Abbaye aux Dames Saintes
The former abbey church of the Abbaye aux Dames (Ladies' Abbey) is located in Saintes , a French city in the Charente-Maritime department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region , on the right bank of the Charente River and about 95 km north of Bordeaux . It is a Romanesque church from the 11th and 12th centuries and famous for its facade and archivolt portals and capitals , and for its excellent sculptural decorations. Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879) had replicas of the archivolt arches and the capitals of the main portal, together with those of the south portal of Aulnay , set up in the "Museum of Monuments of France" in the Palais de Chaillot , at the Trocadéro in Paris, to represent the Romanesque Architecture in the Saintonge .
History of the abbey and its church
Antiquity
The current location of the Abbaye aux Dames was outside and east of the Roman city of Mediolanum Santorum , the capital of the former Celtic (Gallic) Santons , which was essentially located on the left bank of the Charente River, and under Roman rule became an important and large city grew up. The numerous archaeological finds from Gallo-Roman times still testify to this today , especially that of the amphitheater (arena) built in the 1st century and the Arch of Germanicus (built in 15 AD), which crosses the Roman bridge on the side of the Marked river.
In the area of today's abbey there was an ancient necropolis on the edge of the Roman road that led over the bridge and through the Arch of Germanicus into the city.
middle Ages
At the place where the abbey and its church were built, there was already a much older sanctuary, perhaps an oratory , over the grave of Saint-Pallais (Saint Palladius ), a bishop who buried in the now Christian cemetery in the sixth century who kept this function until the 18th century. Today the small Romanesque parish church of Saint-Pallais stands at this point, hardly a stone's throw away from the north wall of the abbey church. In the Middle Ages, this parish church in the suburb of Saint Pallais was subordinate to the Abbaye aux Dames, whose abbess appointed the pastor. The building comes from several construction phases from the 12th to the 15th century.
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The construction of the monastery and its church began in the first half of the 11th century. It was founded by Isabella of Burgundy , who was married to Geoffroy Martel , Count of Anjou and ruler of Saintonge, a second marriage, both of whom endowed the monastery with particularly rich facilities, including lucrative salt marshes on the coast of Saintonge.
The first abbey church was solemnly consecrated on November 2, 1047 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary and then called "Notre-Dame" and later also "Saint-Marie des Dames" .
The abbey was run as the first monastery for women in the Saintonge. Its founder transferred the abbey to the Order of Benedictines , from a abbess was passed that "Madame de Saintes" was called. She was chosen from among the most important families in France. Her duties included the education of noble girls, the most famous of whom was the Marquise de Montespan , who later became Louis XIV's mistress .
The first convent buildings of the abbey were grouped south of the abbey church around the square floor plan of the cloister , which was arranged at the angle of the long and south transept. The square of the courtyard, which was enclosed by the cloister, is now marked by a striking lawn within the courtyard paving. The chapter house was directly connected to the south arm of the transept , on the first floor of which the communal dormitory was located. The other monastery buildings surrounded the southern and western gallery of the cloister and housed the refectory , the kitchen, the pantry and other rooms, as they provided the rule. They reached to the southwest corner of the facade of the church.
In addition, there were certainly buildings for housing and training the daughters of the nobility, buildings for receiving and feeding pilgrims and the needy, as well as a hospice for the care of the sick and probably also a guest house to accommodate visitors to the abbey. Not to be forgotten are the rooms for boarding and lodging a bishop and his clergy , but also for lay brothers .
The first church building had a nave consisting of a single-nave hall that was a little shorter than today's nave. There is a statement in French sources that the nave of the 11th century had a basic elevation of three naves. The crossing pillars of the 11th century, which are far to the outside of the nave , as well as the very high blind arches of the original nave walls do not allow this conclusion. In the transept, which sprawls across the nave, a significantly shorter choir and two chapel apses opened to the east than the present one . The masonry of the walls consisted of small-format limestones that were regularly walled up. The rooms had no stone vaults, but were covered by level wooden structures. The small, simple, arched windows were completely unadorned. From the original crossing one can still see the remains of columns and their capitals, which are decorated with the oldest sculptures of the Saintonge. They are arranged very low and thus lead to a considerable isolation of the central room.
