| This dissertation presents a new interpretation of the textual sources, content, meaning, function, pictorial sources, and influence of the narthex portal sculptures at Sainte-Madeleine, Vézelay. After an introductory survey of the existing literature on the sculptures, I examine the identity of the figure around whom the entire program revolves, the central deity of the main tympanum, arguing that this figure's gestures, pose, and formal articulation demand that it be understood not simply as Christ, but as personification of the Trinity. I then propose that the primary textual source for the composition of the main portal is Ephesians 2:11–22. This passage uses a series of anthropomorphic metaphors to describe the establishment of the Universal Church through the joining of its two constituent communities, the Jews and the gentiles, in the keystone of Christ. The identification of this source enriches the main portal's meaning, in particular by revealing how tightly tied the sculptures are to their physical context, and explains the presence of the composition's many architectural details. After suggesting that the main portal was also intended to function as a portrait of the monks and their lay congregation involved in the performance of the Mass, I argue that the three portals together function as a visualization of the central text recited by the laity during this liturgical ceremony: the Nicene Creed. By giving pictorial form to Ephesians 2:11–22, the Mass, and the Nicene Creed, the monastic authors of the portal program intended to teach lay visitors the proper doctrine of the Church, to determine the nature of their experience while inside the basilica, and to emphasize the centrality of the Church and its rituals to their lives, both in this world and the next. The discovery of the true content of the sculptures also allows a number of important pictorial sources for the program to be identified, sources that suggest English involvement in the scheme's conception. I conclude by arguing that the narthex portal sculptures, through their visualization of Ephesians 2:11–22, served as the primary inspiration for the first Gothic portal scheme, created at the royal abbey of Saint-Denis. |
