Over the west-facing door into Notre-Dame, the sculptures of the tympanum announce the future of the human race: the Day of Judgment when all the dead will rise from their graves. Their past deeds and misdeeds will be weighed, and either devils or angels will lead the human souls to their eternal fate.
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The Ressurection
Pushing up from their coffins, men, women and children prepare to meet the Last judgment.
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The Weighing of Souls
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The angel holds the scale, and the praying soul with greater worth weighs more heavily. The devil, with his backside facing us, grips the scales as another devil drags the soul of the sinner by his leg. The face of the damned soul in the scale bears a strong resemblance to his devil tormentor (note the identical ears).
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The Saved and the Damned on the Archivolts
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Mary, kneeling, prays that her son’s justice might be tempered by mercy.
Christ’s feet rest atop a city facing a river — perhaps representing with Paris and the Seine or Rome and the Tiber, or else a heavenly city with perfect symmetry.