Towards the end of the 11th century, the planning of stone vaults in the church rooms had progressed so far that the renovation work began, but it developed so extensively that it could only be essentially completed after several campaigns towards the end of the 12th century . These structural changes have largely been preserved today.
In the first campaign of the 12th century, a bell tower was built over the crossing . To do this, their pillars first had to be reinforced and raised. It received a vault with a trumpet dome , which has a circular opening in its apex through which the bells could be raised. The enlarged choir with apse and its vaults was built in the same construction phase.
The Abbaye aux Dames in Saintes were subordinate to a number of small daughter priories in the region, such as: Notre-Dame (Corme-Écluse) , Saint Nazaire de Corme-Royal and many others.
The barrel vaults customary in Poitou at that time would have required extensive reinforcements of the outer walls to absorb the lateral shear forces. They gave up the intention to vault the ship with a ton and decided on a completely different solution. In neighboring Périgord , the vaults of longhouses with several domes, which were already widespread in the 12th century, whose type corresponded to the domed churches of Byzantium and Venice and were imported from there, had been seen.
In the second campaign of the 12th century, the new vaulting of the only ship with two pendent domes was created , the loads of which were transferred to six new massive, generously dimensioned pillar bundles. The side walls of the 11th century were hardly used and could be preserved almost unchanged. The projection of two squares the width of the original nave into the existing floor plan made it necessary to lengthen the ship. The “old” facade of the 11th century was torn down and replaced by a new one, which was moved a little to the west. Her sculptural decoration was created under the abbess Agnes von Barbezieux (1134–74), a cousin of Eleanor of Aquitaine . The entire sculpture program dates without a doubt from the years 1120 to 1130 and is the work of a stonemason group who also made the sculptures on the capitals of the crossing of the church. The same sculptors also worked on the upper part of the bell tower. All the changes in the first half of the 12th century are attributed to the architect Béranger . An inscription on the outside of the north wall of the nave provides information about this and dates the work to before 1150.
The new Gothic ribbed vaults in the transept arms of the 11th century were built towards the end of the 12th century and into the 13th century.
Saintes was located at the intersection of two routes arriving from the north on the “Camino de Santiago ” to Santiago de Compostela and two further routes to Bordeaux. The Abbaye aux Dames was the first stop for the exhausted pilgrims before they crossed the bridge over the Charente into the city of Saintes, and there they encountered the other two churches, the great pilgrim church of Saint-Eutrope in the west of the city and the one at that time Saint-Pierre Cathedral , in the center of the medieval city. It is said that most of the pilgrims stopped for a few days in Saintes before they set off on the arduous and long journey to Spain. The Jacob pilgrimages enjoyed their greatest boom in the first half of the 12th century. During this time, the expansion, the new vaulting and the facade were particularly intensively built. After the middle of the 12th century, the pilgrimage declined and the wars of the 13th and 14th centuries brought their dramatic collapse. The renewed Abbey Church aux Dames could therefore no longer benefit from the pilgrims' visits. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the establishment of the common ambulatory in pilgrim churches has been dispensed with.
In the 14th century, a massive buttress construction was built in the northeast corner of the cloister, presumably because of cracks in the southern outer wall of the nave. The course of the cloister galleries along the nave and the southern arm of the transept could be preserved. This presumably also applies to the second massive buttress, which spanned the cloister with its quarter arch on the underside.
The Hundred Years War (1339-1453) led to the destruction of the monastery.
The sacristy was built in the 15th century to replace the northern transept chapel. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the outer walls were supplemented with a number of buttresses in order to stop the progress of subsidence. The cloister was also redesigned in the Gothic style in the 15th century.
