Ste-Trinité (Anzy-le-Duc)
The former priory church of Sainte-Trinité is now the parish church of the French community of Anzy-le-Duc in the Saône-et-Loire department , in the Brionnais countryside , around 16 kilometers south of Paray-le-Monial and four kilometers east of the Loire . She is consecrated to the Trinity , the Holy Cross and the Mother of God . The church building was placed under protection as a monument historique as early as 1851 .
The Romanesque church is a basilica , consisting of a three-aisled and five-bay nave , a clearly protruding transept with a separated crossing , a staggered choir with five apses and an octagonal crossing bell tower with three free storeys. It borders on the walled area of the former priory , of which the remains of buildings are still preserved. The church building was probably built between 1090 and 1130, while the crypt dates from the early 11th century. Of particular artistic importance are the figurative capital cycle in the nave, the sculptures of the main portal and especially those of the southern portal within the monastery enclosure.
history
The origins of the church go back to the late Carolingian period. As early as 847, a priory was founded that was dependent on the long-abandoned Saint-Martin d'Autun Abbey . The first abbot was St. Hugo of Poitiers († 930), a friend of Berno , the first abbot of Cluny .
The crypt dates from around 1000 to 1030 and probably carried a much smaller church structure with a staggered choir, the predecessor of today's church. The relics of St. Hugo were kept in it, to which a pilgrimage developed in the 11th century, which required a new church to be built in the 2nd half of the century. This was probably built between 1090 and 1130, with the nave being younger than the transept .
The staggered choir above a similarly designed crypt is directly comparable to that of the 11th century church of the Saint-Fortunat de Charlieu Abbey, which is only about 25 kilometers away , which suggests joint planning. The three-aisled complex with protruding transept and five-part staggered choir has also been taken over from its mother church by Autun, which is based on the model of the Cluny II abbey church, which was destroyed in 1088. Finally, the octagonal crossing tower was built, inspired by the Cluny III church, as can be found in many pilgrimage churches on the Way of St. James .
Ste-Trinité is also a document for the arching tests of the Burgundian builders in the 11th century. The problem of wide vaults in the main nave, which previously caused the builders of the church of Saint-Philibert ( Tournus ) to the north to fail, was resolved here by dispensing with a barrel vault . Instead, like the side aisles, the central nave is arched on a ridge , which also made higher windows possible.
The similarities to the pilgrimage church Ste-Marie-Madeleine von Vézelay , which was built between 1120 and 1140, are also striking . The uniform looking nave of Ste-Trinité can certainly be described as a scaled-down version of Ste-Marie-Madelaine .
The main portal can be assigned to two different times. The tympanum and architrave show a two-dimensional style, as is characteristic of 1100. The two archivolts, on the other hand, with their distinct plasticity, can be dated later, around 1130.
The sculpture of the capital cycle is unusual for the 11th century. The richness of images and its plasticity that is spread out here represent a milestone on the path of art into the 12th century. The rather coarse shaping of the human and animal figures alone leaves no doubt that they were created in the 11th century.
The completion of the Church of Anzy-le-Duc coincided with the heyday of pilgrimages to the tomb of the Apostle James the Elder in Santiago de Compostela in the first half of the 12th century, when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims traveled south across the Pyrenees every year . During this time, mainly monastic communities organized the pilgrimage. Four main routes and a network of secondary routes were formed, on which churches, monasteries, hospices , hostels and cemeteries were built.
So also was Anzy-le-Duc , a very important stage of the Way of St. James on a side route of the Via Lemovicensis , with the starting point Vezelay and the Priory of St. James was able to participate in his new church and its relics at attracting donations.
As the quarrels over Aquitaine between England and France rose after the mid-12th century, the pilgrimage declined and the wars of the 13th and 14th centuries, especially the Hundred Years War (1339-1453), brought a dramatic slump. Anzy-le-Duc again had to limit himself to the pilgrims to their own relics.
In the following years the church structure remained largely unchanged.
In the revolution (1789 and subsequent years) the monastery was closed and its convent building was sold as common property for demolition and thus destroyed to a considerable extent. The church was also sold. At that time, however, she “only” suffered the tearing of the former steep stone spire of her crossing tower and some damage to the sculpture of the main portal.
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In 1818 Ste-Trinité was made a parish church.
