Abstract

The tympanum of Autun Cathedral is in several respects without precedent in western depictions of the Last Judgment. In the absence of native sources, much of what is new in the Autun relief can be shown to reflect the iconography of the Last Judgment in Byzantine art. But the tympanum is not without local references. Some details of the inscriptions that accompany the scene demonstrate that the Autun Last Judgment was also influenced by contemporary practices in the ecclesiastical courts in France