"Examines the iconography of a Crusader capital with eagles holding stones in their beaks and standing on human masks in the Coenaculum, Jerusalem. On the basis of Physiologusand other writings, argues that the eagles represent the congregation of believing Christians. In their oversize beaks they hold the stone that will set them free from old age and death; this stone is the bread of the Eucharist. Compositionally, each face of the capital consists of two superimposed motifs, the victorious eagle and a pair of eagles adorsed. Assigns the capital to a group of sculptures produced in Jerusalem in the 1130s and 1140s under the influence of artists from west central France."

Language: English