St-Pierre (Pérignac)
The parish church of Saint-Pierre is located in the French commune of Pérignac in the Charente-Maritime department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region , eight kilometers northeast of Pons and 14 kilometers southwest of Cognac . The figurative sculpture of its facade is of particular importance. The church has been recognized as a monument historique since 1907 .
history
The name Pérignac comes from a Roman or Gallo-Roman villa of a Pétrinius or Parinus.
Pérignac is located on a prehistoric path that passed near the Dolmen Saint-Fort when coming from the east . The Roman road that connected Saintes with Périgueux lies in the border area to the neighboring municipality of Salignac.
Archaeological excavations as a result of the land consolidation have uncovered a number of traces of the early past, such as those from the Neolithic , Bronze and Early Iron Ages , as well as Gallo-Roman traces. In 1876 Salignac was separated from the municipality of Pérignac.
The imposing fortified church was built in the twelfth century on the site of a small Saint-Pierre chapel, which was given to the diocese of Saint-Jean-d'Angély in 989 by the Count of Poitou , Wilhelm Fier .
The Romanesque style facade has been rebuilt several times and the current portal is smaller than it was originally. In the 13th century, it was reinforced at great expense with two additional wall templates. At the same time the triangular gable was removed and the bell tower changed.
facade
The facade of Saint-Pierre-de-Pérignac is not exactly lavishly decorated compared to other churches in Saintonge . Of particular importance, however, is the iconography of the figurative design.
The almost square west facade is finished on both side edges with unusually deep, right-angled wall templates, which are led around the side walls in the same width. Viewed across the board, this results in massive cornerstones. Its only decoration is a narrow strip of cornice a little below half the height of the facade, which is also continued around the side walls of the church and continued there. The upper horizontal end of the facade is a sturdy eaves cornice made of unsculpted corbels that surrounds the entire church. The eaves tiles of the flat roofs lie on top.
On the upper edge of the facade one can imagine an earlier variant of the end with a triangular brick gable.
The archivolt portal, which is tiered five times and made of various smooth profiles and setbacks and with slightly sharpened arches, dispenses with figural plastic , except for the simple structures of the small capitals . Where the faux portals flanking the portal otherwise enrich the ground floor, you will only find unstructured wall surfaces and the post templates attached afterwards.
Sculptures
Only in the middle zone of the height of the facade does the expansion of the range of sculptures begin , distributed over two superimposed, almost equally high strips of differently structured panel structures .
The lower one sits on an angular cantilever cornice supported by a geometrically carved rod profile. The lower arcade zone runs almost across the entire width of the facade between the corner pillars. Of the thirteen arched niches, twelve are vaulted with pointed arches, the middle niche has a larger width and a round arch. The curved edges are divided into multiple profiles, which are alternately adorned with jagged ornaments. The capitals, designed with plant-based braids and leaves, have strong fighter plates at the top, the visible edges of which are profiled. The capitals rest on bundles of pillars, each made up of two smooth round columns and a rectangular companion in between. The column bundles have profiled bases.
The two arcade zones are separated by a console frieze that rests on twenty elaborately figured corbels. The bulky-looking cantilevered cornice extends across the entire width of the facade and hits the thick pillars of the facade corners.
The next row of arcades is interrupted by a central arched window. Above is the second and upper row of the blind arcades. In the middle, a large window dominates, almost as wide as the main portal below, the round arch of which completely towers over the row of blind arcades.
The design of the triple-stepped archivolt arch of the window is unique . The inner arch consists of a smooth, unstructured brickwork strip that merges into the vertical walls of the window without interruption. In front of the wall, at the angle of the recess, on each side, there are slender, smooth round supports with plant carved fighters and profiled bases. The arch is accompanied on the outside by a chessboard-like ribbon, which is enclosed by a broad cantilevered arch made of originally carved wedge stones. Nineteen out of twenty-three wedge stones form radially arranged 'horse heads', the outer contours of their 'face' exactly correspond to the conical wedge stones. The anatomy of the horses' heads is very natural and in no way bears satirical features, as is the case with the donkey heads by Aulnay. Around the upright ears of the horses runs a much narrower, but more cantilevered band with twelve naked bodies tangentially lined up one behind the other, deeply sculpted.
