TJie Figure- Sculpture : Annunciation and Visitation 259 



St. John the Baptist is frequently represented in the art of the thir- 

 teenth and fourteenth centuries, carrying a book or circular medallion 

 with the Lamb of God upon it, to which he points.^ 



Very significant is the statue on the trumeau belonging to the 

 central doorway leading from the narthex into the abbey church 

 of Vezelay, where the Baptist bears the lamb upon a medallion. 



Sur la pile cannelee de ce trumeau se dresse la statue de saint 

 Jean-Baptiste. ... La tete nimbee du saint. . . . Devant lui le 

 precurseur porte un disque ou se voyait autrefois I'agneau pascal, image 

 du Christ, et I'index de sa main droite, appuyee au rebord du medallion, 

 semble designer cette image, comme I'indique I'inscription gravee sur 

 le socle de la statue : 



Agnoscant omnes quia dicitur iste lohannes, 



[Qui retijnet populum, demonstrans indice Christum.^ 



The date of the relief on the Ruthwell Cross can hardly, then, 

 according to the indications, be earlier than the 12th century. 



B. The Annunciation and the Visitation.'^ 

 The Annunciation and the Visitation are found, now together 



and now separate, in various 12th century buildings. 



For the two at Moissac, in connection with other scenes from the 



Infancy, see p. 51. There is another Annunciation in the cloister, 



capital No. 39 (ca. 1140-60). 



L'ange se tient debout [this is on the west face] devant Marie, vetue 

 d'une longue robe, d'une guimpe et d'un voile. Face sud ; la Vierge se 

 levant de son siege, fait un geste d'etonnement; un elegant edifice 

 cette scene de la Visitation.* 



In the tympanum of the southern doorway leading from the 

 narthex into the abbey church of Vezelay, the rectangular lower 

 panel contains an Annunciation (the winged angel at the left) ; next, 

 at the right, follows a house with a tower (interpreted by Poree 

 as the residence of Zacharias at Hebron), and then the Visitation 

 (the figure nearest the house, and facing to the right, is probably 

 Elizabeth) ; then come the Shepherds and the Nativity ; above, 



1 Early Christ. Symbolism, p. 257. 



2 Poree, U Ahhaye de Vezelay, p. 42. The trumeau belongs to a date 

 earher than 1135, probably {ibid., p. 15). 



3 See pp. 16, 18. 



* Angles, UAbbaye de Moissac, p. 72 ; cf. pp. 36, 61. 



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