Capital - The Arrest of Jesus - Trial before Pilate - The Flagellation - The Road to Cavalry by Musée des Augustins

Description

On this highly complex triple-capital, the sculptor has placed several scenes that continue around the bells of varying degrees of unity. On the largest side, Judas arrives in the Garden of Gethsemane followed by soldiers who have come to arrest Christ. Judas identified Jesus with a kiss. To the left of this scene, the enraged disciple Peter slices the ear of Malcus, servant to the high priest. After an initial appearance before the Sanhedrin (religious court), Jesus is taken before the governor of Judea, the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate. Seated upon a throne, Pilate endorses the death sentence pronounced by the religious authorities (on the two opposite bells) "Ecce Homo". The episode of the Flagellation immediately ensues. Bound to a column, Jesus is whipped by two executioners. According to Roman law, he is then made to carry his cross to the site of his execution (on the third bell). The Musée des Augustins' collection of Romanesque sculpture is composed mainly of remnants from the three most significant religious buildings in Toulouse: the Monastery of La Daurade, the Collegiate Church of Saint Sernin and Saint Etienne Cathedral. It was the choice the clerics (monks or canons) responsible for the upkeep of these religious buildings made to live as a community, that led to the construction of functional convent buildings, organised around large cloisters decorated with simple or elaborate sculpture. As the capital of a powerful county and a fast growing economic…