The South Tympanum, Church of St. Hilarian de Perse: Detail: the moon

The sun and moon, which often appear at the top of Crucifixion images, here flank the dove in a relief of the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at the church of St. Hilarian de Perse. As in the earliest Crucifixions, the sun is represented both by stylized sun images and by a personification. The latter is male, because the Latin for "sun" is the masculine sol, making it pair nicely with the moon image, which is feminine. Like the moon, the personified sun holds a torch to signify the light it provides to the earth.

View the entire tympanum.
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Photographed at the site by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.