Saint-Pierre Abbey (Moissac)

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Abbey church from the south

Saint-Pierre is a former Benedictine abbey in the French town of Moissac in the Tarn-et-Garonne department ( Occitania region ).

The church with the bell tower and the cloister adjoining the nave to the north are preserved from the abbey buildings. The basement of the tower contains outstanding evidence of Romanesque sculpture and architectural history. The Moissac Chronicle , today in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris , contains the oldest part of the best-preserved copy of the Franconian Reichsannals and is therefore also of importance for German history . Since 1998, the abbey has been listed as part of the UNESCO World Heritage “ Camino de Santiago in France”.

church

Ribbed dome in the bell tower

Building history and shape

From the Romanesque church built in the last quarter of the 11th century, only the base of the bell tower remains. Its interior is one of the first rib - domes surmounted the Christian West. The tympanum of the late Romanesque main portal on the south side is a major public attraction.

Shortly after the city was besieged and taken by an English army, the Romanesque church was destroyed in a city fire in 1188. Reconstruction did not begin until about a hundred years later, now in the Gothic style and in brick , and it lasted in several phases until well into the 15th century. The long walls are divided into two floors by Romanesque arcades. In the lower wall parts the Romanesque stone masonry dominates. The choir, which was Gothic before the fire, is still made of ashlar in the upper areas.

portal

The portal is adorned with numerous relief scenes and is therefore considered to be the most important testimony to Romanesque sculpture in south-west France.

Tympanum

late Romanesque tympanum

The tympanum is dated to 1120/30, making it one of the oldest figurative tympana ever. It is carried by the Trumea pillar in the middle of the entrance. There are further relief figures on the side walls of the portal vestibule. The portal system is one of the masterpieces of Romanesque sculpture in France , along with those of Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne , Conques , Vezelay and Autun . Moissac served as a model for the description of the church portal in Umberto Eco's novel “ The Name of the Rose ” from 1980, in which Eco lets his youthful hero Adson von Melk fall into a kind of religious vision while contemplating the demonic images of the portal. When Jean-Jacques Annaud adapted the novel by Eco in 1986 , the Moissac portal also served as a model for the portal of the monastery church shown in the film, which from mid-1985 was erected on a hill near Prima Porta , a suburb of Rome , based on designs Dante Ferrettis had been erected.

In the tympanum of Moissac the vision of John in Revelation is represented. “In the middle, Christ is enthroned in the mandorla . The Majestas Domini , the glory of the Lord, as this central motif is called, is also surrounded by the tetramorph , which in turn is flanked by two angels with scrolls right next to, partly behind the animals, and finally by the 24 elders, two each in the upper register , three each in the one below and the others under the 'sea of ​​glass', the waves at the feet of the sublime. The strange meander growing out of beasts' mouths at the edge of the arched field is interpreted as the ribbon of Heracles, the fetter of the hellhound Cerberus. ”The tympanum is undertaken by the lintel with flower rosettes. They are interpreted as "wheels of fire", which symbolized the infernal fire of the apocalypse or, in their rotation, are a symbol of eternal divine power.

A stylistic feature of this large relief is the strong gesture of movement of the figures - in complete contrast to the static, calm on the façades of Provence . In addition, the four symbolic animals and the slender angels are sometimes twisted dramatically. The attitude of the 24 elders is also that of aroused attention.

The head of Christ, on the other hand, exudes a calm, resolute dignity. His beard is laid out in carefully narrow strips.

Robes

Late Romanesque main portal

The development of the so-called step portal has been decisively driven further in the walls of this huge portal system . A step portal is a portal in which the walls widen in steps from the inside to the outside and space is created in the steps for columns. In this way, the formerly flat portal wall gradually becomes a deepened space. The side walls are included in the three-dimensional design. What began with a simple door turns into a dramatic, dramatic reception situation.

Because of the large span of the portal arch, the tympanum must be supported by a central pillar, the so-called Trumea pillar, for structural reasons .

