Outside, adorning the western facade, the tympanum of the Last Judgment, executed at the very beginning of the 12th century, constitutes one of the masterpieces of Western art of this period. From its abundant iconography, one hundred and twenty-four characters stand out, around the central figure of Christ the Judge. Through his gestures, he inexorably separates the chosen from the damned. Paradise and the celestial Jerusalem are opposed, after the weighing of souls, to the world of hell, where the reprobate suffer horrible torments.
Romanesque sculpture, of incredible richness, is present everywhere in the building
Inside the abbey church, in the north transept, the high relief of the Annunciation accompanied by the statues of Isaiah and Saint John the Baptist cannot overshadow the 250 sculpted capitals which are distributed throughout the the abbey church, and particularly in the upper parts, at the level of the stands. Coming to life on the baskets or abutments of these capitals, sacred scenes alternate with secular subjects. Man, the fantastic bestiary and the plant world respond to each other and compose a captivating symphony.
And what about the stained glass windows by Pierre Soulages which, since their installation in 1994, have shed new light on the Conques abbey church?
“ The glass that the artist invented does not present the stains of alabaster, it does not distort solar light like it, but it animates it, and so naturally, with so much living simplicity, that we come to forget the stained glass window, which nevertheless magnifies it. »
Everything is said by the pen of the great medievalist Georges Duby!