Modern times
In 1568, during the Wars of Religion (1562–98), the Huguenots damaged the facade of the church, the gable and perhaps some of the sculptures, but they did not destroy them. In the fire they started, the heavy beams of the ship's roof structure fell on the domes of the domes and destroyed them. Because of the high cost and lack of funds, the domes were not reconstructed. The two large circular holes above the pendants were closed with flat ceilings made of wooden beams with board shuttering on the underside. They still exist in this form today.
Eventually two fires followed one another, in 1608 and 1648, and caused great damage to the buildings of the convent and the church. The Abbess Françoise de Foix decided to rebuild and reconstruct the stone buildings. In the extension of the transept and the chapter house, a large rectangular area was built on, which was called the "Nuns' Room". There was a large vaulted cellar in the basement. Above that there were two levels with the cells, which instead of a dormitory filled an entire floor. All cells were covered with vaults. In the northeast corner of the medieval cloister, a grandstand was built above the gallery , which was connected by a small hallway on the first floor. This enabled the abbess and the nuns to reach the patients without having to climb the stairs in the church.
The long building with its austere appearance was supplemented at the corners by watchtowers, which were reminiscent of the so-called "pepper boxes" of the fortress architecture of their time. The architect Jacques Guérinet , who was commissioned by the abbess to carry out this construction site, had gained a great deal of experience with the construction of fortifications. Pivoting the building at a right angle to the west, it extended it to include the pilgrims' "hospital". Other buildings that housed common rooms and the hotel building surrounded two courtyards that were connected to one another with a portal in the 18th century.
In the 17th century, almost all of the pillars on the longitudinal walls of the nave were reinforced.
In the French Revolution (1789) the adjacent monastery buildings were almost completely destroyed. The spared tracts were first converted into a prison, and a little later, in 1808, as a result of an imperial decree, into barracks. The military used the church as a stable for horses and the floor of the church grew to great heights. It was used as a barracks until after the First World War . The cloister was demolished during the military occupation.
The first restoration work was not carried out until 1930. In 1938 the church was consecrated again.
The abbey, which was completely renovated between 1970 and 1988, has regained a good internal and external appearance and is now an important center for cultural events.
During excavations in 1986-88, only a few Gothic arcades were found in the cloister, today evidence of its revision in the 15th century.
Church building
Dimensions (approx):
- Total length (facade + nave + crossing + choir, outside, without pillars): 57.50 m.
- Overall width (transept length), (without pillar templates): 33.00 m.
- Width of nave, outside, (without pillar templates): 17.50 m.
- Choir length, outside, (without pillars): 14.50 m.
- Width of transept, outside, (without pillar templates): 11.30 m.
- Ship length, inside: 28.80 m
- Ship width, inside: 15.50 m
- Transept length, inside: 31.00 m
- Width of transept, inside: 9.50 m
- Choir length, inside: 14.00 m
- Choir width, inside: 8.00 m
Outer shape
Longhouse
If you think away from the subsequent reinforcements of the old wall pillars with buttresses, the current height of the longitudinal walls of the ship and their arcade decorations still largely correspond to the original appearance in the 11th century.
The originally somewhat shorter outer walls are divided vertically with rectangular pillars into four fields, which in turn are divided in the middle by three-quarter round columns. Instead of the pillars alone, right-angled wall pillars are arranged on the north wall. The alternating angular and round pillars / pillars are crowned by simple capitals and spars and are spanned by semicircular arcade arches made of wedge stones, which are covered by a narrow cantilever profile. The pillars of the south wall are divided vertically into four sections with decorative profiles, the lengths and diameters of which decrease from bottom to top.
Almost all rectangular wall pillars no longer have their originally small cross-section and have been converted into buttresses with walling to varying degrees.
