The Chancel in the Collegiate Church of Saint-Pierre in Chauvigny

It is not known exactly when the Collegiate Church of Saint-Pierre in Chauvigny was built. Although there is mention of a church in this location in around 1030[1], the current edifice was probably built at a later date. Several theories about the edifice's date of construction have been advanced and revised. They place its construction anywhere between the last third of the eleventh century and the first third of the thirteenth century[2]. Renovated in the nineteenth century, the church is now entirely painted: the capitals have been painted red, the columns have been decorated with artificial marble, and artificial joints have been added to the coating that covers part of the original paintings[3]. This church is primarily known for the sculptures in the chancel and the monsters represented there are often cited as examples of the eastern influences in Romanesque art[4].

This church, which is 45 m long and has a significant transept, terminates in a semicircular central apse surrounded by a walkway that provides access to three apsidioles. The chancel has a three-storey elevation: large arcades, blind arches, and high windows. The colonnettes in the blind arches are decorated with vegetal capitals and animals facing each other or back to back: griffins, birds, and upside-down lions dominate this area between the high windows that light up the apse and the large arcades. This bestiary is completed by culs-de-lampe at the crossing decorated with a mermaid as ‘mistress of the animals’ and lions with foliage motifs issuing from their mouths.

The chancel is the most richly decorated part of the edifice. The capitals that surmount the six columns of the ambulatory and the two demi-columns engaged in the pillars of the crossing of the transept form an original and coherent iconographic programme. Scenes from the life of Christ are represented there with episodes from the Apocalypse, and there’s an exceptional representation of a bestiary: three ways of narrating the Christian narrative of fault and redemption.

In the axis of the nave, two capitals are particularly noteworthy: two winged lions with pointed beards and the Adoration of the Magi produce all the dramatic tension of the whole programme. The lions are each carved on two faces joined at the head, using a method of representation studied by Claude Lévi-Strauss, and known as ‘split representation’[5]. Their powerful claws are firmly gripping the astragal. More surprisingly, their tails end in a hand that fits over a wrinkled and grimacing face protome projecting from the corner of the bell. The prophet Daniel dreamt of a similar monster in the Bible (Daniel, 7: 2–4). The exegetes[6] used this winged lion to symbolize Babylon.

Four biblical scenes are represented on the other capital in the axis. The Virgin, surrounded by three Magi bearing many gifts, has the infant Jesus on her knee; two fingers on his right hand are extended in blessing. The Madonna and Child is represented facing the viewer, in a hieratic way that underlines the dignity of the two figures chosen by the hand of God emerging from the thick clouds. This scene is surmounted by one of the most famous signatures in Romanesque art: ‘GOFRIDUS ME FECIT’. Like Unbertus in Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, the presumed author of this work signed it in the most visible place. Around this Epiphany are represented the Annunciation, the Presentation at the Temple, and the temptation of Jesus in the desert.

Towards the north a chaotic world of strange creatures is depicted. There’s a winged creature with a long neck between two back-to-back winged sirens. On the capital’s other face there’s a figure with four symmetrical legs (two pairs of legs) who’s being bitten on the arms by two lions. This may be a representation of the double and ambiguous nature of the sirens, which is described in the bestiaries. On the same capital, facing in the direction of the ambulatory, an amphisbaena holding a globe between its feet is biting the head of one of the two lions back to back on the other face.

Towards the north, there are also eight winged quadrupeds with inordinately long necks and human heads with Phyrigian caps. Some authors call them sphinx, and manticores[7]—ferocious monsters that feed on human flesh—can also be seen. Finally, on the northernmost capital there’s a representation of Satan holding an object marked with a cross against is chest, and surrounded by two demonic hybrid creatures.

On the capitals located to the south there are representations of men being attacked by monsters. Dragons and huge birds are tearing human bodies to pieces. These menacing creatures are located either side of a capital carved with four historiated scenes: the Annunciation to the Shepherds, the Lamentation of Isaiah over the Ruins of Babylon (the scene is designated by the inscription BABILONIA DESERTA), and the Weighing of Souls. On the last face there’s an extravagantly dressed woman with long loose hair, holding a bowl and a small perfume pot with her fingers. This figure is referred to by an inscription as ‘BABILONIA MAGNA MERETRIX’ (Babylon the Great Prostitute).

The capitals that recount the story of Salvation also share strong stylistic similarities: broad faces with heavy features, disproportionate hands and faces, and the folds in the clothing are marked by a fold made between two incisions. Viewed as archaic by some and as a piece of popular art by others, this sculpture focuses on the gestures and attributes that characterize the figures to better fire the imagination. Thus, the underlying theme and its representation unite to convey the symbolic message of the sculpted bestiaries.

[2] See in particular L’art des pays de l’ouest, F. Eygun, Grenoble, 1965, p.90 and Haut-Poitou roman, R. Oursel, La Pierre qui Vire, 1975, pp. 207–231.

[3]Notice sommaire sur Chauvigny-de-Poitou et ses monuments, Charles Tranchant, Paris, 1884, pp. 34–38.

[4] See for example Les chapiteaux de Saint-Pierre de Chauvigny, Nicole Coatanoan, Monaco, 1959.

[5] Anthropologie structurale, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Paris, 1958, p. 269 and s.

[6] See in particular the commentaries in La Bible de Jérusalem, éditions du Cerf, Paris, 2000, p. 1554.

[7]There is a very good example of this monster on the column of the Zodiac found in Souvigny.