Portal of the Schönborn Chapel with Angels by Curé

On the north side of the transept in Würzburg stands the Schönborn Chapel. Built between 1721 and 1736, it serves as the burial place of the powerful Schönborn family. Its Baroque north portal greets you first with massive paired columns and their Corinthian capitals.

Most of the sculpture is the work of Claude Curé, who arrived from the Paris area as court sculptor in 1721. In the triangular pediment above the columns, two lions hold the family's crowned coat of arms. Over the door opens a round window with a wrought-iron grille, flanked by curved, broken pediment pieces. Notice how the imagery plays death against life: a skull gazes down from above the window. Below it, two winged children's heads, the putti, look down with kindness. Even the crowned cartouche directly above the door ends at its foot in a small skull. The tall carved wooden doors are the work of Ferdinand Hundt.

Inside, above the same door, hovers an angel by Curé, half dark and half gilded, sounding the trumpet for the Last Day. The skulls outside receive their reply in this figure: death remains in the stone, hope rings out in gold.