Annunciation and Visitation

The main theme of the entire complex is the Parousia , the second earthly appearance of Christ as Judge of the Last Judgment . In the side wall on the right there are two groups of the Annunciation and the Visitation , i.e. two scenes before the birth of Christ. Here we have the same excited, elongated figures as in the tympanum. It can be clearly seen that - as always with large portal systems - not just one artist is responsible, but several. The right group of the "Visitation" is clearly more agitated and elegantly flowing than the more static group on the left. The folding of the clothes is also clearly different.

worship

The two smaller scenes, which are in the same wall field, relate to each other, they belong together, but are separated by the column. Both form the " adoration ": on the left the three wise men from the Orient , on the right Mary with the child. This scene is also known as the first parousia of Christ, his first appearance on earth as a human being in contrast to the second parousia after his death as judge of the Last Judgment.

Flight into Egypt and presentation in the temple

The narrow strip above the double arch field shows three different scenes. On the far left is the city of Sotine and the fall of the idols, a story that is hardly known anymore, then the flight to Egypt in the center and on the right the representation in the temple in an incredibly well-preserved condition, especially if you compare this scene with today's Compare the appearance of the large sculptures below. All the folds of clothing, all gestures and faces of this group have remained undamaged since 1120.

Avarice / greed

The groups of two on the other side of the garment have a comparatively poorer state of preservation. Here the sins and vices are depicted. You see a little devil of a literally obsessive character that the greed or the greed that avaritia represents. The purse around the figure's neck identifies them.

gluttony

The famous group of two on the right represents another mortal sin . The devil-like figure of the two figures has a bulging belly on the left, but above it the bare ribs. In the case of the female figure on the right, the sculptor used a similarly drastic motif. Here the breasts merge into snakes that turn against their own body. A toad attacks its genitals. So here the sin of lust (luxuria) is condemned.

Pride, greed, unchastity and the social changes of the early 12th century

This direct connection between greed and unchastity on this side is widespread in many Romance picture programs in the south of France.

In the criticism of greed, some interpreters see the discomfort at a great social change of the time: the moral problems that arose from the increasing flow of money.

Hell and the miser's death

The upper small scenes - still within the arch - are on the left the unfortunately badly damaged depiction of hell and on the right - better preserved - the death of the miser. The corpse of the miser lies in a bed carefully depicted in plastic, while at his feet a devil pulls his sack full of money as an indication that money cannot be kept beyond death. Here the church is arguing that its sphere of influence goes beyond death, but that of money does not. The wife kneels in front of the bed, lamenting the death of her husband. His fortune did not save him from going to hell after death. His soul, which just symbolically wants to get out of his mouth, is immediately seized by a devil.

Story of Lazarus

The relief tablet above it roughly continues the theme of avarice by telling the story of Lazarus . On the far right is the scene of the rich man's feast in contrast to the death of Lazarus in the middle. The scene on the far left shows Lazarus in Abraham's lap, as it corresponds to the parable story of Jesus from the 16th chapter of the Gospel of Luke , to which this representation refers.

Trumea pillar

This does not end the three-dimensional program of this portal system. The pillar in the middle, the so-called Trumeauppfeiler , which supports the large tympanum, is literally covered in many layers with expressive figures.

On the front surface, lions crossing each other are depicted on three levels , which is why such a pillar is also called a beast pillar.

This Moissac beast pillar is also at the beginning of the development of this type. According to Revelation, there is a lion and a lioness each. The lions embody menacing forces that you have to pass into the church. The message here is: One must not be deterred by such dangers on the way to paradise . This example shows the dazzling ambiguity of Romansh visual language and the threatening proximity of good and bad that it often reveals.

Apostle Paul

The left inner surface of the pillar bears the extremely elongated figure of the Apostle Paul , recognizable from his book. The space of this pillar, which is extremely limited in width, has led to a design that, because of its novelty, was also effective as a stylistic model for those depictions of the successor period that had more space available. What was probably born here out of necessity later became a style principle. Across from Paul, the apostle Peter appears at the door post.

Prophet Jeremias

On the other side of the portal is the prophet Jeremias . In it one can easily recognize the elongated model for the famous Isaiah of Souillac . Although all these figures are relatively flat and adapted to the contour of the pillars of the trunk, these prophets reveal in their lively movement the feeling of inner excitement as with the tympanum above. With the utmost care, the sculptor not only introduced an absolutely new motif into the history of sculpture, but also reached a high point in artistic technology. Opposite Jeremiah, the prophet Isaiah appears on the door post.

