What is known as the Saint Anne Portal
lies on the south lateral section of the West Facade.
We begin with the troumo which features Saint Marcel.
Saint Marcel was a 5th century saint,
who did not die as a martyr,
but who according to legend,
vanquished with a blow of his crosier which he holds in his left hand,
a dragon which was terrorizing the prostitutes of Paris.
Each of the triangular tympana above the doors of the West Facade tells a story.
The southern entrance contains the story of the conception of Anne,
Mary's mother, the birth of Mary and of Christ.
It is one of the key elements of the genealogical bent of
the West Facade which features Christ's royal genealogy which
includes Solomon and David along with
26 princely ancestors mentioned by Matthew and are found in the Gallery of Kings.
The portal contains the story of the conception of Anne,
Mary's mother, the birth of Mary and of Christ.
This frieze of the conception of the Virgin is staged as
a play in sculpture which takes place before the birth of Christ.
According to the Golden Legend of
the 13th century chronicler and archbishop of Genoa, Jacques de Voragine,
Anne and Joachim had been married for 20 years yet remained childless.
"Joachim," he writes, "who was of a Galilee of the city of Nazareth,
espoused Saint Anne of Bethlehem.
And they were both just and without reproach or
reprehension in the commandments of our Lord.
And they divided all their substance in three parts.
One part was for the temple,
the other they gave to the poor and pilgrims,
and the third part was for themselves and their household to live with.
And thus they lived 20 years in marriage without having any lineage.
Then they promised our Lord that if he sent to
them any lineage they should give it to him for to serve him.
For which thing they went every year into Jerusalem in three principal feasts.
So that in the feast of Encenia,
which was the dedication of the temple,
then Joachim went unto Jerusalem with his kindred and came to
the altar with the others and would have offered his offering."
Here we see on the lower lintel,
Anne and Joachim at the right entering the temple.
A double arcade under
an architectural canopy which is the symbol of the earthly city of Jerusalem.
And they put there their offerings for the Lord.
The scroll of the law is unrolled on a stone altar below
the eternal lamp which is barely visible in the shadow under the right canopy.
With one hand, the high priest,
a bearded Rabbi rejects the couple's offering,
and with the other he points to a text of the law which
reads according to Jacques de Voragine in the Golden Legend,
"And when the priest saw him,
he put him aside with great despite and reproved him because he came to the altar of God,
and said to him that it was only right that
a man cursed in the faith should not offer to our Lord,
nor he that was barren should be among them that had fruits,
and he that had none to the increase of the people of God.
And then Joachim, all confused for this thing,
dared not go home for shame afraid that those of
his lineage and his neighbors who had heard it might reproach him.
Then he went to his herdsman and was there a long time."
Here on the far right we see Joachim,
his belongings in a kerchief on a staff wearing what was
considered in the iconography of hats of the high Middle Ages a Jewish hat,
departing for the wilderness with a friend.
In the wilderness, an angel appears to Joachim with good news.
And then the angel appeared to him only and comforted him with
great clearness and said to him that he
should not doubt nor be afraid of his vision and said,
"I am the angel of our Lord sent to thee to announce to
thee that thy prayers have been answered and been heard.
And thy alms have been mounted before our Lord.
I have seen thy shame and heard the reproach that thou art barren
is to thee no reproach by right and God is the avenger of sin and not of nature.
And when he closes the belly or womb,
he worketh so that he open it afterwards more marvelously.
And the fruit that shall be born shall not be seen to come forth by lechery,
but let it be known that it is a gift of God.
And thy wife shall have a daughter and thou shalt call her Mary.
And she, as ye have vowed,
shall be from her infancy sacred unto our Lord,
and shall be full of the Holy Ghost since
the time that she shall depart from the womb of her mother.
And she shall dwell in the temple of our Lord and not without among the other people,
because that none evil thing shall be heard in suspicion of her,
and right as she shall be born of a barren mother,
so shall be born of her, marvelously,
the son of a right High Lord of whom the name shall be Jesus,
and by Him shall health be given to all the people.