There are three massive buttresses on the south wall. The first rises vertically, roughly as an extension of the original facade and ends just below the blind arcade arches. The second is not exactly in the axis of the central pillars that support the inner domes, but shifted slightly to the east. His foot stays away from the outer wall to allow the former north gallery of the cloister to pass through, and leans against the south wall just below the eaves of the nave. The bottom is rounded in an arc shape, the top is sloping and is multi-stepped. The third, similarly massive buttress keeps a distance from the south wall of the nave and from the west wall of the south transept arm for the same reason. It consists of a pillar rising vertically to the height of the eaves, and in the upper area of an arched strut that leans against the south wall. Behind him on the ground floor there are still three currently renovated yokes of the eastern cloister gallery of the Gothic version of the 15th century. Above that there is a second floor from which one can see into the south arm of the transept and into the nave.
The north wall has two larger vertical buttresses, one as an extension of the 11th century facade, the other, particularly wide, exactly in the middle of the nave. They rise up to the arches of the blind arcades. The other wall pillars are only covered with reinforcements in the lower half.
The ship's flat sloping gable roof is covered with red hollow tiles. Gutters divert the rainwater in a controlled manner on the wooden, expansive eaves overhang. The transept arms and the choir are covered with the same tiles.
The decorative facade with the main portal limits the nave to the west. It does not rise above the side walls of the ship. The little protruding wall pillars on the ends of the side walls no longer belong to the original substance of the outer walls of the 11th century, but were created together with the facade, which was moved to the west in the 12th century, and were not reinforced afterwards. (For the facade, see later section.)
Transept
The transept arms protrude far beyond the side walls of the nave. The northern one, with its eaves on the north side, is covered by a flat sloping pent roof. A side portal and two windows are left open in the western wall. The north wall also has such two windows. In the corner between the northern arm of the transept and the choir, a sacristy was added later, but it remains below the window of the choir. The southern arm of the transept is hardly visible. It is covered all around with adjacent buildings and extensions. In its north wall there is a portal to the former cloister. Light falls indirectly through a window above the second floor of the cloister, which is still present here. The transept arm is covered by a flat, inclined monopitch roof, the ridge of which is above the west wall of the transept and the eaves above the east wall.
Bell tower
The square base of the bell tower corresponds in its outline to the size of the crossing and remains below the contour of the nave roof. It protrudes over the roof surfaces only on the sides to the choir and to the transept arms, is adorned there with a delicate blind arcade frieze and is bordered on the top by a multi-level cantilever cornice. Above that, the actual first floor of the tower begins with a slightly smaller square outline. It is delimited on all sides at the top by a double cantilever profile. On the west and east walls of the tower there is a group of three three-tiered open archivolt windows, made of geometrically ornamented archivolt arches, which rest on round pillars, which are crowned with elaborately figurative capitals and profiled fighters, and stand on profiled bases . The outer arches are covered with ornamentally designed cantilever profiles. The pillars of the outer archivolt arches stand next to each other and form pairs of pillars. On the north and south walls there is the same group of three, but only from the archivolts, which surround closed blind windows. On the corners of the tower square, the outer columns of the groups of three are connected to one another with an additional column.
On the first floor of the tower there is a second, with a cylindrical floor plan, which stands on a twelve-sided base. The diameter of this bullet is slightly smaller than the length of the side of the square below. The top of the cylinder is bounded by a multi-profiled cantilever cornice. This is supported by twelve semicircular, very slender columns, which stand up at their lower ends on the twelve corners of the base. A single-tier archivolt is installed between the columns, similar to those on the floor below, only slightly smaller and slimmer. Behind the twelve archivolts there are almost slit-like round-arched twin windows, each divided by three columns, with the above-mentioned fittings.
On the top floor there is a stone spire, in the shape of a pointed cone , with a slightly bulged side surface, which is decorated with a scale-like structure, but in the reverse order (the scale arches point upwards). The shape and structure are very reminiscent of the pointed end of pine cones .
The cylindrical floor is surrounded by four stone “lanterns”, which have almost the same shape as the upper floor with the pointed, bulged and scaled conical roof, but which are significantly smaller. They stand on the almost triangular ceiling surfaces that are left over from the transition from the square to the cylinder. The small cylinder no longer has any window openings, but only indicated blind window niches and a cantilever profile at the transition from the cylinder to the roof cone. It is flanked by four little pillars, the conical tips of which protrude slightly above the “eaves” of the lanterns, and at the upper end carry stone balls, as do the conical roofs of the lanterns.