Furnishing

On the right wall hangs a Gothic branch cross from the 13th century with a Romanesque sculpture of the crucified from the first half of the 12th century. In the choir there is a renaissance-style altarpiece.

Cloister

Cloister, church, tower

The cloister extends in front of the entire north side of the nave and reminds with its size of the former importance of this abbey. With its ten marble reliefs on the corner pillars and its formerly 88 capitals , it is not only one of the most extensive, oldest and most beautiful in France, but also the largest and most richly decorated cloister in the entire Romanesque period.

It was built between 1059 and 1131, probably in the year 1100, because the central pillar with the relief of the abbot is dated to the year 1100. So the cloister is a bit older than the portal. A total of 76 preserved capitals and ten large reliefs can be viewed here. A self-contained topic cannot be read - on the contrary, the topics presented are very complex. In addition, when the cloister was rebuilt in the 13th century after its destruction in 1212, the original arrangement was not retained.

The capitals of the columns show an extensive collection of scenes and figures from the Old and New Testaments, as well as the deeds and sufferings of the saints. As proven traces of paint show, they were at least partially colored.

photos

  • Choir

  • Entombment of Christ, between 1449 and 1503 (Abbot Pierre de Carmaing or Abbot Antoine de Carmaing)

  • Cloister arcade

  • Capitals of the cloister

literature

  • Thorsten Droste : Moissac's sculptures. Shape and function in Romanesque art. Munich 1996 ISBN 3-7774-6590-9
  • Marcel Durliat : Romanesque Art. Freiburg-Basel-Vienna 1983. Color plates 40, 61, illustrations 178, 196
  • Hermann Fillitz : The Middle Ages I. (Propylaea Art History Volume 5. Frankfurt am Main - Berlin [1969] 1990) illustrations 130, 278, 279; ISBN 3-549-05045-3
  • Thomas-Peter Gallon: From fisherman to rock. The metamorphosis of Simon Petrus on a Romanesque capital in Moissac . In: Das Münster , magazine for Christian art and art history , vol. 71 (2018), no. 2. pp. 197–206; Article available online , which focuses on one of the outstanding capitals and at the same time offers a structured overview of all the capitals of the cloister (p. 202).
  • Rolf Legler : Southwest France. Cologne [1978] 5th edition 1983 (DuMont art travel guide) page 132, illustrations 27–38, color plate 4 ISBN 3-7701-3183-5
  • Viviane Minne-Sève: Romanesque cathedrals and art treasures in France. Eltville 1991, pages 38, 39, 119, 121 ISBN 3-927117-84-6
  • Ingeborg Tetzlaff : Romanesque portals in France. Cologne 1977 Figures 24–29 ISBN 3-7701-0997-X
  • Ingeborg Tetzlaff: Romanesque capitals in France. Cologne 3rd edition 1979, frontispiece, illustrations 10–12 ISBN 3-7701-0889-2
  • Rolf Toman (ed.): The art of the Romanesque. Architecture - sculpture - painting. Cologne 1996, page 261 ISBN 3-89508-213-9
  • Rainer Straub: The Singing Stones from Moissac: Attempt to decipher the secret programs in the Moissac cloister. Verlag Pustet, Salzburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7025-0611-7
  • Titus Burckhardt : On the essence of sacred art in the world religions . Origo, Zurich 1955. Strongly expanded new edition as: Sacred Art in the World Religions . Chalice, Xanten 2018, ISBN 978-3-942914-29-1 . Contains a detailed chapter on Moissac Abbey.

Web links

Commons : Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Moissac  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Paperback from page 56
  2. ↑ Toman, Rolf (ed.): The art of Romanesque. Architecture - sculpture - painting. Cologne 1996, p. 260
  3. ↑ POP  : la plateforme ouverte du patrimoine - statue: Christ en croix; Moissac; abbaye de bénédictins Saint-Pierre

Coordinates: 44 ° 6 '20.2 "  N , 1 ° 5' 4.6"  E