Macro/Microcosm at Vézelay: The Narthex Portal and Non-elite Participation in Elite Spirituality

Abstract

The tympanum of the central narthex portal of Sainte-Madeleine at Vézelay is considered to be one of the greatest works of public figural art of the Middle Ages. The current consensus is that its main subject is the Pentecost, along with the related Mission and a reference to the Ascension. Most scholars have ignored the four undulating components in the four quadrants of the tympanum proper or tried to explain them in ways that do not take into consideration their basic unity. But once we recognize that these four components represent the four elements, we see that the main components of the tympanum (the peoples of the world/the zodiac and months/Christ) function as the mundus/annus/homo of a neoplatonic macro/microcosm, with the divine/human Christ in the center and the Magdalene at his feet, the purpose of which was to encourage the pilgrim to model himself or herself on Christ or on the Magdalene. This was a work of art so complex that its intended audience could not possibly have understood it to any appreciable degree except through a guide, who both mediated it and allowed the complexity, in the process facilitating institutional control in the non-elite participation in elite spirituality.