Abstract
In 2001, restoration of Ste-Marie d'Oloron uncovered a pagan sculpture hidden within the fabric of the French cathedral's Romanesque portal. A stone slab in the tympanum, displaying on its obverse a depiction of the Virgin Man, the cathedral's patron saint, bears on its reverse an image of the ancient Roman god Mars. The rediscovery of the idol exposes pictorial relations and textual responses to the antique sculpture in the portal's visible decoration that implicate the pagan image in the cathedral's Christian dedication. This perhaps unprecedented use of spolia communicated its deep significance through performance of the liturgical rites themselves.
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