Mural Paintings in the Cluniac Chapel of Berze-la-Ville

by RicardMN Photography

Title

Mural Paintings in the Cluniac Chapel of Berze-la-Ville

Artist

RicardMN Photography

Medium

Photograph

Description

Mural Paintings in the Cluniac Chapel of Berze-la-Ville, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France.

A unique example of Burgundian Cluniac mural paintings from the 1100s, the painted decorative programme in the chapel of the ancient priory in Berzé-la-Ville (also known as the ‘Monks’ Chapel’) was discovered under a layer of limewash in 1887. This ensemble, which is of a remarkable quality, attests to a Cluniac style with Italo-Byzantine influences and therefore underlines the close links that the abbots of Cluny maintained with Rome and Monte Cassino, the source of the Benedictine Order, which maintained links with the Byzantine Empire.

Located ten or so kilometres from the abbey, the villa in Berzé-la-Ville served as a place for the abbots of Cluny to spend their vacations and was particularly appreciated by Abbot Hugh of Semur, who owned the property and bequeathed it to Cluny at his death. Abbot Hugh (1049–1109) was responsible for the reconstruction of the Abbey of Cluny (the third abbey at Cluny), which was for many centuries the largest church in Christendom. Unfortunately, it was almost completely destroyed at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The construction of the chapel of Berzé-la-Ville is attributed to this abbot and builder, and the paintings—they have a very distinctive style that distinguishes them from surviving examples of French Roman mural paintings—may be the work of artists who had come to the Burgundian abbey.

The painted decorations in the chapel, which seem to have been confined to the apse during the Roman period, are arranged in three sections. In the lower section, busts of saints seem to emerge from behind a hanging that covers the lower half of their bodies. Inscriptions identify them as saints of eastern and western origin. (Description from qantara-med.org).

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January 2nd, 2020

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