The wide-ranging collection of figurative representations provided by these buildings contains abundant imagery of musicians and dancers, decorating every type of sculptural element: archivolts, capitals, corbels, metopes, statue-columns and baptismal fonts.

At times these are biblical personalities such as King David performing sacred music or celestial visions such as the Twenty-four Elders of the Apocalypse. On other occasions they are examples of profane music in which male and female jongleurs take the lead. Initially the church hierarchy’s use of these images was clearly ideological in purpose, using them to warn the faithful of the prospect of damnation implicit in such practices that were popularly associated with a licentious and disorderly life, and thus contrary to the ideals upheld by the Church.

These themes were very quickly taken up by the faithful, particularly by the stonemasons of the period who had to accommodate this doctrinal symbolism. The function and possible significance of such imagery is related to both its immediate context and that of its topographical status within the church itself.

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