The first restoration began in 1852 and, as is so often the case, no longer meets today's requirements.
Building
Floor plan and longitudinal section
- Dimensions
approx., measured from plans and extrapolated,
without considering wall templates
- Total length (outside) 44.30 m
- Width at the height of the transept (outside): 23.40 m
- Longhouse width (outside). 15.70 m
- Longhouse length (outside). 25.20 m
- Longhouse length (inside): 24.00 m
- Width of the nave (inside): 13.20 m
- Central nave width (inside): 5.40 m
- Aisle width (inside): 3.10 m
- Length of transept (inside): 22.60 m
- Transept width (inside). 3.50 m
- Step forward of the transept arms (outside): 4.70 m
- Height of the vault apex in the central nave: 11.40 m
- Height of the top of the dome in the crossing: 10.30 m
- Height of the top of the vault in the choir bay: 7.80 m
- Tower height in the ridge above the floor: 25.20 m
Outward appearance
The masonry of most of the components, which glows golden in the afternoon sun, consists of small to medium-sized rubble stones in an irregular layered structure of light beige, orange to brownish sandstone. Component edges, soffit edges, buttresses and the entire facade are made of smooth, medium to large-sized ashlar blocks of the same material, which predominantly show signs of weathering in gray tones.
Nave and facade
The vertical division of the longitudinal walls of the nave corresponds to the internal transverse division into five yokes. The staggering of the nave roofs also shows the internal longitudinal division into three naves. With its windows in the upper storey, the church presents itself as a real basilica.
The central nave , which towers high above the aisle roofs , is covered by a gently sloping gable roof, which is covered with red hollow tiles in Roman format, which are also called monk-nun tiles . The side aisles are covered by flat pitched pent roofs with the same covering. The eaves on the long sides are made of strong Gesimsplatten with multi profiled visible edges, on diverse sculpted corbels rest: they are rounded to the inside and show mostly human and animal figures, portraits, masks, partly plant motifs such as (see gallery Traufgesims at the nave):
1. male person in grapevines - man with a lute - human face with dog ears, 2. bearded monster from whose nose tendrils grow - leaf motif, 3. animal head eats a leaf - man hangs himself with his arms on a beam, 4. winding plants - child in shorts, 5th young animals suckle on teats - severed leg, 6th man with plant - young animal hangs on a loop - sheaf of corn, 7th woman holds a loaf of bread in front of her - man eats fruit or fish, 8th man holds clay jug - grimace - Person with long billy horns. On the aisle eaves on the north side, the corbels remain without sculptures.
The lower rows of the brick cladding rest on the cornice panels and protrude slightly so that the rainwater can drip off freely.
- Gallery eaves on the nave
1.
2.
3.
4th
5.
6th
7th
8th.
The buttresses , which are rectangular in plan and remain in the same dimension over the entire height, with their steeply sloping tops extend to just below the corbels. In the middle of the wall fields between the pillars of the side aisles and the central aisle, a slender, arched window is cut out, with reveals widened outwards. In the first yoke of the central nave, this window is significantly larger than the others on both sides.
The wall of the facade is divided vertically by two buttresses, which are an extension of the central nave walls and with their upper bevel extend as high as the pillars of the upper line zone. At about half the height of the pillars, the pillars protrude again to double the depth. The middle section forms the western head wall of the central nave and the side aisles close off the side aisles in their extension. Their upper sides, which are inclined by about 30 degrees, clearly protrude above the flat sloping roof surfaces and are covered with flat panels that protrude slightly. The main portal (see next paragraph) takes up almost the entire width of the wall between the pillars and the apex of its outer archivolt arch extends up to about half the height of the wall. Immediately above it sits the lower edge of the steeply inclined parapet of a large, arched window, which in the late afternoon hours illuminates the central nave with the golden light of the setting sun. Small columns with carved capitals, profiled fighters and bases are set in the setbacks of its vertical soffit edges. They carry an arch made of a round bar, which is also inserted into a setback of the rounded soffit edges. The reveals that remained behind the archivolt are widened outwards. A small rectangular opening is made just above the top of the window to ventilate the roof space above the vault. The side head walls of the side aisles are closed on the outside by a buttress that corresponds to those of the longitudinal walls.