On both sides of the window there are two pairs of blind arcades, the niches of which are almost twice as wide as those of the lower row and which bump against the thick pillars on the outside at some distance. All arcades are spanned by round arches, the inner archivolts of which are made of smooth wedge stones and which are enclosed by a cantilevered, vegetable-carved band. The arches are supported by figurative capitals on which an unusually wide, vegetable-carved band of warriors runs across all arcade niches. The supporting columns are smooth and round and connected between the pairs of arcades and on their outer sides by right-angled companions. On the arches of the arcade, there is a cantilevered plant-carved cornice band that begins on the capitals of the window and extends to the outer pillars. All three-dimensionally designed elements are carved very profoundly.
On the first two layers of the masonry above the arcade bands, the individual stones are designed in alternation with figural and plant reliefs.
In the upper, mostly smooth, unstructured zone of the facade, an arrow slit opens on the outside. In the side surfaces of the corner pillars facing the facade there is a slightly larger rectangular recess at the top. Both types of opening indicate that the church was equipped with defensive elements.
Just above the arch of the large window there is a somewhat asymmetrical relief in the wall surface. In the center an upright Christ is depicted in the mandorla , which reaches almost to the upper cornice. His arms point down with the palms facing the viewer. His head is backed with a cross nimbus . The flanking angels are badly damaged and headless. But one recognizes her spread wings and her arms grasping the mandorla, an unmistakable reference to the depiction of the Ascension scene . To the right of the group is another angel, which should perhaps have a counterpart on the left.
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The half-life-size statues of the twelve apostles and the Madonna enthroned in the middle niche in the lower blind arch, all of which were present and witnesses at the ascension according to New Testament reports, match the depiction of the Ascension of Christ . Judas Ischarioth , the traitor, who was already divorced at that time , was replaced by the stonemasons by the later elected apostle Mathias . All of the people in this row have no heads. Five of them still have the remains of the nimben.
Of the eight niches in the upper blind arcades, only five are decorated with sculptures. The other three contain rectangular stone steles . The sculptures, with the exception of one surviving head, represent personifications of the virtues , the male ones with medieval weapons made of shield , sword or lance . All stand upright with both feet on the vices they have defeated , sometimes depicted as animal, toad-like figures with human grimacing faces or as human, twisted and crippled bodies with disfigured heads. It is noticeable that the slender sculptures and the steles only occupy the right or left half of the arcade niches.
There is an interpretation of the representation of the horse heads in the window archivolt with reference to biblical texts: The prophet Zechariah saw a flock of horses that the messengers of God, i.e. angels, brought to earth. In the Revelation of John , angels also ride horses. This could mean the symbols of the heavenly host on the facade of Saint-Pierre-de-Pérignac.
The twenty corbels under the central cornice all have different sculptures, such as animal heads, animal bodies with human heads, a couple of people lying in their arms, human heads with different coverings, human bodies wrestling with an animal, human upper bodies, monster heads, etc.
The gallery (below) shows a selection of eight corbel sculptures (description from left to right).
- Animal head with cat ears, maybe a lion head
- Man with object in his hands, money bag or stringed instrument
- Animal head with front legs, maybe a dog
- Loving couple in embrace
- Hooded human head
- Upper body of a thinker, supports his head
- Bearded man, crouches on his knees
Cantilever sculptures
inner space
Ship to the choir
Ship, to the facade wall
Choir u. sügl. Aisle
Vault, choir and south aisle
Choir u. south aisle
Choir u. south aisle
literature
- Thorsten Droste : Poitou. Western France between Poitiers and Angoulême - the Atlantic coast from the Loire to the Gironde . DuMont, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-7701-4456-2 , pp. 225-226.
Web links
- Pérignac, church - photos + info (in French)
- Pérignac, church - photos + info (in French)
- Pérignac, church - photos
Individual evidence
- ↑ Église Saint-Pierre, Pérignac in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
Coordinates: 45 ° 37 '29.6 " N , 0 ° 27' 48.3" W.