The
Conques Last Judgment Tympanum
Detail:
Hell (bottom register)
Satan sits enthroned among victims representing various sins.
Pride is represented by the
knight on the left in expensive chain mail who tumbles from his
horse. This is common symbolism in medieval art, but the scene might
also be a reference to the death of Rainon de Rouergue, an oppressor of
the
abbey whom the Book
of Saint Foy offers as an example of the sin of Pride.
Standing
next to the knight, a half-naked woman and her companion represent
Lust. The hanged man with the purse around his neck can represent
Avarice; the man reclining under Satan's feet, Sloth; the man whose
tongue a devil is removing, Slander. I'm not sure what is meant by the
man on the far right carrying a woman on his shoulders -- an evocation
of the burden of Envy?
Anger does not seem to be represented here, but another
detail, just to the right of the upper right corner of this part of
the tympanum, has a man who has committed suicide, an example of that
sin.
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Photographed at the
site by Richard Stracke