Notre-Dame Cathedral of Le Puy-en-Velay – Mural Paintings

Medieval paintings undoubtedly once covered a large part of the walls of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Le Puy-en-Velay. There are still some fine examples on the west porch and on the north arm of the transept. In the latter, on the west pilaster, set above the alter of the Virgin and serving to protect it is a painting of the hieratic figure of Saint Michael with his piercing gaze, a painting more than five meters in height. He is wearing the typical costume of Byzantine emperors with the loros, an imperial scarf adorned with gold plates and precious stones. He dominates a red dragon underfoot, piercing it with his lance, held in his right hand. This image develops all the characteristics of the traditional Byzantine canon. There has been some speculation about the role of the bishop of Le Puy, Adhémar de Monteil, who left in 1096 as the spiritual leader of the first Crusades, preached by Pope Urban II. Yet this image, dated around 1100, is more of a testimony to the first wave of Byzantine influence to have taken hold of the West, particularly apparent in the paintings of the Rhône Valley all along the routes leading to southern Italy and Auvergne. It was also from Byzantine Southern Italy that the cult of the Archangel Michael came to be adopted by the Lombards and spread to the whole of the West during the Middle Ages.

The Byzantine influence continued to manifest itself in the later paintings from the early 13th century situated in the western porch. To the north is a representation of The Virgin and Child and to the south a Transfiguration.  The first theme is inspired by the Byzantine tradition, as much in iconography as in style. The Virgin, or Theotokos, is here represented as the seat of Wisdom that presents her Son. Frontal and hieratic, she is clothed in purple robes, the imperial colour par excellence, and is seated on an ornately decorated throne. Two angels frame the scene, while the prophets Jeremy and Ezekiel hold speech scrolls with texts that relate to the Incarnation of the Saviour. The second theme, the Transfiguration, which is quite rare in the West, is a central feast of the Orthodox liturgy because it attests to the double nature of Christ, human and divine. The iconography takes up traditional Byzantine canons[1]: the Christ in his mandorla is at the summit of the Tabor Mount; he irradiates Moses and Elijah with rays of light who bow before him on a blue background. To the right, Saint James is struck by thunder and to the right only half of Saint Peter’s body emerges from the ground, while John kneels in the centre. This theophanic episode which draws from the Gospel of Matthew is bathed in light[2]. While rare in the West, the choice of featuring Saint James speaks for itself, considering how important Le Puy was in the journey to Compostela.

These two images belong to the second wave of Byzantine influence and are marked by the late-Komnenos period of the late 12th century: blue background, horizontality, expressivity, a sense of the model through the interplay of highlights. Italy played a fundamental role as the connecting thread between the East and the West, witnessed, most notably, by the mosaics of Monreale in Sicily of the late-Komnenos style that had such a widespread impact on the medieval West around the 1200s. The provenance of the artist of Le Puy is not known; whatever his origin, however, it is clear that he was fully versed in Byzantine painting or at least was exposed to models from the Eastern tradition.

[2] “And was transformed before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light” (Matthew 17:2).