Santa Maria de Ripoll Monastery: Romanesque Facade & Biblical Scenes
Santa Maria de Ripoll Monastery: A Romanesque Masterpiece
Timeline
Eleventh Century: The church was consecrated by Abbot Oliva in 1032.
Style and Technique
- Style: Catalan Romanesque
- Technique: Carving
- Material: Stone
- Forms: High relief
- Author: Roussillon Workshops
- Location: Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll
Facade Arrangement
The arrangement of the facade recalls a triumphal arch due to its rectangular shape, with the door in the middle. The door is covered with archivolts which alternate with geometric and figurative motifs, and lacks the eardrum.
Iconography and Biblical Scenes
The topics are distributed among the various records and archivolts socket. In the central part of the first record, the higher one, is Christ in Majesty, with the book in his left hand and surrounded by four angels, two figures Tetramorph, and twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse, who acclaim him. The record immediately below contains the other two images Tetramorph and twenty-two blessed, who praise Christ. To the right, in the third and fourth records, you can see scenes from the book of Exodus, probably inspired by the Bible of Ripoll. On the left, scenes from the book of Kings. Below, and framed by arches, there are ten figures, including God, Moses, King David, and Abbot Oliva, who consecrated the monastery. On the last record were fantastic sculpt cats and animals that are fighting each other. The left socket depicts fantastic animals, while the right shows how the damned suffer for committing a cardinal sin.
Archivolts Details
At the entrance, and outside in, various decorative motifs are distinguished: plants, zodiac signs, stories of St. Peter and St. Paul, stories of the prophets Jonah and Daniel, allegories of the months of the year, and the figure of Christ in Majesty blessing and two angels who adore him. These images are the result of a clear desire to make them eternal: a representation of the Bible made of stone that would last for many years.
Influence and Execution
The iconography is based on the illustrations of the Bible of Ripoll, and its execution was the work of artisans from Roussillon workshops, probably influenced by other workshops of Italian origin.
Pantocrator and Friezes
To set an image resembling a triumphal arch and distributed superimposed friezes, some scenes from the Bible of Ripoll are depicted. The Pantocrator, surrounded by four angels, presides over the upper frieze, while the Tetramorph figures are divided between the first two records, and twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse and twenty-two blessed are located on both sides.
Meaning and Symbolism
There is a rising sense of symbolism in this portal: the socket represents hell, the sixth record, living things on Earth, and the fifth exhibits the various social classes of the time. In the third and quarter records, stories of the Old Testament are told, and, above all, is Christ in Majesty surrounded by four angels, evangelists, twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse, and twenty-two blessed.
Function and Interpretation
According to Cirici Pellicer, this gate should be considered a triumphal arch erected to the glory of Christianity. Meanwhile, Edward Junyent interprets this work as an allegory of the conquest that brought out Ramon Berenguer III the Great and his son Ramon Berenguer IV of the lands occupied by Muslims.