The Last Judgement Portal at León Cathedral

León Cathedral is defined the “pulchra leonina” for the beauty and purity of its style and is considered a masterpiece of Gothic architecture in Spain. The scene of the Last Judgement appears on the deep central portal of the facade. In the central band of the tympanum we see the enthroned Christ, wearing a crown, displaying the wounds of the crucifixion and resting his feet on the holy city, the celestial Jerusalem. He is flanked by two angels holding the instruments of the Passion: the column and the flagellum, the lance, the tunic, the cross and the nails. Two other angels at the apex of the tympanum hold the crown of thorns. Behind the angels, the mother Mary and the apostle John are kneeling in heartfelt intercessory prayer for the risen souls. On the lintel the places of beatitude and torment are depicted. At the centre the archangel Michael weighs souls on a double-pan scale. On the left, an angel welcomes a figure who has passed the test and introduces him into an antechamber where a king converses pleasantly with a group of friars and an organist plays sacred music. Further on the elect proceed in procession toward Paradise. We see a pilgrim with his staff, some monks in habit and hood, a nobly dressed noble, a bishop with his mitre. Arriving at the “narrow gate,” the elect receive the crown of justice from an angel. A pope wearing the tiara is forced to bow to enter and is immediately welcomed by Saint Peter. On the other side of the lintel a simian, hairy devil violently seizes a condemned soul. Three devils follow, carrying the damned on their shoulders and hurling them headlong into two cauldrons boiling over a live fire, fed by bellows. Among these condemned is a naked woman with swelling breasts, wrapped in the coils of a serpent biting her sex. At the far right of the lintel three demonic heads devour human limbs. Hell extends onto the nearby voussoirs of the portal’s three archivolt. Here we see a devil seated on a pair of adulterers, sinners tortured with hooks, the damned in a cauldron assailed by toads and unclean animals, the struggle between angels and devils for possession of souls. The three archivolts complete the vision of the judgement with scenes of the resurrection of the flesh and with choirs of angels and martyrs. The outermost frame presents a series of small scenes where angels help the rising dead emerge from their tombs and direct them toward the vision of the judge. The middle frame presents scenes of holy martyrs. We find among others Stephen, Margaret of Antioch with the dragon at her feet, Clare of Assisi in monastic habit, Peter crucified upside down, Andrew with the cross, Lawrence on the gridiron. The protagonists of the inner frame are the angels. We see at the top the seraph with six wings, flanked by the trumpet angels sounding the trumpets of the resurrection of the dead. Other angels introduce the elect into the presence of the judge.