St. Madeleine Church at Vezelay: Romanesque architecture and sculpture

St. Madeleine Church

Roman Architecture

Romanesque art and architecture was the true depiction of mediaeval Christian art and was in full boom in the 12th century. The term Romanesque, points to the principal source of the style and the buildings of the Roman Empire. In addition to classical elements, however, Roman church architecture is derived from components of Byzantine and Eastern origin.

French Architecture

French Romanesque architecture is characterized by (French Architecture) 1 various vaulted styles. Provencal churches have pointed domes and facades decorated with tiers of wall arcades filled with sculpture. In the Auvergne region in central France, architects built churches containing a long choir with side aisles and, around the semicircular sanctuary, an arcaded ambulatory semicircular aisle) with radiating chapels. In Burgundy the barrel-vaulted, three-aisled basilica was highly developed.

Norman architects, influenced by Lombardian methods, created an original style with groined vaults supported by flying buttresses, and facades with two high, flanking towers."

St. Madeleine Church

St.Madeleine or St. Mary Magdalene is the most colossal and dignified church in the village of France, called Vezelay which is a work of Romanesque architecture. It is one of the most profound Romanesque churches built in the 12th century with the then traditional style of sculpture and architecture. It was a revolutionary time for the Catholic preachers, believers and the subjects as the Christians were spreading throughout the Europe like wild fire in the forest and also the crusades were being fought against Muslims the main rivals, so that Roman Catholics can dominate as much as possible.

The spaciousness and hugeness of the St. Madeleine church really strikes fear and awe in the heart of the pilgrims, natives etc. Priests and clerics used to preach in such an emphatic style that the subjects had real influence on their mind set and were intoxicated by the pictures, the symbols, the architecture, the art and the echoing and heavy sounds of the church and found great relief when they paid homage to the church as much as possible, because of the honorable feelings set by the church and its besetting environment.

The great abbey church of Sainte-Madeleine,

Vezelay: The Great Romanesque Church) 2 or Mary

Magdalene, at Vezelay in Burgundy, France, is one of the wonders of the medieval world. Begun in 1120 in the Romanesque style, it was finished in the next century in the Gothic style. As this book's specially commissioned photographs reveal, its remarkable beauty results from its unique blending of Romanesque and Gothic sections -- and from its sublime sculpture. The massive semicircles of stone that crowns the church's main doors and the capitals of the interior columns, shown here in numerous close-up details, are richly carved with figures from the Bible and Christian legend. The illuminating text includes captions that guide readers through the church, sculpture by sculpture, truly bringing this magnificent abbey alive."

VEZELAY, (Vezelay)3 a village of France, in the department of Yonne, 10 m. W.S.W. Of Avallon by road.

Its population, which was over 10,000 in the middle ages, was 524 in 1906. It is situated on the summit and slopes of hill on the left bank of the Cure, and owes its renown to the Madeleine, one of the largest and most beautiful basilicas in France.

The Madeleine dates from the 12th century and was skillfully restored by Viollet-le-Duc. It consists of a narthex, with nave and aisles; a triple nave, without triforium, entered from the narthex by three doorways; transepts; and choir with triforium. The oldest portion of the church is the nave, constructed about 1125. Its groined vaulting is supported on wide, low, semicircular arches, and on piers and columns, the capitals of which are embellished with sculptures full of animation. The narthex was probably built about 1140. The central entrance, leading from it to the nave, is one of the most remarkable features of the church; it consists of two doorways, divided by a central pier supporting sculptured figures, and is surmounted by a tympanum carved with a representation of Christ bestowing the Holy Spirit upon His apostles. The choir and transepts are later in date than the rest of the church, which they surpass in height and grace of proportion. They resemble the eastern portion of the church of St. Denis, and were doubtless built in place of a Romanesque choir damaged in fire in 1165. A crypt beneath the choir is perhaps the relic of a previous Romanesque church which was destroyed by fire in 1120. The west facade of the Madeleine has three portals; that in the centre is divided by a pier and surmounted by a tympanum sculptured with a bas-relief of the Last Judgment. The upper portion of this front belongs to the 13th century. Only the lower portion of the northernmost of the two flanking towers is left, and of the two towers which formerly rose above the transept that to the north has disappeared.

The history of Vezelay is bound up with its

Benedictine abbey, which was founded in the 9th century under the influence of the abbey of Cluny. This dependence was soon shaken off by the younger monastery, and the acquisition of the relics of St. Magdalene, soon after its foundation, began to attract crowds of pilgrims, whose presence enriched both the monks and the town which had grown up round the abbey and acknowledged its supremacy.

At the beginning Of the 12th century the exactions of the abbot Aerated, who Required money to defray the expense of the reconstruction Of the church, and the refusal of the monks to grant political Independence to the citizens, resulted in an insurrection in Which the abbey was burnt and the abbot murdered. During the next fifty years three similar revolts occurred, fanned by the counts of Nevers, who wished to acquire the suzerainty over Vezelay for themselves. The monks were, however, aided by the influence both of the Pope and of Louis VII., and the townsmen were unsuccessful on each occasion.

