Statues - Hither & Thither

 

Description

Le Christ en majesté / Christ in Majesty by Joseph-Hugues Fabisch, 1860
Stone tympanum showing a relief of Christ in Majesty: Christ is seated on a throne as ruler of the world, placed in a mandorla, surrounded by the symbols of the Four Evangelists: the Apostle John appears as an eagle, Luke as a bull, Mark as a lion and Matthew as an angel.

Épisode de la vie de saint Martin / Episode from the life of Saint Martin by Joseph-Hugues Fabisch, 1860
The tympanum of the garden gate illustrates a scene from St. Martin's life described in the Golden Legend by Jacobus da Voragine: " And also to him obeyed things vegetative as trees, for he destroyed in a place right old trees. And there was a tree of a pine, which was dedicated to the devil, he would have razed down that tree, and the villains and paynims withsaid him so that one of them said to him: If thou hast affiance in thy God, we shall hew down this tree, and thou shalt receive it. And if thy God be with thee as thou sayest, thou shalt escape. And he granted it, and then the tree was hewn and bounden for to fall upon him. And when it should fall he made the sign of the cross against it, and it fell on that other side and slew almost all the villains that were there, and then the others were converted to the faith when they had seen this miracle." (CatholicSaints.Info).

Le martyre de saint Jean Baptiste / The martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist
In the center, below: beheading the saint, on the left: his head is carried on a plate; on the right: the body of the saint is surrounded by mortuary cloths by his disciples. Above: feast room with Salome in the foreground. Far left: down a demon and above fig branches: branches of the tree of life, antidote of evil. Far right: an angel leading the soul of the saint to heaven.

Artists

• Joseph-Hugues Fabisch (Aix-en-Provence 1812 - Lyon 1886), French sculptor (Wikipedia – Musée du Diocèse de Lyon).
  
• Unknown medieval artist.

Sources & Information

• Wikipedia, Basilique Saint-Martin-d'Ainay.
• Paul André Bryon, La basilique romane lyonnaise Saint-Martin d'Ainay, un appel à la conversion et au combat spirituel, janvier 2012 (PDF on-line).
• Rues de Lyon, Rue de l'Abbaye d'Ainay.
• Séverine Penlou, Rôles et fonctions de la sculpture religieuse à Lyon de 1850 à 1914 (thèse Lyon 2, 2008) (PDF on-line), Christ Pantocrator p. 276 and cat. 671; St. Martin p. 315 and cat. 673.
• Le blog de Véronique D, Le martyre de saint Jean Baptiste, basilique Saint-Martin-d"Ainay à Lyon.

Tags

Location (N 45°45'13" - E 4°49'37") (Satellite view: Google Maps)

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