The Resurrection
Catalan historiated capital with three faces, late 12th century
Mostly the imagery follows Mark, the only narrative that includes the purchasing of the spices and has the "young man" seated inside the tomb. But Mark has three women (Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and a "Salome") whereas the first and second faces on the capital show only two, as in Matthew. And the third face shows just one. This may be due to mere artistic economy, but it is possible that the sculptor was influenced by Peter Chrysologus' interpretation that because the two women in Matthew are both named Mary, "herein is figured the Church coming out of the two nations, the Gentiles and the Jews, and being yet one." A single Mary inside the tomb may reflect this interpretation. It may also reflect Peter's further remark on the name Mary:
Mary is the name of Christ's mother.… Mary came to the sepulchre, as to the womb of the resurrection, that Christ might be the second time born out of the sepulchre of faith, who after the flesh had been born of her womb; and that as a virgin had borne him into this life present, so a sealed sepulchre might bring him forth into life eternal. It is proof of Deity to have left a womb virgin after birth, and no less to have come forth in the body from a closed sepulchre (Catena, I, iii, 976).
Read more about images of the Resurrection.
Photographed by Richard Stracke at the Musée National de l'Age Médiévale ("the Cluny"), Paris, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.