Front page of the Judgment of Tudela Cathedral
Merchants: butchers and drapers
As in the case of the money changers, as a specific representation of greed we find merchants who cheat their customers in order to make illicit profits, and the punishment that is due to them. Thus, we see a butcher who cheats on the weight, putting his hand on the scales, and the meat he sells looks suspiciously like the dog next to him. Merchants are censured for manipulating the quality, weight or measurements they offer for sale, but also for lying and perjury in order to make more than their due profit. This explains, just above, the punishment of the butchers, in which two characters with large knives put their hands into the mouth of an infernal being, which, as B. Mariño has identified, acts as the Bocca della Verità, and which, like the one in Rome, closes over the hand of the perjurers. Moreover, they are punished on the hand because it is the organ with which they have sinned, as it is necessary for the oath.
Some drapers are also shown falsifying the measure, and their punishment goes little further, as they are forced to carry a heavy bundle while a devil "measures" their backs with a rod.
Photo: Carlos Martínez Álava
Photo: Carlos Martínez Álava
ARAGONÉS ESTELLA, E., "El mal imaginado por el gótico", Príncipe de Viana, nº63, (2002), pp. 7-81.
GARCÍA GAÍNZA, C. et alii, Catálogo Monumental de Navarra, I, Merindad de Tudela, Pamplona, Institución Príncipe de Viana, 1980.
LANCE, J., "Le portail du Jugement de Santa María La Mayor de Tudela", Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale, 45, 2002, pp.255-274.
MARIÑO LÓPEZ, B., "Iudas mercator pessimus. Mercaderes y peregrinos en la imaginería medieval", conference proceedings del VI congress Español de Historia del Arte: los caminos y el arte, vol. II, Santiago de Compostela, 1989, pp. 31-43.
MARIÑO LÓPEZ, B., "Sicut in terra et in inferno: la portada del Juicio en Santa María de Tudela", file español de Arte, nº67, (1989), pp. 157-168.
MELERO MONEO, M.L., "Aproximación a la iconografía del 4º Jinete del Apocalipsis", Lambard, nº2 (1981-1983), Barcelona 1986, pp.125-128.
MELERO MONEO M.L., Escultura románica y del primer gótico de Tudela, Centro Cultural Castel Ruiz, Tudela, 1997.
MELERO MONEO, M.L., "Los textos musulmanes y la Puerta del Juicio de Tudela", conference proceedings del V congress español de historia del Arte, (Barcelona 1984), vol. I, Barcelona, 1986, pp. 203-217.
MELERO MONEO, M.L., "Recherches sur l'iconographie des métiers à Tudela", Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale, nº 30, (1987), pp. 71-76.
