Synagoge (The Synagogue). Strassburg Cathedral
Synagoge (The Synagogue). Strassburg Cathedral
| "In Figs. 54 and 55, showing the Church and Synagogue from
Strassburg, the Synagogue, with her connotations of the flesh, the Old Law, the
"letter," and the earthy, stands hardlyless beautiful than the Church across the
doorway. To the modern eye with a feeling for the pathetique, ehr broken staff,
bowed head, blindfold, and heavy tablets drooping toward the earth may, in fact, make her
seem more beautiful than her regal counterpart. She is betrayed, not by any lapse of
Gothic elegance, but by the meaning of her attributes. The staff, blindfold, and tables of the Synagogue are a part of a new and more uniform iconographic language, also illustrated by the book in Mary's hand in the 'Amesbury' Annuncation, which developed with the Gothic style. The imagery of the churches, under the influence of the bishops and canons who planned it, became more like that of the liturgy and the sermons addressed to lay audiences." - p. 189. |