The sculpture of the main portal, a so-called step portal , was created in two sections, the rather flat relief of the tympanum is dated around 1100, the archivolt arches surrounding it show more profound plasticity and are said to have been formed around 30 years later, together with the last works on the church building.
The two-tier archivolt portal is enclosed on three sides by double wall setbacks, into which two archivolt arches are inserted, each standing on two columns, which are equipped with carved capitals, multi-profiled fighters and sculpted bases on angular plinths. The transom profiles mark the arches and are led sideways over the narrow remnants of the wall up to the buttresses. The capitals are badly damaged. Small remains of figurative and vegetable plastic can still be seen. The sculpture of the bases shows plant structures.
The sculpture of the inner archivolt arch is also badly damaged. The Keilsteinbogen is divided on the vertical visible side by a formerly completely circumferential semicircular profile in a ratio of one third to two thirds. The wider inner arch section is covered with the remains of small free figures, which are interpreted as the 24 elders of the Last Judgment, who are also called the apocalyptic kings from the Revelation of John . So one can still find some remains in the form of string instruments (lute) and goblets. The representations of these elders on the south portal of the church of St-Pierre von Aulnay , on the main portal of the Abbey aux Dames of Saintes and on the portal of the village church of Notre-Dame d'Avy would be comparable .
The outer archivolts arch consists essentially of an S-shaped, wavy tendril in whose valleys alternating leaves are inserted, the shape of which is reminiscent of scallops. This tendril is accompanied on both sides by semicircular profiles of different widths. The outer archivolts arch is covered by a double cantilever profile that swings outward at the arch ends directly on the transom profiles and is guided up to the buttresses.
The rectangular portal opening is surrounded by sharp-edged reveals, which have protruding corbels in their upper corners, with sculptures of atlases.
The lintel , also called architrave , closes the portal opening horizontally at the top and is made from a common stone slab together with the arch field. It is closed at its upper and lower edge by a narrow cantilever profile. The relief in between depicts the Ascension , with Our Lady in the center , flanked by the 12 apostles lined up one behind the other . All heads are backed with nimbs . Mary is facing the viewer, the apostles, except for one, strive sideways to the center. Her long robes cover Mary's feet, the apostles' bare feet remain uncovered. The people each point upwards with one hand, while most of them hold a book on their chests with the other. To the left of Mary, Peter holds the key to heaven, his attribute , upwards. Compared to those in the inner capital cycle, the figures are significantly slimmer and more agile, and the proportions between heads and bodies are more natural.
The arched field contains a trough-shaped hollowed out mandorla , an enthroned Christ, also known as Majestas Domini (glory of God). Christ, draped as long as a foot, is seated on a precious throne, of which the side rests extend sideways, and supports his feet on a small bench. The cross nimbus behind his head also forms the upper curve of the mandorla. His right hand is raised in a gesture of blessing, which, like his face, has unfortunately been destroyed, his left hand holds the book of life on his thigh. The mandorla is held upright by two angels with outstretched arms. Their wings are spread wide.
Transept with crossing bell tower
The transept stands out clearly from the longitudinal walls of the aisles. Its width corresponds roughly to that of the central nave. Its eaves height is roughly in the middle between those of the aisles and the central nave. Its roof corresponds in inclination, covering and eaves formation to that of the central nave. The southern gable wall clearly protrudes over the roof surfaces with an inclination of about 30 degrees. The northern one has about the same slope as the roof surfaces. The gable ridges are crowned with wide-spread crosses in the form of square paw crosses . The gable walls are laterally bounded by strong buttresses as an extension of its longitudinal walls, which reach up to the eaves height with their steeply inclined upper sides without changing cross-section. In the middle of the upper half of the wall there is a slender, arched window, which roughly corresponds to those in the first yoke of the upper aisle zone of the central nave. In the southern gable wall at the bottom left in the brickwork, the contour of a former small round-arched door can be made out, which was walled up flush with the surface. It was very likely a connecting door to the former convent buildings on the south side of the church. On the north side a central connecting door is covered by the sacristy building attached there. There is a small rectangular opening in each of the gable fields to ventilate the roof space above the vaults. In the western wall of the north arm of the transept, a round arched door is cut out, possibly an entrance to the former cemetery.
The high octagonal bell tower still has largely its original shape, except for the lack of the pointed stone spire, which it lost in the revolution.
