beautiful mane, but the tips do not curl. Unlike in the Bible ofAvila, the snout is longer

but the corner of the lips curve downwards like in the Bible ofAvila. A third example is

from pair of capitals from the Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos (Burgos) that have a

number of bass relief motifs of lion heads with vegetation coming out from their open

mouths (Fig. 71).199 The lions appear to have a short snout, very defined eyebrows, and

big round eyes. Their ears are pointed and their mane is done in a similar fashion to that

of the Bible ofAvila, with curls at the tips. Other important motifs are the devils that try

to pull the Just back to Hell.


 The figurative style of the Harrowing of Hell is similar to the rest of the cycle.

Adam and the Old Testament Prophets are nude and their proportions and gender

characteristics are clumsy, but they are continuing a tradition that was already present in

early manuscript illumination such as in the Beatus of Gerona (975). In the Beatus the

nude figures are unpropotional with their arms being longer, two semicircles representing

the pectoral and breasts, but their gender is undistingui shable--similar to the body types

found in the Bible ofAvila. An interesting motif that has an immediate similar antecessor

is the way the Master of the Cycle of the Life and Pa~ssion of Christ in the Bible ofAvila

has done the hair of the figures. In the copy of the Commentary on the Apocalypse by

Beatus of Liebana found in the monastery of Saints Facundo and Primitivo, Sahagun

(Leon) dated to 1086, the hair of the figures is compartmentalized in kidney-shape

bundles that diminish in size as they reach the neck area. Each bundle then has a linear

quality with every hair being depicted. This hair styling is similar to the hairstyle in the

Cycle of the Life and Passion of Christ.

199 Marques de Lozoya, Historia delArte Hispanico, 1931, p. 416.