Amiens Cathedral West Facade - the 44 Prophet Quatrefoils

The cycle of 12 minor prophets reads from right to left, along the front of the buttresses between the portals. The four major prophets are on the
inside faces of the buttresses flanking the central portal. Beneath each figure are two quatrefoils (labelled 'upper' and 'lower' in these pages)
which either depict an event from the life of the prophet or else part of their prophecy. Generally, though not always, the upper quatrefoil comes
first (in the sense of 'illustrating' an earlier verse in the associated text). Figures on the corners of buttresses each get two pairs of quatrefoils,
one either side of the corner - in each case I have labelled the left pair 'a' and the right pair 'b'.

To View a quatrefoil in detail, click on one of the thumbnail images below the plan. The 'next' and 'previous'
buttons on the detail pages follow the Biblical order. To browse through all the quatrefoils in order, click here.

First group (buttress on the furthest right of the facade)

50a - Amos		50b - Amos	52 - Joel	54 - Hosea
Quatrefoil 50a Upper - Amos feeds a lamb with wild figs		Amos' vision of God speaking	Joel see that the sun and the moon are darkened	At God's command, Hosea marries an adulteress (Hosea 3:1-5)
Amos sees the Lord on a wall with a mason's trowel		Amos looking up to God in the frame above	Joel see the vine dried and the fig tree withered	At God's command, Hosea marries the whore, Gomer (Hosea 1:2-3)

Second group (between central and south portals, continuing into right hand side of central portal)

14 - Isaiah	16 - Jeremiah	18a - Micah		18b - Micah	20 - Jonah	22a - Obadiah		22b - Obadiah
Isaiah's vision of the two seraphim	Jeremiah buries a girdle near the river Euphrates	"beat their swords into ploughshares"		Micah see the Lord in the tower of Sion	Jonah spat out of the whale	Elijah sends Obadiah to tell Ahab that he is coming		Obadiah feeds the prophets hidden from Jezebel
An angel purifies his lips with burning coal	A false prophet removes the yoke from his neck	"...and their spears into pruning hooks"		"they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree"	Jonah sitting beneath his gourd tree outside Nineveh	Obadiah and Elijah before King Ahab		Obadiah kneeling in humility before Elijah

Third group (between north and central portals and left side of central portal)

21a: Zephaniah		21b: Zephaniah	19: Habakkuk	17a: Nahum		17b - Nahum	15 - Daniel	13 - Ezekiel
The Lord 'searches Jerusalem with lamps'		The Lord smites the Ethiopians	The Lord forces the prophet to write of the doom of Babylon	The Ninevites flee in despair from their deserted city		The prophet points to a pool that is all that remains of Nineveh	The prophet in the lion's den	The vision of a wheel rotating within another wheel
The urchin on the threshold of the ruins of Nineveh and the raven on the lintel		The beasts of the world lie down in the ruins of Nineveh	An angel carries Habakkuk by the hair to feed Daniel in the lion's den	The prophecy that the walls of Nineveh will tumble like figs shaken from a tree		The prophet curses Nineveh	The prophet interprets the writing on the wall at Belshazzar's feast	The Lord with ruler and plumb-line as architect of the Sanctuary

Fourth group (buttress to left of north portal)

53 - Malachii	51 - Zecharia	49a - Haggai		49b - Haggai
The Lord rebukes 2 men, who strike him with a spear (?)	The vision of a woman carried in an urn by winged figures	The prophet's vision of the ruins of the Temple		The house of sinful delights stands firm and strong
The Lord lashes the priests who have departed from his path (Mal. 2:1ff)	An angel forces the prophet to witness a vision	The Lord shows Haggai his vision of the ruined Temple		The heavens withhold their dew and the trees wither