Mural Paintings of the Ferrande Tower

The Ferrande Tower in Pernes-les-Fontaine is famous for its late thirteenth-century frescoes decorating the hall on its third floor, which cover a surface of some twenty-five square meters. The frescoes recount a true page in history: the battles led by Charles of Anjou in southern Italy against the Ghibellines, backed by the Hohenstaufen, the sworn enemies of the Papacy. Manfred, the blood heir of the Emperor Frederick II, had a firm foothold in the Kingdom of Sicily, of which the Holy See would have liked to have full control. Thus, in 1263, Urban VI offered the crown of Sicily to Charles, Count of Anjou and Provence. And hence, a Franco-Provençale army descended on Italy and on 26 February, 1266, the French army led by Charles crushed Manfred’s army in Beneventum.

The major scenes are dedicated to the cavalry battles. On the upper register of the south facing wall two squadrons affront each other with lances. The horse at the head of the group to the left is draped in a white garment decorated with Fleurs-de-Lys and the coat of arms of the Angevins. Just below this episode can be seen a singular battle: two horsemen in full gallop charge at each other with lances. The one on the left, belonging to the Angevin side, wears a coat of armour and a red coat of arms on a shield, and the one on the right a fasciated shield that can be seen again in the upper register portraying the army of the Ghibellines. The lance of the horseman to the left cuts right through the neck of his adversary and comes out the other side broken and the cavalier is thrown from his horse. To the right of the helmet of the victorious soldier can be read an inscription, BE[…], undoubtedly in reference to Beneventum.

This scene can be compared to the sculpture on the lintel of the Angouleme Cathedral (12^th century), taken from an episode of The Song of Roland: the battle between the Archbishop Turin and Abime the heathen, standard bearer of Marsile, the Muslim king of Saragossa. Mounted on a particularly sturdy horse, the Christian knight charges at his enemy and strikes him a terrible blow with his over-sized lance. The heathen is literally skewered.   We will note certain similarities in the iconography with the painting in the Ferrande Tower: the head hanging on the left shoulder, the same distortion of the bust, the foot that has slipped out of the stirrup, the raised leg indicating that the enemy is about to fall off his horse.

It is interesting to note that in the paintings of the Ferrande Tower the Ghibellines are associated with the Saracens. The expedition against Manfred’s army was referred to as a crusade by the Pope and the Ghibellines were viewed as bitter enemies. Let us remember that in this region, the Norman, backed by the Papacy, had succeeded in driving out the Arabs from Sicily two centuries earlier. We thus come upon the same aim at both Angouleme and Pernes-les-Fontaine to render the Christian knight in a particularly favourable light; hence he is clothed in a coat of mail and rides a magnificent and sturdy horse, decorated with the fine livery of a breastplate and saddle bows. On the lintel at Angouleme, the only element that truly distinguishes the Saracen is his rondache, which, as Quitterie Cazes has pointed out, is very little. The realisation of the tympanum of Angouleme undoubtedly echoed current events as Saragossa was seized in 1118, but “nothing in the representation of the Muslim shows any true or direct knowledge of the lands that were nevertheless close to Islam”[1]. Thus, as much in the Ferrande Tower as in Angouleme, it is, above all, the enemy who is being targeted; whether he be a heathen or a Ghibelline, the Church with its dogma could promote the struggle against heretics or any other form of power that might be dangerous to the Papacy.