And I give to be the sign that when thou shall come to the Golden Gate at Jerusalem,
thou shall meet there Anne thy wife,
who is greatly moved by thy long tarring,
and shall have joy of thy coming."
And then the angel when he had said this departed from him.
And as Anne wept bitterly and knew not whether her husband was gone,
The same angel appeared to her and said all that he had said to
her husband and gave to her for a sign that
she should go into Jerusalem to the Golden Gate,
and there she should meet with her husband which was returned.
In the center right of the lower lintel,
we see the angel speaking to Anne and Joachim from a cloud.
And in the very center,
they meet at the Golden Gate,
the opening in the eastern wall of Jerusalem
through which the Messiah is supposed to enter,
a perfect metaphor for the closed womb that will
open and bear the Redeemer or at least the Redeemer's mother.
The events depicted on the left hand of the frieze take
place some 14 years later and involve Mary's betrothal.
Again, we read in the Golden Legend.
"And in the 14th year of her age,
the bishop commanded in common that the virgins that were
instituted in the temple and had accomplished the time of age,
should return to their houses and should after the law be married.
At that came a voice out of the oracle and said that,
"All that they were of the House of David
that were supposed to be married and had no wife,
that each of them should bring a rod to the altar,
and his rod that flourished,
and after the saying of Isaiah,
the Holy Ghost sit in the form of a dove on it,
he should be the man that should be engaged and married to the Virgin Mary."
Here on the left we see the suitors among whom Joseph is an old man on a horse.
And Joseph of the House of David writes,
"And Joseph, of the House of David,
was there among the others.
A man of such old age as he was to have so tender a maid.
And whereas others brought forth their rods, he hid his.
And then Joseph by the commandment of the Bishop brought forth his rod.
And at once it flowered and a dove descended from heaven thereupon,
so that it was clearly the advice of every man that he should have the Virgin.
And then he married the Virgin Mary and returned to his city of Bethlehem to
ordain his household and his house and to fetch such things as were necessary."
In the temple, on the covered beemer,
we see the rods placed there overnight,
and moving again to the left,
we see what seems like Anne touching Joseph while the rejected suitors look on.
And just to the right,
Joseph, the high priest,
Mary, Joachim and Anne celebrate the marriage.
Mary wears the coronet of a princess and although she inclines her head to the priest,
her hand reaches back for the hand of her father.
In a subsequent scene,
we see the angel informing Joseph that
Mary's approaching maternity is divine and he drops to his knees to beg forgiveness.
Joseph and the Virgin go off hand in hand to Bethlehem.
The upper lintel portrays the story of Christ's birth.
The old man on the left with the beard is
the prophet Isaiah who has announced the coming of Jesus.
On his left, the archangel Gabriel announces that she
would conceive and become the mother of Jesus, the Son of God.
The Virgin lifts her hand to indicate that she accepts the divine mission.
Next, we witness the visitation in which Mary who is pregnant with
Jesus visits her relative Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist.
The two women embrace.
The central tableau represents the Nativity.
Mary beneath the coverlet,
Jesus in the cradle,
the animals warming him with their breath and people looking on from a chevroned ring,
the shepherds outside and the angels looking on from on high.
And the whole right portion of the upper lintel,
we discern Herod the ruler of Judea at the time of Jesus' birth.
The Magi, who have seen astrological signs of
the birth of the King of the Jews and the three kings with scepters.
The upper part of the tympanum shows the Virgin in
majesty with the Christ Child flanked by
as yet unidentified religious and secular figures with two sensor-bearing angel.
Above the lintels and tympanum,
in the arch vaults, we find 14 angels, 14 patriarchs,
16 prophets and on the outer rim 16 old men of
the apocalypse with musical instruments and
vials as they were described by St. John the Divine.
The jam statues around the south portal,
represent the left St. Elijah, Queen of Sheba,
Solomon, Peter holding the keys,
and on the right St. Paul,
David, the Sybyll, and Isaiah.
