This fresco is among the greatest twelfth-century European paintings in the United States. It once decorated the apse - the semicircular area behind the altar - of the small church of Santa Maria de Mur, in the foothills of the Spanish Pyrenees. Huge eyed and solemn, the figure of Christ in majesty dominates the composition. The inscription in the book he holds reinforces Christ's centralization in Christian art and doctrine: "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh into the Father but by me." Christ is surrounded by symbols of all four Evangelists (authors of the New Testament Gospels). Lower tiers contain the twelve Apostles (the original followers of Christ) and scenes from the Bible.

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