The lower basement floor is significantly higher than the three following floors and ends just above the ridge height of the central nave with a narrow, wide cantilevered cornice. The three western octagon sides are largely covered by the adjoining central nave. For this purpose, the central nave walls were lengthened a little until they merge flush with the surface of the octagonal sides. The approaches of the wall pieces can be seen as vertical wall joints. The two small roof sections that were created in this way, with a triangular floor plan, were fitted with barely protruding eaves cornices. In the three sides of the octagon facing south, east and north, small, slender, arched window openings are recessed just above the roofs of the roofs of the transept arms and the choir bay, which open into the lower basement. The two sides of the octagon, pointing to the southeast and northeast, only begin at the height of the ridges of these roofs and merge below into the corners of the crossing square that are still visible. The resulting small structures, triangular in plan, above the roof surfaces are covered by small, flat sloping roof surfaces with tile roofing.
The three free tower floors are almost the same height and design and are separated from each other by the same cantilever cornice as on the base floor. The upper storey is closed off by a sturdy eaves cornice which is bevelled on the underside and consists of a double roller frieze and two round bars. It was probably already the eaves formation of the former stone spire.
Large rectangular, sharp-edged blind niches are set into the octagon sides, which are closed off by wall pillars on the sides and by small round-arched blind markings on top. There are four on the first floor, five in the middle and seven on the top. The arches used on the last floor have two arches that are half as small in front of them. Two arcades each stand together on differently sculpted corbels. The wall pillars get a little narrower from floor to floor. Round-arched, sharp-edged blind arcades are embedded in the large blind niches, the side reveals of which keep a short distance from the wall pillars. Their arch approaches are marked on the reveals of transom profiles. Round-arched twin blind arcades are embedded in the round-arched blind niches, the side reveals of which again keep a little distance from the previous setback. Their arches are also marked by fighter profiles. Their wedge arches meet in a slender point, just above the spider of the central pillars. This is followed by open twin arcades, equidistant from the previous setbacks. Their wedge arches each stand together on a small column, which is equipped with a carved capital, a strong profiled warrior and bases. The outer arch approaches are again marked by fighter profiles.
Instead of the original steep stone spire, the tower is covered by a gently sloping octagonal pyramid roof, which is covered with the same tiles as the other roofs.
Relay choir
The staggered floor plan starts from the outer transept chapels, leads via the forward choir chapels to the central choir, whose large apse ends in the apse chapel, which is certainly unusual. The individual elements of the staggered choir tower like a pyramid at six different step heights: the two lowest apses of the transept chapels are followed by the two apses of the choir chapels, the apse of the apse chapel, the two rectangular yokes of the choir chapels, the central choir apse and finally the rectangular choir yoke. The apses are covered with flat sloping roofs in the form of half cones, the chapel yokes with sideways sloping monopitch roofs and the choir yoke with a gently sloping gable roof. The elevation of the latter corresponds roughly to that of the transept arms. The pent roof ridges of the chapel bays lean against the side walls of the choir bay. All eaves are designed like those of the transept. All the roofs of the relay choir are covered like the rest. In the apses of the transept chapels, the choir chapels and the apse chapel, a central round-arched window with widened walls is cut out, which grows slightly larger from the outside in. The two windows in the choir apse, next to the apex chapel, are even larger.
Image of the relay choir.
Later additions
On the north side of the church, a ground floor structure, which contains a sacristy, has probably been added to the transept in modern times. It is covered by a pent roof that hugs the rising parts of the church. The roof covering corresponds to the rest. The eaves cornice on corbels resembles those of the church. A small arched window is left open on the north side.
Interior
In the nave, the walls, pillars, templates, arches and other parts of smooth, large-format stone made of light, almost white, limestone blocks were built in regular layers. In the aisles, the walls are partially plastered. In the northern arm of the transept, the wall surfaces are made of medium to small-sized rubble stones in irregular layers, which have been puddled in the color of the large cuboids. Some of its gable walls were plastered and then stone joints were painted, also on all walls in the southern arm of the transept. The pillars, arches and walls in the crossing, in the choir area and in the chapels are all plastered and partly painted with older frescoes, but also with more recent decorations. The groin vaults of the nave and the choir bays are smoothly rubbed, plastered and painted with lime paint in a natural tone. The barrel vaults of the transept, as well as the crossing dome, are painted with modern decors.
