15 January 2018

Cunault : peintures murales




The Michelin Guide Vert mentions that there are a few 15th century wall paintings remaining in the church at Cunault. Here are some I took photos of on my last visit there.



I don't really know anything about these paintings, but there must have been many more of them decorating the walls and columns of the church all those centuries ago.



In the mid-19th century the church was classified as a monument historique by the French government. A report from that time describes the church as privately owned and in pitiful condition.



A famously miserly and wealthy man named Mr. Dupuis-Charlemagne, who lived in nearby Saumur, owned the church building, which he used as a warehouse to store wood and other stuff. He had two "doors" — crude openings, really — cut through the north and south walls of the church for the convenience of his workers.



It's amazing that any of these paintings survived the neglect and mistreatment the church suffered over the centuries. The so-called "restorations" of the nineteenth-century often did much damage to churches like Notre-Dame de Cunault as well.

9 comments:

  1. They look like fabulous wall paintings.

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  2. The paintings are quite unusual and lovely! I've never seen any quite like them. Poor Mary and those bleeding boobs lol- she usually has a bleeding heart. I guess the church was built to last and I'm glad it survived the neglect.

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    1. Evelyn, I think it might be Saint Agatha of Sicily.

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    2. Evelyn and CHM, that site I linked to about St. Christopher says the saint with the blood stains on his chest is St. Sebastian. The one in the top photo is St. Germain.

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  3. Those really are kind of odd paintings, but incredible to see that they are still there.

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  4. Interesting the gentleman in the last painting has eastern garb with a turban.

    Remember the amateur restoration of the wall paintings in a church in Spain?

    https://www.pri.org/stories/2012-08-25/amateur-restoration-botches-jesus-painting-spain

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    1. I'm almost sure that the last painting represents Saint Christopher with Christ on his shoulders. It is reminiscent of some statuary at Moissac.

      Yes, I remember seeing that botched Jesus painting! Restoration should be left to professionals since it is so tricky.

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  5. I thought of that botched Spanish restoration as soon as Ken commented on the ones in Cunault.
    It occurs to me that in their "original" state, those churches must have been not only very grand in architecture but bright and cheery and enlivening with all those brightly-colored pictures. Useful, I suppose, if most of the congregants were illiterate.

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