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This animation appears to be inherent not only
in the tympanum itself but to have been deliberately enhanced by the surrounding
elements with which it has been combined, the most provocative of which
is the lintel of rosettes, generally regarded as something of an oddity.
Often ignored and frequently left out of photographs of the tympanum, the
lintel plays a critical role in holding the entire doorway together and
setting up its motion. Its sheer size precludes its having been inserted
simply as decorative filler or as an ornamental band devoid of meaning.
It is there for a reason. Meyer Schapiro, the only
art historian to consider the lintel as a separate unit of the composition
(although, admittedly, he leaves no stone unexamined) says, the "effect
of this beautiful frieze is one of intense and sustained movement because
of recurrent radiation." [ 3 ]
The rosettes, placed at slightly irregular intervals
and linked by strands of foliage, act as complex, rhythmic, and repeated
patterns. The central point of the band, between the fourth and fifth
rosettes, does not fall exactly on the median line of the tympanum, but
slightly to the left. The space between the fifth and sixth, and sixth
and seventh rosettes, larger than the other intervals, allows for the
insertion of small masks, similar to those that appear elsewhere in the
doorway. Visually, however, the linking elements play a less significant
role than the irregularity of spacing which sets up a perceptual tension
between the desire of the eye to scan evenly over identical motifs and
the ever-so-slight interruptions in that process. The result is motion,
for the pattern refuses to stay in the fixed position the eye wishes it
to have. [ 4 ]
The irregular spacing of the line of rosettes extends to the ends of
the lintel where two more rosettes are cut off by the frame. The lines
are anchored, however, by matching beasts whose mouths sprout the acanthus
vines that link the rosettes. These balanced end motifs are superimposed
over the final rosettes, counteracting their lack of symmetry. They play
a strong role, however, in setting up the expectation that the pattern
will have what the eye expects it to have – a center. The pattern,
quite deliberately however, does not have that center and so the eye seeks
a center elsewhere.
The sculpture traps the viewer within converging systems of spatial representation.
The main line of approach to the doorway intersects the planar wall of
the church, and the implied continuation of that plane across the threshold,
at right angles. The impetus of the viewer extends that line into the
door, across the narthex and, at least potentially, toward the cloister
beyond. The porch constitutes a charged space that interrupts that movement
with complex, interweaving lines of force which do not stop that progress
but enhance and transform it. The lintel which, from a distance down the
street constitutes a strong horizontal element anchoring the tympanum
visually to the outer plane of the wall, gradually dissolves into a line
of centric units, each of the rosettes becoming separate, rotating elements
within the grid lines of the approach.
Unlike "Last Judgment" tympana that contain
an inherent opposition, no opposition of any kind takes place in the tympanum
of Moissac. Rather, the rotation and symmetry of like elements suggests
movement within stillness, or "immobile movement." [ 5
] The sculptors of the tympanum at Moissac have established a syntax and
a vocabulary in stone for conveying the paradoxical nature of God as seen
within the vision.
The transition from the plane of the ground to the plane of the wall
that contains the lintel takes place through the trumeau whose climbing,
crossed lions stress its vertical, upward movement. The subtle, half-concealed
rosettes behind these lions animate them, echoing and re-echoing the scalloped
edges of the door jambs. The lions, although apparently
identical and functioning as identical patterns, nevertheless differ in
sex. They are paired male and female, unified within their opposition.
They constitute an organic statement of movement within stillness. [ 6
]
Thus, at the lowest level of the doorway, the grid of horizontal, vertical,
and movement in depth subtly and yet powerfully begins to change into
the full rotation of the tympanum. Forward movement has already been established
by the viewer's approach; horizontal movement is established by the wall
of the church, the boundary of the sacred precinct; vertical movement
is established by the trumeau, reinforced by the climbing lions, the scallops
of the jambs, and the links between the trumeau rosettes and the lintel
rosettes above. The rosettes of the lintel establish radiation, a centric
system which is the key to the perception of the tympanum.
The
Tympanum : Vision in Stone 1_2_3
Notes
1. Studies of the psychology of perception observe
a loss of depth perception with distance and a corresponding reorientation
of planes so as to face the viewer. (See Patrick Heelan, Space-Perception
and the Philosophy of Science (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1983), especially 64-65). Return.
2. For a development of the argument of the simultaneous
occurence of centrifugal and centripetal forces, see Rudolf Arnheim, The
Power of the Center (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982)
23. Applying Arnheim's argument to the perception of the doorway involves
shifts in the field the doorway is considered in, its outward radiation
occuring in relation to the center of the doorway itself and its inward
radiation in relationship to external points of attraction, such as the
mass of the portal structure. Return.
3. Meyer Shapiro, The Sculpture of Moissac
(Braziller 1985) 105. Return.
4. This, as well as the following observations of the
visual effects of ornament depend upon E.H. Gombrich, The Sense of
Order (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1979). See especially
his study of the differences in perception of regular and irregular patterns
(pp. 8-9, esp.). Perceptually, the lintel of rosettes falls into neither
category for its apparent regularity balances its actual irregularity.
Return.
5. An examination of the visual idea of unity within
opposition may be found in Jean-Claude Bonne, L'art roman de face et
de profil (Le tympan de Conques) (Alencon: S.F.I.E.D., 1984). Bonne
quotes Jean Scot Erigène (De. div. nat., I) on the idea of God
as "immoble motion." Return.
6. Bonne: 197 notes the Moissac trumeau as an example
of unity within opposition. Return.
© 2001 Susan R. Dixon
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