[Ed. Hautecœur, Paris.
THE LAST JUDGEMENT.
(From the central doorway.)]
Photo
[Ed. Hautecœur, Paris.
TYMPANUM OF THE PORTE SAINTE ANNE.]
The Central portal has suffered more from mutilation than those which are on either side of it. In the eighteenth century the architect Soufflot—a man who was nothing if not “classic”—removed the dividing pier and cut away the lower division of the tympanum in order to facilitate the passage of processions on high ceremonial occasions. All traces of his vandalism have been removed, and the dividing pillar bears a modern statue of Christ by Geoffroy Dechaume. The pedestal is a pentagon, and has seven bas-relief medallions. At the sides are the apostles, while in the medallions are represented the virtues and vices. Traces of mutilation are apparent in much of this work. The tympanum itself is devoted to the Last Judgment. “First we have figures of the dead rising at the blast of the trumpet. Men and women of all conditions and ranks wearily shake off the sleep of death.” Also there is the Archangel, with representations on the right of “the elect joyfully glancing heavenwards, while on the left the grinning demons haul a row of chained souls to hell. Crowning all is seen the Redeemer, showing the wounds in His hands. Near Him are two angels, and behind the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist interceding on their knees for fallen humanity. As a setting to this magnificent composition are six rows of sculptured forms, making a voussure or set of curves, with figures of prophets, doctors, martyrs, devils, toads, damned souls, and a hideous ape with crooked toes and fingernails. Some of the ornamentation of the six ranges of arch curves is gruesome and terrible. It relates either to the celestial or infernal results of the last judgment.” In its original state this great doorway must have been a work of unrivalled dignity. Nowhere else do we find carving more expressive, nor more perfectly subordinated to the architectural scheme.
