(traduction en anglais de l'article publié le 28 septembre 2009).
During the Middle Ages, the Jews suffered from persecutions. In these times, the Church considered that the Jews had to be converted just before the end of times.
This prejudice against Judaism is shown by two statues which can be seen on the western facade of Notre-Dame cathedral (they are coloured in red on the photo above).
On the right, there's a lady with a helmet and a broken lance. She represents the "synagogue" (or Jewish religion) :
The helmet hides the eyes of the statue. On the ground, there's a fallen crown and the lady holds the 10 commandments upside-down.
On the contray, on the left, there's the statue which represents the Church or christianity. The crown is on the lady's head. She holds a lance which is used as a banner and in her other she has a calice which contains Jesus' blood :
This opposition between the fallen synagogue and the triumphant church is a classic feature which can be seen on the facades of many cathedrals (for exemple the South transept of Strasbourg cathedral).
The current statues were sculpted during the 19th century because the old ones were destroyed during the French Revolution.
Thank you to Evan who helped me to translate this post into English.
This post was published in French on September 29th, 2009.
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