This transition from the square to the round shape is supposed to symbolize the ascent to salvation into the heavenly Jerusalem from the lowlands of the earth.
The bell tower of the abbey church is somewhat similar to that of Notre-Dame-la-Grande in Poitiers . In the iconography of the capitals of the bell tower, there are themes such as: the weighing of souls, the women at the Holy Sepulcher, the phoenix as a symbol of the resurrection, people and animals that strive or struggle in an oppressive tangle of plants, and much more. The ordinary observer of these scenes in the Middle Ages could not see the representations high up on the tower. Today this is possible with powerful binoculars.
Choir
The choir from the 12th century is not quite as high as the nave and is covered in the yoke area by a gently sloping gable roof and supplemented by half a conical roof above the choir apse. Its walls are structured vertically by wall pillars and various partially double semicircular columns between the small arched windows. A spiral staircase is built into the corner between the choir and the southern arm of the transept, which leads up to the bell tower of the crossing tower. The cylindrical staircase protrudes far beyond the roof surface and is covered with a conical helmet.
Interior
ship
The current nave is still the same width as that of the 11th century, the length had to be increased a little to accommodate the new dome architecture. It consists of two yokes made of squares, including their load-bearing arches, which fit exactly into the old width of the ship. The loads of the two new domes are transferred via eight pendants to their surrounding pointed, at least three-fold stepped round arches and the six new massive pillar bundles in the new foundations. Behind the arches on the wall you can still see the "old" blind arches of the longitudinal walls and their inwardly widened arched windows. The blind arcades made up of three-quarter round services, simple capitals and semicircular arches partially disappear behind the approaches of the “new” vaulted arches. The arched windows are still the original from the 11th century, except for a few that have been covered by the new bundle of pillars. Unfortunately, the two domes were destroyed in the 16th century and not restored afterwards. Instead, there are now two flat circular surfaces made of wooden plank formwork under horizontal layers of beams.
The transept with crossing
The transept arms are covered with Gothic cross rib vaults from the 12/13. Century, including the pillars that were subsequently inserted in the corners of the room. The window and door openings are listed in the section "Outer shape, the transept". Their robes are widened inward. The "old" crossing piers have strong pillar bundles that were subsequently reinforced towards the inside by the masonry. They carry the square bell tower and the octagonal, non-equilateral trumpet dome inside, which has a circular opening at its apex. Instead of a transept chapel, a sacristy extension from the 15th / 16th opens in the north transept in the east wall. Century, with two yokes and Gothic ribbed vault.
Choir
The choir consists of a barrel vaulted yoke, which is joined by a semicircular apse, which is vaulted with a dome. The separation of the vault sections is marked by a belt arch over wall pillars. The walls of the yoke are structured by three blind arcades, which consist of semicircular, smooth wedge stone arches on profiled transom plates, over carved capitals and semicircular services. There are pairs of columns between the arches. The first arcade field is closed, in the second and third a round arched window with inwardly widened walls is cut out. A smaller arcade is set between the window and the larger arcade, made of a wedge arch on round pillars and capitals, which are set back in vestments. The rounded apse wall is designed with five arcades and windows that correspond to those of the yoke.
facade
structure
Despite the damage to the facade in the wars of religion and the revolution, it is still considered one of the richest sculptures in the country. It is divided horizontally into two storeys of equal height in the Saintonge style and crowned with a gable above . The two floors are divided vertically into three sections, in a ratio of 1 to 1.7 to 1.
The eight-arch archivolts main portal is housed in the center of the ground floor and almost completely filling the middle field. In the narrower side panels there are two-tier archivolt blind portals, whose fighters connect at the same height as the fighters of the main portal. The apex of the arches of the blind portals only reach halfway up the outer archivolt arch of the main portal.
