About

Title of the work: Capital of the four Evangelists
Associated sculptor: Master of Daniel
Dimensions: Height: 29cm x Width: 35cm (maximum preserved)
Material: limestone

At the very beginning of Christianity, the accounts related to the New Testament were diverse, transmitted orally with a corpus that varied from one Church to another. The Canon of the Bible used in Roman Catholic Western Christianity was established between the years 200 and 500, and it includes four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, certain epistles, and the Book of Revelation. The four Evangelists—Saint Mark, Saint John, Saint Matthew, and Saint Luke—are thus central figures of the book.

Each is depicted on one face of the capital, writing and accompanied by an animal holding a scroll. These four animals, the tetramorphs, accompany the Evangelists at the beginning of each of their Gospels. Each of these companions holds a scroll, the inscriptions of which are now invisible.

State of Preservation

The capital is highly fragmented, with the lower part of the capital, from the middle of the basket to the astragal, missing. The head of the angel accompanying Matthew is also incomplete.