Longhouse
The nave stands on a rectangular floor plan, is divided into three naves in the longitudinal direction and five bays in the transverse direction and has a basilica elevation, with a high upper storey window.
The division into ships is made by the two partition walls that stand on strong pillars. Together with the pillar templates protruding from them and the belt arches standing on them, these take on the division into yokes.
The pillars have cross-shaped cores with roughly the same arms or templates, which have, directly above the floor, outwardly sloping, sweeping skirting boards. On top of them stand the partition walls separating the aisles, which open on the ground floor from the nave to the side aisles via large arched arcades, the edges of which are sharp-edged backwards. These stand on old semicircular services , which are mainly equipped with figuratively carved capitals, profiled fighters and bases on angular plinths . The fighters are led laterally to the next edge of the pillar core.
The central nave-side templates of the pillar cores are extended far into the upper wall areas of the central nave, not quite as far as the vaults, where they merge without a break in the outer wedge arches of the round-arched girders. The wall templates are overlaid with old semicircular services that reach up to the slightly stilted arches of the belt arches, where they are crowned by mostly vegetable-carved capitals and fighters with beveled visible edges, which are led around the next edge of the template. The services stand with profiled bases on angular plinths. The lower, somewhat narrower wedge-shaped arches, which together with the upper ones, form strong belt arches, stand on the transom plates.
These belt arches, together with the outer walls, carry the groin vaults , the central apex of which is only slightly above the apex of the outer edge of the belt arch and the shield arches above the upper line zone. The slender, round-arched upper cladding windows with heavily inwardly widened walls extend to just below the apex of the shield arches. The two windows in the first yoke are slightly larger than the others.
The west wall of the central nave has a rectangular portal opening in the middle, which is covered by a round arched niche with a flat background, which corresponds to the outer tympanum with a lintel. At the height of the lintel, a flat decoration was applied, which consists of two horizontal bands with a geometric pattern, between which fan-shaped leaves are wrapped in a serpentine line by leaf tendrils.
The east wall opens into the crossing with an arcade, the shape of which corresponds to the large yoke-dividing arcade, but which is somewhat slimmer and the arch of which is a good bit lower. This height results from the height of the barrel vaults of the side aisles, which are closed under the crossing walls by arcades of the same size. In the wall above this arcade, a former small arched window was walled up flush with the wall.
In the side aisles, the templates for the pier cores on the outer wall are faced with wall templates. On each of them rests a sharp-edged, round-arched, slightly stilted belt arch made of wedge stones, the arches of which are marked with fighter profiles and are about half a meter above the fences of the partition arcades. The chord arches have groin vaults with the longitudinal walls, the outer curves of which coincide with the semicircular tops of the chord arches. A slender, arched window with flared walls is cut out in the outer walls of each yoke and extends to just below the apex of the shield arches.
The western head walls of the side aisles have no openings.
In the eastern walls of the side aisles, a round arched arcade opens into the transept, the arch approaches of which are marked by fighter profiles. Its opening is somewhat slimmer and barely half as high as that of the arcades dividing the yoke.
- Gallery: Longhouse
south aisle z. Choir
north ldl. Aisle z. Choir
from the north aisle z. Crossing
south aisle to the rear
Transept with crossing
The transept arms have rectangular floor plans that extend across the main nave. They are vaulted by semicircular barrels, the arch approaches of which are marked by changing the component surfaces (masonry - vault plaster). They open to the crossing with the same arcades that correspond to the one between the crossing and the nave and that to the choir bay. The vaults connect at the level of the outer edge of the upper wedge stone arches. The two large round-arched windows with flared walls in the upper halves of the transept gable walls are intended to illuminate the transept arms and the crossing, because it does not have its own window lighting. In the north gable wall there is a round-arched door in the middle, an entrance to the sacristy, in the west wall of which there is a somewhat smaller round-arched door, probably an entrance to the former cemetery. In the south arm of the transept there was once a round arched door in the gable wall, offset a little to the west from the center, which is now walled up. That was probably the former connection to the convent buildings built there. In both transept arms, round-arched openings to the outer transept chapels and the choir chapels are let into the east walls. The openings to the transept chapels are much wider and lower and about as high as the openings from the aisles. Those to the choir chapels are about as large as the yoke-dividing arcades of the aisles.
