The Judgment Gate

The most impressive doorway of the temple and one of the most ambitious of contemporary Iberian sculpture is the so-called Door of Judgment, on the western façade. As it was already the subject of a pathway in this series, we will limit ourselves to comment here briefly on some of its most interesting aspects.

It is a work of notable dimensions, with a tympanum that is currently smooth and lacks traces of paintings or mosaics, so it has been considered to have been replaced. It is framed by eight slightly pointed archivolts supported by the corresponding columns with historiated capitals, eight on each side. The trumpeter angels of the double corbels suggest that the initial idea would have reserved the tympanum for a Christ in majesty whose iconographic details would be in accordance with the Last Judgment. Originally the doorway was polychromed.

The capitals contain a rich cycle of Genesis. To the left of the viewer, on the positive side (to the right of the presumable figure initially foreseen in the tympanum), ordered from the inside out, we recognize the creation of the angels, the world, man and woman, followed by the sin of Adam and Eve. To the right of the observer, on the negative side and under the condemned of the Judgment, the consequences of the fall: expulsion from paradise, work of the first parents, scenes of Cain and Abel including the death of Cain, Noah's ark and the sacrifice of Isaac. This completes a program consisting of the beginning and the end of earthly times, an idea very dear to medieval thought.

In each archivolt there is a variable issue of scenes, arranged following the longitudinal axes; the interior ones have five on each side, while the exterior one has ten on the right and ten on the left. The interior archivolt, the closest to the Gloria, is occupied by angels carrying scepters and crowns. In the other archivolts, the arrangement follows the usual principles of medieval art; the blessed are placed to the left of the viewer, on the right side of the supposed representation of Christ in the tympanum, while the damned are preferably to the left of the Lord (right of the viewer).

On the side of the blessed, a certain order has been recognized. From the inside out we would have, in the second archivolt, Moses and Aaron, among other characters; in the third, David and the prophets; in the fourth, the martyrs; in the fifth and sixth, the resurrected of different conditions whose destiny is heaven; in the seventh and eighth, the apostles and scenes of coronation of the blessed by angels, among other characters deserving of glory. The scenes on the right side of the spectator are much more chaotic and expressive, and also the ones that have aroused more interest due to the clarity and variety of the torments exercised by the devils on the damned, each one depending on the sin committed: greed, lust, deceit, pride, gluttony, violence... Some suffer enveloped in flames, others are forced to ingest burning objects, others perform the unjust acts that led them to damnation, others are hanged by their genitals, others are mutilated or bitten by demons, etc. Satan dominates over the whole, who gives orders to his diabolical henchmen.

The forms of the Judgment Gate, as well as the iconography, denote more advanced dates than the sculpture of the cloister and the transept doorways. It is undoubtedly inspired by early French Gothic works, which has led to its dating as early as the first third of the 13th century.