Image
© Hildesheim, St Godehard |
THE INCREDULITY
OF THOMAS
John 20:24-28. Luke 24:33-43; Mark 16:14
Christ stands tall and central, revealing his palms and feet to the group
of assembled apostles. Through a rent in Christ’s clothing, Thomas
puts his finger in the wound.
This scene combines two episodes, Christ showing his hands and feet to
all the apostles, and his later encounter with doubting Thomas. In the
Thomas scene, Christ normally raises one hand and draws aside his clothes
over the wound with his other hand. Because he is simultaneously showing
his hand and wound in this scene, the artist has left a gap in his clothing.
The centralised arrangement of the scene is found in southern Italian
examples like the mosaic in Monreale (AP, 94, pl 124).
This Thomas scene follows directly after the Magdalen scene, just as it
does in the Peregrinus play (AP,78; Young, 1951, 481) where both
scenes, of the hands and wound, are also combined. In the gospel of Luke
24:13-31, the scenes of Christ’s appearance on the road to Emmaus
precede the showing of wounds. In the St Albans Psalter the Emmaus episode
is transferred to the end of the Alexis quire, pp69-71,
for reasons which are explained on p61.
Last page of Quire 3.
Thread or stitch holes for protective curtain
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