The Figure-Sculpture : Paul and Anthony 271 



two, according to the account given by St. Jerome in his Lives of 

 Saints} Two persons, facing each other, are pulling with both hands 

 at a sort of flat slab, supposed to represent the cover of the cavern 

 where Paul dwells. In a sort of cupboard below are vases and 

 jugs, which suggest the scanty furniture of the grotto.^ This is 

 the interpretation of Poree, but the supposed slab is much more 

 likely to be a flat cake of bread, such as is figured on the Ruth- 

 well Cross, where the words of the inscription, SCS PAULUS ET A 

 . . . FREGER . . T PANEM IN DESERTO, make the interpretation 

 of the circular disk clear and conclusive. On any other hypothesis 

 it is hard to see why the two men should be pulling in opposite 

 directions, as Poree writes : ' D'un geste semblable, deux person- 

 nages qui se font face tirent a eux, a deux mains, une sorte de dalle 

 plate. Ce serait la pierre fermant la caverne de Saint Paul.' 



On the seventh piUar of the northern side of the nave is represented 

 the death of Paul. The legend recounts that lions dug his grave, 

 and here they are depicted as scratching the ground with their paws. 

 Above them is the corpse of the hermit, nearly invisible in a sort 

 of mummy-case, and Anthony, near, is in the attitude of prayer.' 



Besides these, where both men figure, Anthony alone is represented, 

 on both the north and the east faces of the eighth pillar (next to the 

 one just described), as suffering various torments at the hands of 

 demons.^ 



The scene depicted on the pillar of the narthex represents the same 

 act as that depicted on the Ruthwell Cross (see above), and it is 

 significant that the former belongs to about 1135.^ The influence 

 of ^^ezelay may have been transmitted, through one or another 

 channel, to Ruthwell ; it is inconceivable that the Ruthwell Cross 

 should have influenced Vezelay ; and the representations on the 

 Irish and Scottish stones are much ruder.^ 



^ Migne, Patrologia Latina 23. 17. 



2 Poree, L'Abbaye de Vezelay, p. 37. 



^ Poree, p. 60, where a picture is given. 



* Poree, p. 61. 



^ The narthex was constructed after the nave (Poree, p. 15)— the nave by 

 1110, the narthex between 1120 and 1135; but the capitals of the nave were 

 sculptured at the same time as those of the narthex (Poree, p. 56). 



^ Irish : on the cross in the street, KeUs ; on the cross of St. Patrick and 

 8t. Columba, KeUs ; on the south-east cross, Monasterboice ; on the Mooue 

 Abbey cross ; on the cross of Castle Dermot ; and on the cross at Ardboe 

 (Anderson, Early Christ. Mori, of Scotland, p. Uv, note 4 ; cf. Allen, Early 

 Christ. Symbolism, pp. 224-5). 



(59) 



