Attunement to the damned of the Conques Tympanum

The celbrated tympanum of Sainte-Foy at Conques, carved during the first half of the 12th century, features figures of the condemned with staid gestures and placid facial expressions, despite the horrific tortures they endure at the hands of demons. This lack of expressivity can be related to medieval understandings of suffering that were impressive, in which the body chiefly served as a transmitter of pain to the soul. Some eschatologists, for example, contended that bodies in hell would be so passive that they would not even be able to move in reaction to tortures. Viewed from this perspective, the lack of physical reactions among many of the condemned figures at Conques signals the terrifying loss of bodily control that awaited sinners in hell. [Abridged publication abstract]