• Facets (new session)
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  • Inference Rule: asEquivalentb3sb3sifpfacetshttp://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#ldpoplwebskos-transvirtrdf-labelvirtrdf-urlNone
    

The martyrdom of Saint Paul as represented here follows, with certain minor variations, the account given in the Golden Legend. The scene takes place in a hilly, wooded landscape. A city (Rome) appears in the distance. In the foreground, an executioner has just severed St. Paul's head which lies, eyes bound, in the lower right corner of the field. It rests above one of the three springs which, according to legend, sprang up after being touched by the severed Saint's head. Behind the executioner and the kneeling body of Saint Paul stand two groups of figures: pagans at the left, Christians at the right. Nero, clad in golden armor, stands in the center of the group of pagans. In the sky, a half-figure of God the Father receives the Saint's soul, represented as a nude infant, held in a sheet and borne aloft by two angels. Three inscriptions appear on the tapestry. In a scroll displayed across the top center: COMENT SAINT POL A ESTE DECOLE HORS ROME SA TESTE SEPAREE DU CORPS FIST TROIX SAULX ("How Saint Paul was beheaded outside Rome. His head, separated from the body, made three jumps.") The second inscription, drawn from the Epistle to the Philippians, appears on a scroll at the left of the severed head: MICHI VIVE XPS EST ET MORI LUCRU ("for me life is Christ and death is gain.") The third inscription appears repeated eight times in various parts of the tapestry, written on miniature scrolls: PAIX ("Peace") Near the mouth of the severed head, the letters I H S appear. These letters were visible in 1852. The letters shown here are a contraction of the name of Jesus as written in Greek. It seems likely that the three letters were not part of the original design. Two coats of arms relating to Guillaume de Hellande (Bishop of Beauvais, 1466-1462) are shown in the four corners of the tapestry. The shield in the upper left and lower right corners bears the arms of his father, Robert de Hellande, quartered with those of his mother, Jeanne de Montmorency. In the upper right and lower left corners appears a shield displaying the arms of the Bishopric of Beauvais.