The pillars on the corners of the crossing stand on plinths that extend over a meter high on all sides. What is unusual for a crossing dome is its relatively low height. Their vertex is slightly below the height of the vertex of the central nave vault. Nor does it know the usual shape of the dome edge, such as a circle or an octagon, which is approximated to a circular shape. Here, too, the corners of the square of the crossing are filled with trumpets, which have roughly the hollow shape of a cone quarter. The edge of the dome consists of inwardly curved sections of a circle, the trumpet and the arcade arches. Faint ridges rise from the eight pointed corners of the dome to the apex and end at the circular recess, for the vertical transport of bells, building materials and tools. The whole thing is reminiscent of an open umbrella. The dome is only dimly lit with daylight
On a bright plastered surface there is a rectangular plaque with a Latin inscription in capitals, in which all three patronages of the church are listed, the Trinity, the Holy Cross and the Mother of God Mary. The inscription was apparently originally intended for an altar and reads as follows:
HEC ARA EST CONSECRATA / IN HONORE SVME ET INDIVIDVE / TRINITATIS ET CRVCIS VENE / RANDAE, ATQVE SANCTAE DEI / GENITRICIS ET VIRGINIS MARIAE
Translation: This altar is consecrated in honor of the Supreme and Undivided Trinity and the Venerable Cross, and the Holy Mother of God and Virgin Mary.
Relay choir
The two outer transept chapels are each based on a semicircle, followed by a narrow rectangle. They are the lowest of all chapels. The apses are vaulted by half domed domes followed by short barrels. Small, arched, inwardly widened windows are cut out in the apse apses. In the southern chapel there is a small passage to the neighboring choir chapel.
The narrow choir chapels flank the central choir. They have a ground plan in the form of a semicircle, which is followed by a slightly wider rectangle. The rectangular room roughly corresponds to a side aisle yoke in terms of extension, curvature and height. The apses are vaulted by half domes and have slightly larger windows than those in the neighboring chapels. The choir chapels open to the choir bay with arcades that correspond to those under the partitions of the nave.
The choir stands on the ground plan of a semicircle, the choir apse, to which a slightly wider rectangle, the choir yoke, connects. The apse is vaulted by half a domed dome, the choir bay by a semicircular barrel vault, the shape and elevation of the transept arms. The apse and choir bay are separated from each other by a circumferential back offset of the walls and the vault. A small apex chapel opens in the center of the choir apse, which is vaulted by half a dome and a piece of barrel. A somewhat squat, round-arched window with flared walls is cut out in its center. On both sides of the chapel there are slimmer and higher windows with flared walls. The rounded wall of the choir apse is equipped with a motif, as can also be found on the tower walls. The rounding is divided vertically by slim, low-rise wall pillars into five rectangular blind niches of different widths, which are delimited on the top by small blinds. The middle one contains the apex chapel, has six small arcades, the two neighboring ones contain the windows, have four arches and the two outer ones, without openings, have three arches.
In the apses there are frescoes from the 12th century that were rediscovered and restored in the 19th century, albeit in a poor state of preservation. The ascension of Christ with 12 apostles and three women is depicted on the dome of the choir apse . Christ with a cross nimbus stands upright with arms raised wide and hands open in a mandorla, which is carried up by two angels. The 15 standing people, with nimbs behind their heads, look and point with their hands upwards. The lower rim of the calotte is marked by a dark band on which a Latin inscription can be found in capitals. The wall of the choir apse is painted with different decors up to the apex chapel and the window walls. Saints are depicted in the two outer niches, the one on the left is marked with a lettering as LETHALDUS.
The other chapel apses are also painted all over with frescoes depicting scenes with saints.
- Gallery: frescoes in the relay choir
Fresco, left in choir apse
Fresco, in choir chapel
Fresco, in choir chapel
Fresco, in choir chapel
Capital cycle in the interior
The 40 carved capitals that preceded those in Autun and Vézelay are remarkable. Most of them wear antique leaf ornaments, and about half of the capitals show figural scenes from the Old and New Testaments and moral instructions. The heads and bodies are still rather clumsy and the picture compositions are schematically sculpted. At the same time it becomes clear that, alongside the portals, the medium of the capital became the most important means of expression in Romanesque art. You can see the following representations, among others:
- Several atlases in human form meet loads with their hands and heads.
