France (Autun, Burgundy)

The Fall of Simon Magus Historiated Capital from the Cathedral of Saint-Lazare

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High Romanesque (12th Century), c. 1120–1135 CE

A Romanesque historiated capital by Gislebertus (c. 1120–1135 CE) depicting the Fall of Simon Magus — the sorcerer tumbling headfirst, gripped by demonic birds or griffins whose talons seize his limbs amid upright acanthus leaves and a central pinecone stalk — a striking moral allegory of the defeat of heresy and spiritual hubris before divine power.