The other figures are the twenty-four elders beholding Christ, as described in St John's Revelations. The posts below show elongated figures of Peter (left) and Isaiah (right), while the central trumeau combines the figures of st Paul, Jeremiah and various fabulous beasts. Below are some links which should aid further exploration of this Romanesque masterpiece.

Superb images and brief text on paradoxplace

Andrew Tallon of Vassar College has produced some outstanding photographic resources, enabling the viewer to zoom in on details. See the bottom of his homepage.

A video of the Moissac portal led me to this wonderful blog on the Romanesque sculpture and architecture of the route to Santiago, The Joining of Heaven and Earth

Moissac is included in a useful chapter on Romanesque in the online World History of Art

Meyer Schapiro wrote a detailed study of the Moissac sculptures for his 1935 doctoral thesis. This work is available in two articles on JSTOR: 'The Romanesque sculpture of Moissac, Part I (1)' deals with the programme of capital sculptures in the cloister. The tympanum is described in detail in the second article, 'The Romanesque Sculpture of Moissac, Part 1 (II)'.  Both can be conveniently read in book form in Meyer Schapiro and David Finn (photos), The Romanesque Sculpture of Moissac (1985). Schapiro's Charles Eliot Norton lectures on various sites are published as Meyer Schapiro, Romanesque architectural sculpture (2006).