In the center of the second floor there is a large archivolt arch, the width of the central field. Its crown reaches just below the cornice, above which the gable rises. In the middle of the large arched area is a large two-tier archivolt window.
A two-tier archivolt blind window is installed in each of the two side panels, the top of which extends up to half the height of the large archivolt arch.
The gable field begins above the cornice of the second floor and initially rises about two meters high, limited by the columns on the facade sides. Above it, the verges rise in the inclination of the gable roof behind.
Ornamentation and figural sculpture
The storeys are divided by a broad band of lush, deep, plant-based tendrils that runs over all pillars and their companions and around the corner on the left side of the facade. The tape was removed piece by piece on the right corner of the facade. The second floor is separated from the gable by a narrow cantilever cornice, under which a geometrically decorated band runs. The cornice runs over the rectangular struts of the pillars dividing the facade and butts against the pillars on the facade sides.
The vertical division is done by two three-quarter round columns, the cross-section of which decreases from bottom to top. At the height of the gantries, the columns are each provided with a warrior of the same kind, underneath there is a figurally carved capital and above it a profiled base on a plinth . The upper ends of the columns are completed with a carved capital, a striker made from the cornice and a beveled “pent roof”.
Shortly in front of the corners of the facade there are semicircular columns, in almost the same shape as those dividing the facade. However, they are not closed by capitals at the upper end, but extend even further up, to just below the verges of the gable field. These columns are accompanied on the outside by very slender round columns.
In the center, the archivolt portal, which is set back in four steps, guides the visitor into the church. Four broad stepped archivolt arches, carved on the front and inside, alternate with narrow, non-stepped arches. Both types of arches have both ornamental and figural sculpture. The wide stepped arches stand on round supports, the narrow arches on right-angled wall corners of the setbacks of the wall, which still have remains of ornaments. The inner supports have slightly twisted fluting , turning alternately left and right from stone to stone. The eight columns and wall corners on each side of the portal are all equipped with the “full program”, each with a figuratively sculpted capital, a right-angled fighter, with sculpted visible edges, and with profiled bases that stand on high, square, multi-profiled plinths . In addition, there is an additional fully equipped round column directly next to the columns dividing the facade, which extends to the large archivolt arch on the second floor.
Abbey church, archivolts arches main portal. left outside
Abbey church, archivolts arches main portal. top left
Abbey church, archivolts arches main portal. half right
Abbey church, archivolts arches main portal. right outside
The iconography of the archivolt arches (counting from the inside out) and the capitals:
- Broad arch No. 1 (stepped, only the front side decorated): Six elongated angels arranged tangentially with broadly outstretched wings strive upwards. The top two have a medallion in the form of a flat circular bowl in the apex of the arch. In the middle of the folds of the garment protrudes the hand of God pointing downwards, with the inner surface pointing to the viewer and with the index and middle fingers stuck out, a gesture of blessing towards those entering.
- Narrow arch number 2 (not stepped): Plant tendrils with leaves and fruits (?) Grow to the left and right from the wide-open mouth of a monster face in the apex of the arch, which curl up to the lower arch ends in the form of eight in a row.
- Wide arch number 3 (stepped, ornamented on both sides): There are five figural sculptures on it, between which a tangle of plant tendrils, leaves and grapes is depicted very luxuriantly and densely. At the top of the arch is the Lamb of God in an oval bowl , with a nimbus behind his head and a paw cross on a long pole behind his back. The “face” of the lamb is turned frontally towards the viewer and depicted with a distorted perspective. At first you think of the body of a horse. Half to the left of him, a human figure with a nimbus and extended wings is striving towards the center. She is carrying a shoulder bag and a book. This sculpture is not supposed to represent an angel, but is a symbol for the evangelist Matthew. At the bottom left you can recognize a bull by its horns, with a nimbus, plumage and wings. The winged bull stands for the evangelist Luke. Half to the right of the center is a bird of prey with a nimbus and a book in its claws. The eagle is a symbol of the evangelist John. At the bottom right one initially thinks to recognize a winged horse with a nimbus. On closer inspection, the animal reveals front feet with claws. It can only be a winged lion, which stands for the evangelist Mark.
