PRE-ROMANESQUE PAINTER, French
(b. 0 , d. 0 )
Stoning of St Stephen
In St. Stephen’s Chapel in the crypt of Saint-Germain in Auxerre, the visitor is confronted by a surprising composition: the stoning of St. Stephen is depicted in a tympanum. It illustrates, inspired by the text from the Acts of the Apostles (6:12), the final phase of the appearance of St. Stephen before his judges. In the middle of the trial he has a vision and declares that God has appeared to him. Then accused of blasphemy, he is stoned to death.
Nearly all of the left-hand half of the picture is taken up by the representation of a town which is scaled down in size in proportion to the figures. St. Stephen has just been dragged through this city gate and onto the place of his execution. Towering behind the humble St. Stephen, his torturers are depicted with their arms raised up ready to throw the stones. The figure of St. Stephen himself projects into the right half of the picture which otherwise consists of an empty space, broken up to great effect by the appearance of the hand of God.