Description: Same composition as Moissac. Letters approx. 1.5 cm
Reference: Art historians have found many analogies between this capital and the one in the cloister at Moissac, which represents the same scene. This capital is attributed to the first atelier of La Daurade. The paleography of the inscription confirms this attribution and dates the capitals to the last years of the 11th century according to Lafargue. However, Durliat's date of post 1100 is now generally accepted.
Reference: The Transfiguration as told in Mat. 27 1-8; Mark 9, 1-8; Luke 9, 28-36, is a subject in which the plastic Transposition has posed difficulties for medieval artists. The earliest representations return to the Lives mosaic at Sainte-Catherine of Sinaï and mosaic of Saints Apôtres à Constantinople). But from the 11th century, due to byzantine artistic influences, the scene showed a harmonious development in the West. This theme remains relatively rare in iconography, and it is found mostly in Cluniac monasteries where the Transfiguration was part of a solemn feast. Peter the venerable composed the office.
Description: Jesus turns towards one of the two apostles accompanying him.
Reference: This biblical quotation is from the episode in which Jesus and the Canaanite meet. Marie Lafargue thinks that this fragment of the capital could be part of the Transfiguration capital. She gives no justification for the this suggestion. Citation: Non sum missus nisi ad oves que perierunt domus Israel (Mt. 15, 24).
Face:
…S NISI …VE …DOMVS ISR.E.
[NON SVM MISSV]S NISI [AD O]VE[S QUE PERIERVNT] DOMVS ISR[A]E[L].
I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel.
Description: Letters approx. 0.7 cm. On the main face the archangel St. Michael holds a balance, on his right is a demon holding a banner with writing. On another face a winged angel holding a cross in its right hand and a book with writing in his other.
Reference: The words: In ignem eternum et Venite benedicti Patris are from a verse in Matthew that comment on the Second Coming and the Last Judgment: Discedite a me, maledicti, in ignem aeternum, qui paratus est diabolo et angelis ejus (Mt. 25, 41). Christ addresses the elect: Venite, benedicti Patris mei, possidete paratum vobis regnum a constitutione mundi (Mt. 25, 34).
The two inscriptions relate to the iconography of the capitals. The first illustrates the conviction of a person for whom the verdict of weighing of souls was unfavorable and expects to take him to his punishment, the devil is placed at the edge of the face. The second text, engraved in a small corner continues to be illustrated by the two other faces of the capital. On the main face, opposite the face depicting the weighing of souls, one can see two elect moving toward the celestial Jerusalem.
M. Durliat relates this capital to the same atelier at La Daurade, noting that these are the first two representations of the Last Judgment "in the entire history of Romanesque sculpture."
Face:
IN/ IG/ NE /M/ ET/ ER/ NVM
in ignem eternum
in eternal fire
Face:
[V]EN DI[C]/ [ITE] BE [T]I PA/ [NE] TRIS
Venite benedicti Patris.
Come blessed of the Father
Description: Text is not visible today. Transcription is according to Rachou.
Reference: The source for the inscription is scriptural. (I Par. 15, 16-17). Four of the musicians are represented with their instruments. It is comparable to a capital in the cloister at Moissac.
Face:
QVATVOR/ HIC SOCI/ I CONCI/ TANTVR IN/ ORDINE/ DAVID
Quatuor hic socii concitantur in ordine David.
Here, four companions are immediately appointed to the order of David.
Reference: The names of the four rivers of Paradise are found in Scripture (Gen. 2, 11-14). The Tigris and Euphrates are well known; the other two are identified by medieval authors with the Nile and the Ganges or Indus.
Christian authors attached symbolic values to these rivers. Each of the four rivers correspond to the four evangelists and their symbols, the four cardinal virtues, the four elements, the four ages of the world, the four orders of society, the four spokes of the divine wheel, the four foods, and the four ways to interpret history.