Iratusque est Cain vehementer... : Cain being wroth: a gap in the iconographic transmission in the Pyrenees

Abstract

The wealth and plurality of the scenes related to the fourth chapter of Genesis depicted at Pyrenean sites during the eleventh and twelfth centuries have not yet been assessed as a whole. Therefore, this paper deals with the iconographic transmission and its comprehension within this territory. I will briefly introduce the sites where some of the scenes concerning the history of Cain and Abel have been preserved, some of which are related to the biblical texts, for example the land rejecting the blood of Abel (Rodes and Ripoll Bibles) while others are non-biblical, such as the burial of Abel (portal of Ripoll, mural paintings of Sant Quirze de Pedret), in order to devote my attention to the analysis of a particular scene. This scene, which gives my paper its title, is the representation of Cain's wroth as grief, as a result of his unwelcome sacrifice, observed in three Romanesque mural painting sites, its models and interpretation (Sant Climent de Taüll, Sant Andreu de Baltarga, Ginestarre).