Attunement to the Damned of the Conques Tympanum

• Autores: Kirk Ambrose
• Localización: Gesta, ISSN 0016-920X, Vol. 50, Nº. 1, 2011, págs. 1-18
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The celebrated tympanum of Sainte-Foy at Conques, carved during first half of the twelfth century, features figures of the condemned with staid gestures and placid facial expressions, despite the horrific tortures they endure at the hands of demons. Absent are body movements widely associated with grief and terror, such as hair pulling and swooning, that were used in other contemporaneous Last Judgments. This lack of expressivity can be related to medieval understandings of suffering that were impressive, in which the body chiefly served as a transmitter of pain to the soul. Some eschatologists, for example, contended that bodies in hell would be so passive that they would not even be able to move in reaction to tortures. What is more, Bernard of Angers described many cases in which St. Foy inflicted paralysis on her enemies. Viewed from this perspective, the lack of physical reactions among many of the condemned figures at Conques signals the terrifying loss of bodily control that awaited sinners in hell.