Front page of the Judgment of Tudela Cathedral
St Michael's fight with the devil for the soul
It is not a very common image in Christian art, as normally what is represented in the context of the Last Judgement is the Psychostasis, the weighing of the souls carried out by the archangel Michael himself. One possible explanation for its use in Tudela is the influence of Muslim texts, since it should not be forgotten that, after the conquest of the city by the Christians in 1119, many Muslims remained in Tudela, preserving their customs and beliefs. The Arabic texts assigned each believer an angel and a demon from birth, and at the time of death they disputed over their souls. However, this idea is not alien to the Christian tradition, since in the Vision of Furna, collected by Bede the Venerable in the 8th century, the protagonist tells how he saw from heaven the angels and demons vying for the souls of the dead.
Photo: Carlos Martínez Álava
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