Vicios, virtudes y el Bestiario: significado tropológico de los ciclos escultóricos de París, Amiens y Chartres

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the tropological meaning of the animals and creatures accompanying the images of vices and virtues in the sculptural cycles of the cathedrals of Paris, Chartres, and Amiens. To determine the moral meaning of the eleven animals, we consulted diverse sources. These include traditional sources for iconographical studies on the virtues and vices, such as the Bible and the Patristic. We also examined sources related to the study of animals in the Middle Ages and texts chronologically close to the period when these depictions were sculpted, such as sermons and exempla. For some cases, it was essential to consider and contrast the tropological meaning of the vice and/or virtue accompanying or antagonizing the one with the animal. In these cases, the sculptures themselves were their symbolic source.