The Traditio Legis in Late Antiquity and Its Afterlives in the Middle Ages

Abstract

The traditio legis—Christ standing on a mountain holding an open scroll flanked by the apostles Peter and Paul—is one of the most widespread and enigmatic Christian images from Late Antiquity. Over the course of the Middle Ages the scene was frequently reinterpreted, and this semantic flexibility has largely obscured its initial raison d’être. The first part of this article repositions the traditio legis in its late antique context, arguing that it was understood as a visualization of the Old Testament prophecy at Isaiah 2:2–4. These verses predicted the coming of the new Messiah and the spreading of his Law across the world in a time of peace; they were uniformly understood to describe the present time after the first coming of Christ. The second part discusses the reemergence of the motif in the Middle Ages and the new meanings that were attached to it. While these included the investiture of Peter and Paul in images of the traditio legis et clavium, the grouping was not seen as a political statement on the primacy of Rome. Some medieval examples also used the motif to express both hopes and anxieties about the coming of Christ at the end of time, while others depict the two apostles as models for the mission of converting unbelievers during the crusades. Exploring the manifold reappropriations of the traditio legis permits us to understand its complex web of meanings and highlights the importance of historic specificity in reconstructing how beholders might have experienced the representation over time.