During the i2th century Vezelay was the scene of the preaching of the second crusade in 1146, and of the assumption of the cross in 1190 by Richard Cceur de Lion and Philip Augustus. The influence of the abbey began to diminish in 1280 when the Benedictines of St. Maximin in Provence affirmed that the true body of St. Magdalene had been discovered in their church; its decline was precipitated during the wars of religion of the i6th century, when Vezelay suffered great hardships."

Sculpture

The first important monuments of St. Madeleine sculpture were created in the second decade of the 12th century and the final decades of the 12th cent. The primary source of artistic patronage was provided by the monastic institutions, for which sculptors executed large relief carvings for the decoration of church portals and richly ornate capitals for cloisters. Sculpture of St. Madeleine produced an art of extraordinary ornamental complexity, ecstatic in expression, and abounding in seemingly endless combinations of zoomorphic, vegetal, and abstract motifs.

The themes portrayed on tympanums of St. Madeleine church enunciated the awesome majesty of Christ as ruler and judge of the universe. The sculpture of the church is demonic natured and quality animated.

Metalwork

Another aspect of the St. Madeleine church was the production of metalwork objects, of which many outstanding examples, such as crucifixes, reliquary shrines, and candlesticks, are still preserved in church treasuries.

Fresco

Fresco painting has been more adversely affected by the accidents of time, but several large cycles, as well as numerous other fragments of St. Madeleine's wall painting, have survived. The large and relatively unbroken expanses of wall space within Romanesque buildings presented an excellent ground for the work of the painter, and the basic forms of St. Madeleine fresco painting is typically monumental in scale and bold in coloristic effect.

Manuscript Illumination

Manuscript illumination of St. Madeleine church was characterized by a vast enlargement of the traditional fund of pictorial imagery. The Psalter, as in the early

Middle Ages, continued to be the most widely read volume for religious use, and numerous sumptuously illuminated copies of this work were executed. The scriptorium in the church also produced large editions of the Bible, often extending to several volumes.

A splendid example of such a work is the Winchester Bible, executed in the course of several generations and decorated with numerous scenes from the Old and the New

Testaments. Hence, St. Madeleine manuscripts are enlivened by elaborate and highly inventive initial letters.

Conclusion

The somewhat isolated (Vezelay, Burgundy) 5, picturesque village of Vezelay is on a peak, with one main street, rue St.-Etienne, climbing steeply to its summit and its medieval basilica. Its easy to ignore this tiny village, but don't: hidden under its narrow ruelles (small streets) are Romanesque cellars that once sheltered pilgrims and are now opened to visitors by homeowners in summer.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, the celebrated Basilique

Ste-Madeleine was one of the focal points of Christendom.

Pilgrims poured in to see the relics of St. Mary Magdalene in the crypt) before setting off on the great trek to the shrine of St. James at Santiago de Compostela, in northwest

Spain. By the mid 13th century the authenticity of St.

Mary's relics was in doubt; others had been discovered in Provence. The basilica's decline continued until the French

Revolution. Today the basilica, under the patrimony of UNESCO, has recaptured some of its glory and is considered to be one of France's most prestigious

Romanesque showcases.

Significance of the Church

Shortly after its foundation in the 9th century

Vezelay, Church and Hill) 6, the Benedictine abbey of Vezelay acquired the relics of St. Mary Magdalene and since then it has been an important place of pilgrimage. St. Bernard preached the Second Crusade there in 1146 and Richard the Lion-Hearted and Philip II Augustus met there to leave for the Third Crusade in 1190. With its sculpted capitals and portal, the Madeleine of Vezelay - a 12th- century monastic church - is a masterpiece of Burgundian

Romanesque art and architecture.

On to Vezelay and the church of St. Mary

Magdalene (Pilgrimage)7, the most beautiful and spiritually inspiring church I have ever seen. Its exterior, reconstructed after damage during the French revolution (until this trip I had no idea of the anger against the church in the French revolution - it was like Pol Pot of Cambodia against the educated) gives no clue to its interior. One enters a great double cubed enclosed porch, with a gallery above from which the priests harangued the pilgrims and heard their confessions before they were allowed into the main body of the church. There is a tympanum over the great wooden doors, of Christ in Glory and the last judgment; the garments of the elect are blowing in the wind of the Holy

Spirit. Below is the spreading of the gospel to the ends of the earth, including to the Africans whose ears were so big that they used them as blankets for sleeping.

Within is a soaring Romanesque nave, whose columns began to bend inward so the outer aisles were constructed for support - in later construction these became the flying buttresses. The apse is early gothic. The entire effect, partly because of the inward bowing and partly because of the gothic apse, is intensely uplifting. The inner portal still has remnants of the original bright painting which must also have adorned the famous capitals depicting scenes of the old and new testament. In the crypt there is a chapel to the Blessed Sacrament and opposite, the reliquary of the bones of St. Mary Magdalene in an ark-like, glass enclosed reliquary. The monastery that was next to the church was destroyed, again in the French revolution, but there is a great view of the countryside. The town retains its ancient character and we bought wine and cheese for cocktails.