ABSTRACT

The image of a man enthroned in royal attire in the middle of a square emplacement fortified by small turrets will remind the reader of a classical iconographic arrangement of the Romanesque period in Northern Europe. A hat is the distinctive sign for men of the synagogue in medieval iconography. However, the Synagogue is not just the assembly for unconverted Jews. Here are certainly many of the elements designed to make the Grail king another David or another Solomon in Jerusalem. In the first manuscript, King David sits in his palace surrounded by battlements where foot soldiers are fighting. The tower is the first part of the castle seen by the knight. The structure of the temple of Jerusalem is shattered. Here the poet uses the iconographic tradition which always tends to situate the light vertically above the king of Jerusalem, exactly perpendicular to his heart and head, emphasizing divine vigilance and the close relationship that unites God with his creation.