ABSTRACT
The whole New Testament is so forcibly summed up in the figure of the teaching Christ on the trumeaux of the French cathedrals that to the Middle Ages it did not seem necessary to depict the Gospel scenes at any length. The Church would not offer the Christian the whole of the life of Christ any more than she would place the four Gospels in his hands, but she chose out a few events of profound significance as suggestions for the meditation of the faithful. It is true that only once in the Gospels does St. John symbolise the Synagogue, but that is sufficient to justify the artists in placing him to the left of the Cross. St. John tells in his Gospel how on the morning of the Resurrection he ran to the tomb at the same time as St. Peter.
