Left Arch Of The Portico Of Glory. Iconography — Meister Mateo

Left arch of the Portico of Glory. Iconography

Marvel at Master Mateo’s 'Left Arch of the Portico of Glory,' a stunning 12th-century Spanish relief carving from Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. A masterpiece of Romanesque art.


Meister Mateo (1161 - 1217)

Meister Mateo (ca. 1161-1217), spanischer Bildhauer der Kathedrale Santiago de Compostela, bekannt für seine Reliefs am Portico de la Gloria und religiösen Figuren.

Die Fundació Catedral de Santiago (Santiago de Compostela, Spanien)

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This last scene, commonly from Byzantine art, does not come from the Bible but from one of the apocryphal gospels, the Nicodemus. It is told that when Christ is deposited in the grave, he goes down to limbo to liberate the righteous, who had not been able to adhere to the Christian faith, characters who were before him, were from the Old Testament. That is why he is represented alongside Adam and Eve and others who have been identified as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and David. As for Christ, he represents himself beardless because what descends into limbo is his soul and the soul in the Middle Ages was represented as a child.