|
Luke
|
(Winged) Calf, Ox or Bull
(Christ as sacrifice) |
Now you know the
origin of all those weathered cows you see struggling to
fly out of the facades of Romanesque (and later)
churches in Italy. Links include ....
Troia Cathedrale (Puglia)
Alba Duomo (Piemonte)
Orvieto Duomo (Umbria)
Norwich (England)
|
|
The sculptured
or bas-relief symbols of the Evangelists are often found on the
western facades of the larger medieval churches, either
in a horizontal line or at the corners of an imaginary
square around the central window or a mandorlad Christ
figure, or as part of a portico
/ tympanum structure. They may also be
found externally around eastern apse windows, or even appear as large
statues standing on top of apse walls (such as the
spectacular group in
Angers). Many statues have disappeared over time
because of wanton destruction, deterioration, restructuring and restoration.
Although in a particular church there would normally
have been all four symbols in a group somewhere, it is
not uncommon to find that they have become scattered or
depopulated over time -
Pisa Duomo for example has an ox flying out of the east facade, an
eagle and an angel on the west facade, and a lion standing
alone on the distant cemetery wall.
It is also common
to find frescos of the four evangelist symbols around a
frescoed Christ pantocrator in a mandorla (it: almond)
shaped frame, on the wall or spherical ceiling
sections inside apses, such as this
little pilgrimage church on the
River Loir. In the older
churches of Rome like
Santa Pudenziana,
Santa Prassede and
Santa Maria in Trastevere,
mosaics of the evangelists signs are often found in the
apse area in a straight line.
An arrangement of
four symbols (not necessarily evangelists) is known as a
tetramorph. One interesting little pilgrimage abbey church
on the River Lot in France
has a satanic tetramorph.
|
