The Conques Last Judgment Tympanum: Detail, The Cross
Between the two angels blowing horns, two other angels reach down to support the top of the Holy Cross. As in other iconography, the Cross is presented as a symbol of the person of Christ, for its lower section merges into the mandorla that surrounds him below.
The angel on the left holds a lance tip, which the inscription on the cross labels as LANCEA, "lance." The other holds a nail, similarly labeled CLAVI, "nails." The personified sun and moon, above the left and right of the crosspiece respectively are also labeled with their Latin names, SOL and LVNA. In a Crucifixion image, the sun and moon refer to the darkness that fell at the moment of Christ's death according to Luke 23:44-45. Being the instruments that made the five wounds of Christ, the lance and nails emphasize the identity between this symbolic representation of Christ and the more naturalistic one below. They also emphasize the interrelatedness of the Crucifixion and the Kingship of Christ.
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Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.