Paris · Architecture
The Portal of Saint Anne
Notre-Dame de Paris · Paris, France
Furthest to the right of the three doorways is the Portal of Saint Anne. Saint Anne was Jesus's grandmother, the mother of the Virgin Mary. She doesn't appear in the Bible, but in the Golden Legend, hugely popular in the Middle Ages, Joachim and Anne are Mary's parents.
The biggest secret of this portal lies in the sculptures of the tympanum, the semicircular space above the door. They were originally made around 1150 for a different church and, for reasons unknown, were recycled here. That makes them nearly 50 years older than the carvings on the other portals. At the center sits the Virgin Mary on a throne holding the infant Jesus. She is dignified, but her posture is a little stiff and upright, and the folds of her robe are unnaturally regular. These are hallmarks of Romanesque style, which came before Gothic. The bishop and king flanking her symbolize the close ties between church and crown at the time. Because the statues are so old, no one knows for certain who they are, though one guess is Saint Germain and King Childebert.
Below, on the lintels above the threshold, are two long horizontal stones carved with more detailed Bible stories, like a picture Bible. The lower one tells the story of Mary's parents, Saint Anne and Saint Joachim. The upper one unfolds the birth of Jesus in chronological order, from the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel appears, to the Adoration of the Magi.
On the pillar at the center of the door stands Saint Marcel, an early bishop of Paris, with a dragon under his feet. According to legend, he defeated a fierce dragon that was tormenting Paris. The dragon probably stood for the pagan beliefs or calamities that gripped the city at the time. Most of the statues guarding this portal, including Saint Marcel, Saint Peter and Solomon, were newly made in the 19th century.
With a 12th-century Romanesque heart, a 13th-century Gothic body and a 19th-century restoration for clothes, the Portal of Saint Anne is a layered history book where several eras are woven together.
