ABSTRACT
The Last Judgment Portal (Plate 2), the easternmost of the three portals of the north transept of Reims Cathedral, has played a significant role in narratives about the cathedral’s sequence of construction. As with the Saints Portal (center) (Plate 5) and Virgin Portal (right) (Plate 6), the sculptures of the Last Judgment Portal were installed between the north transept’s buttresses, obscuring most of the façade’s three lancet windows and, presumably, altering its original design (Plate 1, Figure I.2). 1 Many scholars believe that at least some of the north transept’s sculptures were intended for the west façade of the cathedral. Hans Kunze introduced this hypothesis in 1912, and his theory was quickly supported by Wilhelm Vöge. 2 Then, in 1961, Robert Branner expanded Kunze’s theory, arguing that both the Saints and Last Judgment Portals were later additions because they were added in front of the façade’s lancet windows. 3 In 1979, Jean-Pierre Ravaux modified Branner’s idea by making the case that the top of the lancets was built after the construction of the massif. According to Ravaux, work first commenced on the easternmost buttress and continued up to the level of the cornice. Then, the Saints and Last Judgment Portals were constructed in the usual way, from the base to the archivolts. The three lancets were constructed after this. Ravaux did not believe that any of these sculptures were originally made for the west façade. Instead, he saw them as integral to the north transept and dated them and the construction of the massif between 1226 and 1230. 4 In 1975, William Hinkle had also argued that the Last Judgment Portal was done entirely for its current location. 5 In his recent book, which revises the chronology of the Cathedral of Reims, Alain Villes provides additional interpretations based on new archaeological evidence. 6 While he agrees with Ravaux that the execution of the north transept massif preceded the construction of the lancets, he proposes that the Saints Portal was not added to a pre-existing structure but was planned and realized at the very beginning of the north transept’s construction. 7 The interior face of this portal and the bases of its pillars display perfect regularity, which is not usual in the case of sculptures that have been adapted to a pre-existing structure (Figure 4.1). This differs for the Last Judgment Portal. Villes notes that the continuous horizontal steps along the interior of the north façade were cut in after the portal was erected, apparently in order to create a wide enough entrance (Figure 4.2). Based upon this observation Villes infers that the Last Judgment Portal was not prepared at the beginning of the north transept’s construction, rather he hypothesizes that the entire Last Judgment Portal was originally executed as a thirteenth-century addition to the twelfth-century cathedral’s west façade. Only later were the Last Judgment Portal’s sculptures re-employed in their present location. 8 Clearly, there is no lack of disagreement in the literature on this portal. What has been lacking is a careful study of its structure and sculpture. In this essay, I present the results of my archaeological study of the Last Judgment Portal’s masonry and sculpture, providing new archaeological evidence for its sequence of construction.
