THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND CHRIST PANTOCRATOR

Passing through the entrance door, one notices the vaulted ceiling at the top and, above the descensio, a large lunette in the form of an apsidal basin.

The vault and walls are decorated with a depiction of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, while the large lunette is dominated by Christ Pantocrator.
The painting is in an advanced state of decay, with extensive gaps.
Wide red bands branch out towards the apostles seated six and six on either side of Christ Pantocrator.
In the centre of the vault is the Holy Spirit represented by a white dove with a halo and closed wings.
Lower down, in a central position, is Christ Pantocrator, seated on a throne under a canopy surmounted by two fluted red columns and covered by a curtain, the cyma of which ends with an ornamental decoration in the shape of a lily.
The face of Christ has had its central part mutilated since 1975 with the destruction of the eyes and eyebrow arches, part of the nose; part of the right cheek and left part of the halo.

The light, straight hair is still easily recognisable, moving at the level of the cheeks and descending on the neck, part of the left beard and the mouth.
The head is surrounded by an ochre-coloured, cruciform halo, outlined with a double line: black on the outside and white on the inside.
The gaps in the face of the Pantocrator have revealed an older underlying layer, depicting the head larger than an earlier depiction of Christ.
The more recent Christ Pantocrator wears a blue mantle, placed over his left shoulder, which wraps around his lower body, covering his purple sleeved tunic, decorated at the neckline with a black line dotted in white.
His bare feet are wearing open sandals.
His left hand holds an open book in which the following five lines from the Gospel of John are read:
Ego Su(m)/Lux [ Mu]/ ndi…/…e../… : ‘I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness’.
The legible words for the first three lines present a cured ductus, with letters in use between the second half of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century.

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