Beauvais, Église Saint-Étienne

The heavily damaged central portal of the west façade is devoted to the Coronation of the Virgin. In the lintel, we see the Nativity and the Stoning of St. Stephen. In the tympanum, the Virgin and Christ are enthroned side by side flanked by angels, one of which would have originally been placing a crown on Mary's head. The four bands of voussoirs are damaged practically beyond recognition. The first band is a Tree of Jesse motif, with angels and Old Testament prophets in the outer bands. The jamb figures and trumeau are all missing. The portal is of a surprisingly large scale that is somewhat incongruous with the rest of the west façade. This, coupled with several breaks at the structural level, indicate that the sculpture was initially intended for a different location.
The pairing of the Nativity and the Stoning of St. Stephen are somewhat incongruous with the theme of the Coronation of the Virgin, which appears in the later twelfth century, first at Senlis. The feast of St. Stephen is the day after the feast of the Nativity, which might give some reason to the pairing. Stephen, besides being the patron saint of the church, was also celebrated as the first to shed his blood for Christ, and the pairing of his martyrdom with the Nativity was common in manuscript illumination and stained glass. The arrangement of the Coronation and Nativity scenes point to a date somewhere around 1220, based on models from Notre Dame in Paris and Chartres, and the classicizing hook-fold drapery of the tympanum figures supports this dating, based off early manifestations at Reims.
The northern wall of the nave also includes a much earlier sculpted portal in the Romanesque style. The lintel is uncarved, and the tympanum above shows a crowned figure among scrolling vine motifs, standing above two sirens, part serpent, part bird, who wear Phrygian caps. The band of molding around the tympanum shows other mythical beasts, including basilisks. The three bands of voussoirs show lions and men with various grotesque and comical facial expressions. It is tempting to try and read a Christian significance into these motifs, of man's domination over the realm of beasts, but it is also possible that they were simply employed as enjoyable decorative motifs. The portal was probably added after completion of the nave, around the middle of the twelfth century. Some of the foliate motifs point to work at Saint Denis and Saint-Germain-des-Prés that was happening around the same time.