- “ Pelicans ” in the shape of eagles open their chests with their beaks, on a capital you can see small young animals, with their teeth baring open, begging for food. In ancient times it was believed that the pelican fed blood to its young. In fact, the Dalmatian pelican's plumage in the throat area turns red during the breeding season, which certainly explains this myth. In Christian symbolism and iconography, therefore, the image of the pelican sacrificing blood was seen as a symbol for Jesus Christ. According to the Physiologus (2nd century), which had a great influence on early Christian iconography, the pelican uses its blood to bring back to life its young, whom it had previously killed itself. (the version that he feeds the boys with his blood is a later belittling of history). The mistakes in the representation of the birds and their young are due to the ignorance of the medieval stonecutters about the strange animals
- Men fight in pairs and tear at the beards and hair of their opponents. Long-bearded faces stick their long tongues out of their mouths on the capitals.
- Four four-legged friends (lions?) Stand in pairs in the tendril and stand up, their heads leaning against each other.
- Fight of an angel with a shield and raised sword against a monster standing in the water with its mouth wide open.
- An unclothed person writhes elegantly, obviously swimming in the water, and is threatened at both ends by monsters, whose serpentine bodies curl up and their tails interlock.
- " Daniel in the lion's den " swings over a lion and grabs his wide-open mouth with powerful teeth.
- Two people crouch on the corners of the capital in the thicket of plants and are each harassed by two rising four-legged friends (lions?).
- Four birds perch in pairs in the vegetation and peck at them.
- An erect, unclothed person stands on two legs with two torsos that have grown together at the hips, that of a man and a woman. This strange figure is framed by different people. On the far left of a person who seems threatened by a monster (lion?). He is followed by a person playing the flute, half to the right a seated person and right on the right a person who falls head down from above into the depths.
The divided person shows the creation of Eve according to Gen 2.22 EU . Then the capital should follow the theme of the (older, second) creation account: on the far left, the creation of the animals, which were initially intended as Adam's partners ( Gen 2.19 EU ), but did not fit him; the flute player would then illustrate Gen 2.21 EU (God puts Adam to sleep). On the far right, the fall would be shown, the end of the paradisiacal community. So there would be a coherent cycle to Gen 2, 18ff.
- Capital cycle
Capital, atlases
Capital, wrestlers with beards
Capital, plants are soaked
Capital, four-legged friends (lions?)
Capital, angel fights monsters
Capital, human with two snake monsters
Capital, people with four-legged friends (lions?)
Capital, birds in foliage
Capital, birds in foliage
Capital, human with 2 upper bodies and a.
Capital, human with two upper bodies, right
Capital, human with two upper bodies, left
crypt
The crypt is the oldest part of the church and has a floor plan that roughly corresponds to the staggered choir without the transept chapels. The choir bay is supported by four additional pillars made of slender columns, over which a groin vault forms the ceiling.
Portal in the southern enclosure wall of the priory
Anzy-le-Duc has a second tympanum that is located in the southern wall of the monastery. Here you can see an iconography that is completely out of the ordinary, but it is severely affected by weathering.
A round arched archivolt is embedded in a recessed wall on all sides. It stands on slender columns and is equipped with figuratively carved capitals, profiled fighters and bases. The bases are lined with what were once angular plinths and plinths, almost half a meter high.
The inner edge of the arch is accompanied by a round bar, the outer edge is delimited by a wider band with a narrow round profile. Leaf fans are set in a radial arrangement between these profiles. The rectangular door opening is delimited on both sides by the wall ends protruding behind the pillars and at the top by the lintel. At the upper ends of the reveal, cantilever consoles protrude into the opening, each of which is decorated with a dog, whose open mouth points towards the middle of the door and whose tail is curled upwards, which signals attention. The lintel and tympanum are made from a common stone slab.
