Images of Medieval Art and Architecture

France: Moissac
Cluniac Abbey Church of Saint-Pierre

South Porch-Portal:Reliefs

The bas-relief sculptures on the right and left of the south portal of the porch illustrate the complex interrelationship of similarity and contrast often present in medieval art. Therefore, rather than giving each of the reliefs its own page, we put them side by side here, so that the viewer can try to imagine the aesthetic and intellectual experience of walking between them.

Images


Left side (West)

Click here for screen-sized version
Click here for large "Archive Version"

Right side (East)


Click here for screen-sized version.
Click here for large "Archive Version".

Subject Matter

Right: Scenes fron the Story of Lazarus and Dives

Left: Nativity Scenes

Clickable Diagrams


In the diagrams below, click on a labeled area get more information about the sculpture there.

Adapted from Figure 221 of Ernest Rupin, L'Abbaye et Les Cloitres de Moissac

Adapted from Figure 221 of Ernest Rupin, L'Abbaye et Les Cloitres de Moissac

Selected Bibliography

Ernest Rupin, L'Abbaye et Les Cloitres de Moissac (Paris: 1897), pp. 335-40.

Meyer Schapiro, The Romanesque Sculpture of Moissac,(New York: Georges Braziller, Inc, 1985),ISBN 0-8076-1119-0, pp. 126-9.

Susan Raglan Dixon, The Power of the Gate : The sculptured portal of St. Pierre, Moissac (Thesis (Ph.D.)--Cornell University, 1987), pp. 108-216.

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Updated by Jane Vadnal, December, 1997