Building Name

:

La Daurade  

Location

:

Cloister

Capital

:

4

Subject

:

Last Judgment

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."

Corpus Ref.

:

vol. 7 Ville de Toulouse, 68