1. HEAVEN
Respecting the invisibility of the Father, Heaven is empty, just flooded with divine waves which materialize His Spirit. These vertical, transcendental waves are the first - or at least one of the oldest - representations of the Holy Spirit in the shape of waves. Traditionally, the Holy Spirit is represented by a dove, tongues of fire or rays of light. With these waves, a liquid or undulatory element, this is close to – but also distinguished from – the usual sign of theophanies in the Old Testament in the shape of clouds. (Exodus 13: 21-22 ; 19:16)
The Last Judgment having not yet been pronounced, Heaven remains empty of men for the time. It is crowded, however, by angels whom announce the Apocalypse (playing their horns) and carry the symbols of Adventus, including the immense Glorious Cross brandished like a trophy.
The Glorious Cross
These two angels also carry the Instruments of the Passion (Arma Christi): the Holy Lance (LANCEA) and the Nails (CLAVI). On the vertical arm, the titulus ironically designates the crucified: IESVS NASARENVS REX IVDEORVM (JESUS OF NAZARETH KING OF THE JEWS)
The Titulus
The secret of the angel's robe
In the 1960s, the telephoto lens revealed an unsuspected detail: at the bottom of the dress of the trumpet-blowing angel on the right, we discovered an inscription in Arabic, engraved in Kufic characters.
2. A PROCESION CROSSING PARADISIAC MANSIONS
On the Elect's side, a cohort of 13 characters forms the procession of the Marching Church. Eyes turned towards Christ, it moves towards Salvation.
A Woman leads the march: the Virgin Mary, mother of God, Queen of Heaven. The gesture of her clasped hands clearly indicates that she is praying (for sinners and souls subjected to Tartarus). The Marian cult experienced a new boom in the 11th century under the action of Pope Gregory VII and grew with the Romanesque Renaissance of the 12th century, under the influence in particular of Bernard of Clairvaux.
She is followed by Saint Peter, founder of the Church and first bishop of Rome. His theology particularly emphasizes the saving role of faith. He holds the keys to Paradise and his pastoral staff points precisely at the lock of the door of Paradise.
Dadon (Déodatus) became a hermit in Conques in 785: he is considered the founder of the abbey. He stands in heaven although he is not a holy man. Besides, he doesn't wear a halo. In fact, it was a matricide who allowed his mother to die, taken hostage, so as not to lose his horse demanded as ransom during the Arab-Berber incursions..
He owes his salvation to his repentance and his Christian faith.
Dadon with his pastoral stick Tau-shaped
Next comes the Abbot of Conques with his abbey crosier. Tradition identifies him as Bégon III, famous abbot from 1087 to 1108, at the height of the abbey, the probable time of the design of the tympanum.
But beyond, this monk personifies the continuity of the abbey function, perpetually renewed over time (at least until the secularization of the abbey in 1537, under king François I when the Benedictines had to give way to canons appointed by the bishop of Rodez)
The abbot leads a king identified as the Emperor Charlemagne: in fact he wears a fleudelized crown and a scepter composed of an orb topped with the Tree of Jesse which recalls that the Carolingian restorer of the Holy Roman Empire was called "New David". (1)
Like Dadon, Charlemagne is not without reproach: he is said to be incestuous and intemperate (2): despite that, he will be beatified in 1165 by the Antipope Paschal III at the instigation of Frederick Barbarossa. However, the official Roman Church has never called into question this quasi "canonization".
His presence in paradise can be explained by the significant land assets with which he endowed the abbey in its early days and by the remarkable relics he offered it (the "A" of Charlemagne, a first piece of the True Cross...).
The emperor walks slightly stooped, obediently led by the abbot. Here we have the image of the relationship between temporal power and spiritual power as the Church idealizes them. In the wake of the Gregorian reform, politics must be subject to religion.
Charlemagne guided by the Abbot
Around Charlemagne, two famous characters from Carolingian mythology flank the emperor: behind him, his son Louis the Pious (called the Fair or the Debonaire), great benefactor of the abbey. Indeed, in 818, he granted it protection and the status of imperial abbey just four years after his accession to the throne. Then, there will be no less than ten donations the following year.
Between the emperor and the abbot, Pierre Séguret believes he recognizes the tutor of young Louis, the knight Guillaume au Court-Nez, alias William of Gellone, first cousin of Charlemagne, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Toulouse who distinguished himself in a heroic resistance to the advance of the Saracens in Languedoc and Provence during 9th century. His facial injury earned him his nicknames (Short-Nose and Fierabras) and his glorious military exploits were at the origin of the famous epic cycle of William of Orange, from which the character of Guillaume d'Orange (Guilhem d'Aurenga) emerged. (3) At the end of his life William founded the abbey of Gellone, soon to be named Saint-Guilhem-du-désert, to retire there. This is why his hand makes a gesture of faith.
Two characters from Carolingian mythology: Louis the Pious and Guillaume Court-Nez
Then come two clerics, one carrying the Stone Tablets (Tablets of the Law) , the other the Gospel. This presence manifests the fundamental role of the Scriptures in the pastoral action of the Church and underlines the continuity and complementarity of the two Testaments in the History of Salvation.
Gospel and Tablets of Stone
The first four periods of Christianity
From the left end of the frieze, first comes a woman. She is Mary of Magdala, first witness to the Resurrection. She represents the time of the Apostles inasmuch as she is appointed Apostle of the Apostles.
Mary of Magdala
How was the author the first to identify Mary of Magdala? Simply by observing the traditional iconography which represents her with her knees bent, as for example, on the capitals of Autun and Saulieu (Burgundy).
And also by analyzing the position of his feet turned in another direction to evoke her Reversal. (4).
Mary of Magdala's Reversal
She is followed by a third woman, more precisely a little girl, Saint Faith who shows her palm as a sign of faith and carries the palm of her martyrdom. It illustrates the time of the martyrs. (5)
Saint Faith
Then comes the time of the anchorites with Anthony the Great, the hermit of the Egyptian desert. The slightly bent knees could evoke the tremors he suffered during his visions and temptations.Maybe he wears a bell which recalls the distinctive sign of the Antonines, a brotherhood of monks and hospital knights created at the beginning of the 12th century and who was responsible for cleaning the streets with herds of pigs announced and identified by bells.
Anthony of the Desert
Anthony with the bell and the pigglet
Finally, here is the time of the Church Fathers with Jerome of Stridon, translator of the Bible into Latin.
Saint Jerome
Note the significant place given to the women who lead this procession (6).
By chronologically classifying the figures in the frieze, we see that it is organized like a double-entry monastic calendar, progressing from the oldest to the most recent starting from the two ends to converge by the central pivot of the present embodied by the permanence of the abbot. Now, it's time to analyse the lower register devoted to biblical times. To be continued...
Next chapter: the Bosom of Abraham