- Narrow arch No. 4 (not stepped): On this arch, over twenty pigeon-like birds beat their way through a tangle of plant tendrils and leaves. They pluck the tendrils with their beaks. The two birds in the apex of the bow have arrived at their destination. They drink from a measuring cup together. In the iconography of the performing arts of the Middle Ages, the birds often represent the souls of believers.
- Wide arch No. 5 (tiered and ornamented on both sides that merge into one another): The arch shows only bloodthirsty scenes in a lifelike radial arrangement, in which almost fifty people take part. You can mainly see groups of three people, the outer ones are clothed and those in between are unclothed. The person on the left is obviously holding onto the naked, mostly also the smaller one, while the person on the right, in different positions, lets down the cutting weapon, mostly a sword, and in one scene a battle ax. Some swords are still horizontally above the head of the delinquent, others at the level of his neck. In one case, the murderer is already holding the severed head in the other hand. We are dealing here with a graphic representation of the massacre of the children of Bethlehem. In between there are also some women, presumably the mothers of the children.
- Narrow arch number 6 (not stepped): On this arch, harmonious plant tendrils with acanthus leaves are depicted in deep sculpture, which are repeated over the entire arch.
- Wide arch number 7 (stepped, and ornamented on both sides that merge): It is more of a static scene. Here 54 male elderly and wise people sit on high-backed chairs or thrones in a radial arrangement. Her knees are exactly on the edge of the arch, while her lower legs and the foot-length folds of clothing are shown on the inside of the arch. The people are all represented differently from one another. They all do the same thing, however. Their smiling faces turn towards each other in pairs, deep in conversation, framed by long hairstyles and chest-length beards. They hold a lute with one hand , usually above their knees. With the other they raise a goblet over their heads. You are probably expressing well-being to one another. A happy round. The lords are interpreted as the kings of the apocalypse . Contrary to the biblical texts, however, 24 has been made into more than twice the number of kings. Such inaccuracies are also known in other facade sculptures in the region and from this period, such as the south portal of Aulnay and the village church of Avy .
- Narrow arch number 8 (not stepped, but clearly protruding compared to the previous one): The last and outermost arch does not consist of purely plant tendrils, as is widely assumed. The animal sculpture has the upper hand here. You can see four-legged animals with claws, manes and cat-like heads, which strive towards the center. They are likely to be lions that the stonecutters of the time only knew from the story or from other representations. Birds crouch on top of them or next to them and try to bite the lions with their beaks. The many animals are entwined with plants. Perhaps this refers to the good souls of the believers (birds) who have to prevail against the bad guys (predators).
The capitals of the archivolts main portal have a confusing tendril in which all sorts of figural sculptures have got stuck or are hidden. A common motif here is the human figure standing on its head or on its hands, with legs spread apart, between which a monster's head protrudes. Furthermore, one often discovers birds and contorted human figures who have to defend themselves against monsters and all kinds of infernal animals. Tendrils grow everywhere, some from the mouths of monsters.
The left archivolt blind portal has an inner, slightly pointed arch, which is decorated on the front side in a tangential arrangement with six figural sculptures that strive towards the apex of the arch. It is about Christ, right of center, recognizable by the nimbus of the cross , and five of his apostles, each with a nimbus, each holding a book in one hand. A second, but narrow arch surrounds the first and contains small sculptures of human and animal figures in a tangle of tendrils. At the height of the fighters, the inner field of the blind portal is decorated with a ribbon on which birds are depicted within plant tendrils. The themes of the capitals are very similar to those of the main portal.
