Tympanum in the Cloisters, October 2009

Tympanum with the Three Temptations of Christ and Lintel with Angels Supporting the Lamb of God
Limestone
Attributed to the Cabestany Master
Spain, Navarre, ca. 1150-1175
From the church of Errondo at Unciti, near Pamplona

Accession Number: 65.1.22.1,.2

Both the rounded tympanum and the rectangular lintel above the doorway stress the triumph of faith and the Eucharist. Christ is shown four times: three times the Devil tempts him– to create bread from stones, to cast himself off a mountain, and to worship Satan– and the fourth time angels minster to him The lintel contains angels supporting a medallion with the Lamb of God, symbolizing Christ’s sacrifice, and the monogram of Christ. The eccentric treatment of the heads, with low foreheads and emphatic eyes, is characteristic of the work of a carver of the tympanum Cabestany (Roussillon), who may have come from Tuscany.

Text from the Cloisters museum label.