Chapelle des Moines (Berzé-la-Ville)
The Chapelle des Moines ( Chapel of the Monks ) in Berzé-la-Ville ( Saône-et-Loire department ) is the chapel of a former Cluniac priory with the most important Romanesque frescoes in Burgundy .
The priory was founded around 1100 by Abbot Hugo von Cluny for the novices of the order and was therefore named "Château des Moines". In 1740 the buildings of the priory were renewed, which was abolished with the French Revolution . After the frescoes were rediscovered in 1887, the chapel was classified as a Monument historique in 1893 . It has been owned by the Académie de Mâcon since 1947.
The chapel is a single - nave, barrel-vaulted hall with a choir and apse with a crypt-like lower church. The exterior is structured by pilaster strips and arched friezes. The frescoes on the walls of the choir and the apse are among the main works of Romanesque wall painting in Europe. Comparisons with the painting technique of the few surviving fragments of the Abbey of Cluny showed that the paintings of Berzé-la-Ville come from the same workshop. The paintings, applied in five layers, are reduced to a seven-color palette: smoky black, lead white, green, blue, yellow and red ocher and vermilion. Intermediate shades resulted from the multi-layer application of paint and from the mixing of colors.
The main theme in the apse calotte is the "vision of Christ in the midst of the apostles" (Christ in the mandorla), combined with the handover of the keys to Peter in the presence of priests and deacons. Furthermore, there are depictions of saints and martyrs, and the connection between the Cluniacens with the Pope and the Roman Church is also a theme.
Stylistically there is a relationship to the Byzantine-inspired painting of Italy (the Cluniacens were connected with the Abbey of Montecassino ) as well as to Ottonian art.
See also
literature
- Raymond Oursel: Romanesque Burgundy. Echter Verlag, Würzburg 1979, ISBN 3-429-00705-4 , pp. 149-161 [not evaluated].
Web links
- Berzé-la-Ville (Le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne)
- Berzé-la-Ville - Chapelle des Moines (Fédération des Sites Clunisiens)
Coordinates: 46 ° 21 '48.7 " N , 4 ° 42' 1.7" E