The right archivolt blind portal again has an inner slightly sharpened arch on which the Lord's Supper is supposed to be depicted. 24 radially arranged people take part in it. All sit on chairs, similar to the apocalyptic kings, with their lower legs on the underside of the arch. Twelve of them, including Christ, have planks above their knees directly on the armrests of the chairs, which suggest a table. One can identify Christ on the nimbus of the cross. He gives the bread to Judas . The participating people also have halos behind their heads. As with the left false portal, there is also a second arch here, which is decorated with figural plastic. In a tangle of tendrils, unclothed human figures trying to escape from it have become entangled. At the height of the fighters, the inner field of the blind portal is decorated with a ribbon on which four-legged animals, probably horses, are depicted within plant tendrils. The themes of the capitals are very similar to those of the main portal.
Thorsten Droste (see sources) summarized the iconography of the facade: “Despite the seemingly incoherent constellation of the individual picture themes, an overarching idea can be recognized. The innocent, represented in the Bethlehem children, and the believers, symbolized in the birds, are redeemed through Christ (= Agnus Dei) according to divine counsel, for which the apocalyptic kings stand. The agony of the damned, on the other hand, is reflected in a spatially “lower” sphere, namely in the capitals. Entangled in the tendrils of intertwined plants, they are tormented by devils and all kinds of infernal creatures. "
On the ground floor there are free areas above and to the side of the outer archivolts, which one can assume that at least some of them must have been decorated once. It is about a wide strip that is delimited by the decorative tape dividing the storey and a still partially preserved narrower decorative tape at the height of the apex of the outer blind arcade arches. There are a lot of deviations from the otherwise usual masonry appearance. Above all, one sees tall, elongated stone formats and remnants of decorative patterns and rosettes. Some circular disks could have been nimben. Here one can imagine a frieze of reliefs as seen on the facade of Notre-Dame-la-Grande in Poitiers.
The equipment of the three-part first floor with openings, blind niches and arches is similar to that of the first floor. The entire width of the central field is taken up by a large archivolt whose arch and outer cantilever profile are decorated with geometric ornaments. The smooth outer wedge arch of the central archivolt window touches the apex of the large archivolt arch. One step back is the archivolt arch of the window with a geometric sculpture. Both arches stand on round columns in soffit recesses equipped with carved capitals, profiled bases and a warrior band with a geometric structure that extends up to the large archivolt arch. Another step back is the actual arched window opening.
Abbey church, detail of a capital
Abbey church, detail of a capital
Abbey church, detail of a capital
In the outer fields of the first floor, the outer archivolts are carved and equipped like the large one in the middle field and, like these, are covered with an ornamented cantilever profile. One step back is another, narrower archivolt, similar to the inner one in the central window. Round-arched niches are embedded in the inner smooth archivolt fields, which are walled up with small-scale masonry that does not fit with the rest. This suggests that these niches could have been open windows at one point, or perhaps only temporarily. French sources report that an equestrian statue of Emperor Constantine is said to have stood in the left arcade of the first floor.
The only decoration of the gable field is a small relief image in the middle, probably from the Baroque period. A laurel wreath is shown in a kind of “picture frame” with a coat of arms in its center. At the right edge of the gable field, on the cornice band, the torso of a fully plastic monumental sculpture of a standing, presumably female person, whose upper body is missing, stands somewhat lost.
Abbey church, capitals main portal, right
Abbey church, capitals right false portal, right
Abbey church, left false portal, left
Abbey church, capitals right false portal, left
literature
- Thorsten Droste: DuMont art travel guide, Poitou, western France between Poitiers and Angoulême - the Atlantic coast from the Loire to the Gironde. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne, 1st edition 1999, ISBN 3-7701-4456-2
- Michelin travel guide, Atlantic coast, Poitou, Vendée, Charentes, Pyrenees, Michelin et Cie, Proprietaires-Éditeurs 1998, ISBN 2-06-231502-3 , ISSN 0763-1375
Web links
Photos:
French texts, aerial photo
- http://www.saintonge-patrimoine.com/article.php3?id_article=26articl ...
- http://www.bernezac.com/Saintes_abbaye_aux_dames.htm .
Coordinates: 45 ° 44 ′ 41 ″ N , 0 ° 37 ′ 27 ″ W.