Question

Answer the following question in 3-4 complete sentences.

A sculpture showing a man holding his arms out extended to either side. On each side are several people who are bowing and kneeling.
Name this famous sculpture and the time period it is from. Under what historical circumstances was it created? What does the sculpture show?

Answer 1

This is the Romanesque tympanum known as The Last Judgment (Christ in Majesty) by Gislebertus on the west portal of the Cathedral of Saint‑Lazare in Autun, France, made in the early 12th century. It was carved under church patronage in the high Middle Ages when sculptural programs on cathedral portals were used to instruct pilgrims and parishioners about salvation, sin and the coming Judgment. The central figure is Christ as judge with his arms outstretched, and on either side are kneeling and prostrate figures—the saved, the damned and the resurrected dead—clamoring before the final judgment. The work was meant as a dramatic, moralizing reminder of Heaven and Hell and the authority of the medieval Church.