The architrave, which is smooth on the underside, rests on the lateral corbels and wall ends. Its lower edge is narrowly profiled. An angular band separates the lintel and the arch field at the level of the capital warriors. The reliefs of the architrave refer to the Last Judgment . The portal to the Heavenly Jerusalem is indicated by a fantasy architecture, the elect crouch huddled together in the left half, accompanied by smaller angels. On the left, the group of shackled damned people is brought to their infernal torments by other angels, in the form of a monster entwined in several ways. The style of this relief can also be called unusual. In its snake-like mobility it ties in with the sculpture of the master Gislebertus von Autun . Only here a degree of instability has been reached that he was not yet aware of. Everything seems to sway and sway. Instead of an “edge style” one could speak of a “curve style” here.
The semicircular arched field is covered by a strong profile that is reminiscent of that of the outer archivolt of the main portal, which consists of an S-shaped, serpentine tendril with alternating leaves inserted into the wave troughs. Weathering has also done its destructive work here. The arch field is divided vertically into two halves. On the left is the adoration of the holy kings and on the right the fall of Adam and Eve. The adoration of the kings takes place in front of an arch-covered architecture in which the Blessed Mother sits on a throne facing the arriving guests and holds the baby Jesus on her lap. The three kings urge the child with their gifts, of which the foremost falls on his knees. To the right of the middle, Adam and Eve stand naked in front of a tree with a thick fruit. To the right of it a snake is winding around another tree trunk, Eva seems to imitate its windings with her body. On the right edge you can see the two of them after the Fall, covered up to their hips by bushes, their faces they hide their faces with their hands.
Immediately to the right of the edge of the portal, at the level of the capitals, there is a small rectangular, horizontal niche in which the scene of a tournament of two knights on horses is shown, who are riding at full speed towards each other.
- Gallery: Details of the southern monastery portal
Left capital
Right capital
Left fall
Fall right
Tympanum on the left; Epiphany
Tympanum right; Fall of Adam and Eve
Cantilever left
Corbel right
literature
- Thorsten Droste : Burgundy. Monasteries, castles, historic cities and the culture of viticulture in the heart of France. 3rd updated edition. DuMont Reiseverlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-7701-4166-0 , pp. 162-164.
- Matthias Hamann : The Burgundian priory church of Anzy-le-Duc and the Romanesque sculpture in Brionnais. 2 volumes. Deutscher Wissenschafts-Verlag, Würzburg 2000, ISBN 3-9806424-5-3 (also: Würzburg, University, dissertation, 1998). ( Summary )
- Rolf Tomann (Ed.): Burgundy. Architecture, art, landscape. Text by Ulrike Laule. Photographs by Achim Bednorz. Könemann, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-8290-2707-9 , pp. 232-234.
Web links
- Ste-Trinité (Anzy-le-Duc). In: arch INFORM . (Pictures and German text)
- [1] (pictures)
- ho-net.nl (images and French texts)
- romanes.org (many pictures)
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eglise Notre-Dame de l'Assomption, Anzy-le-Duc in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- ↑ Saint Lexicon
- ↑ a b Rolf Tomann (Ed.): Burgundy. Architecture, art, landscape. Text by Ulrike Laule. Photographs by Achim Bednorz. Könemann, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-8290-2707-9 , p. 232.
- ^ Thorsten Droste: Burgundy. 3rd updated edition. DuMont Reiseverlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-7701-4166-0 , p. 162: Portal.
- ^ Thorsten Droste: Burgundy. 3rd updated edition. DuMont Reiseverlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-7701-4166-0 , p. 163: Capital cycle.
- ^ Julia Droste-Hennings, Thorsten Droste: France. The southwest. The landscapes between the Massif Central, Atlantic and Pyrenees (= DuMont art travel guide ). DuMont-Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2007, ISBN 978-3-7701-6618-3 .
- ↑ Ste-Trinité (Anzy-le-Duc). In: arch INFORM .
- ^ Thorsten Droste: Burgundy. 3rd updated edition. DuMont Reiseverlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-7701-4166-0 , p. 162.
- ↑ Image from the Staffelchor ( Memento of the original from April 17th, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Rolf Tomann (Ed.): Burgundy. Architecture, art, landscape. Text by Ulrike Laule. Photographs by Achim Bednorz. Könemann, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-8290-2707-9 , pp. 232-233.
- ↑ "Pelican"
- ↑ "Pelican"
- ^ Thorsten Droste: Burgundy. 3rd updated edition. DuMont Reiseverlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-7701-4166-0 , p. 164: Second tympanum.
Coordinates: 46 ° 19 '15.5 " N , 4 ° 3' 43.9" E