12 July 2019

Un vigneron dans un vitrail

Don't you think? To me it looks like a vigneron — a person who grows grapes and makes wine. That's pronounced [vee-nyuh-RÕ], with the French nasal O vowel in the last syllable. We see vignerons working out in the vineyard all the time, but I've never seen one barefooted. Those are bunches of huge grapes. And vitrail [vee-TRY-yuh] is the French for "stained-glass window."


This stained-glass window was designed and fabricated in the 1950s by the artists of the atelier de Pierre Gaudin.

17 comments:

  1. I think you are right. I like this window. (Actually there is little stained glass I don't like.) Perhaps this is St. Morand who was a Benedictine...
    "Saint Morand is particularly revered in throughout the Alsace, Burgundy and Champagne regions of France, and also the Rhine region of Germany.
    St. Morand spent most of his time in Germany, and even though he was a “spoilt little rich kid” (Morand came from a wealthy family), he choose priesthood as his profession and became a Benedictine monk.
    Morand is one of the less well-known Saints, maybe for the fact that his biggest accomplishment was that he lived through Lent off a single bunch of grapes." He is one of the five patron saints of vintners.

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    1. Thanks. I didn't know any of that. I think in our area it's St. Vincent who is the patron saint of vintners, apparently at least partly because his name includes the word vin — wine.

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    1. I like this window more that some of the others. Maybe it's because it has less dark red glass in it and more blues.

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  3. What is interesting, and would confirm we're talking about a vigneron here, is that the man is holding in his other hand a serpe (pruning hook ?) ready to cut another bunch of grapes. French Wikipedia at serpe says it was the favorite tool used in the vineyards!

    Or it could represent Saint Martin, born in Hungary, who is said to have introduced vine cultivation in Touraine, or Vincent, saint patron of vignerons.

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    1. I hadn't thought about St. Martin. Good idea. Fr. serpe is apparently "bill hook" or "billhook" in English. In the U.S. it's also called a "fascine knife" — I think I would have spontaneously called it a "pruning knife." Look at the AskDefine page for it.

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    2. Did you know, if you can believe French Wikipedia, that the word chapel comes from the room, in a church may be in Amiens, I guess, where what was left of St. Martin's cape was exposed to the fidels' veneration?

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    3. I did know that. The French government needs to appoint experts to an Académie Wikipédia and punish them if they include "fake" information in their articles, don't you think?

      The CNRTL says, entre autres: Du lat. vulg. capella (dimin. de capa « manteau à capuchon »), attesté en lat. médiév. en 679 pour désigner le manteau de St Martin, relique conservée à la cour des rois francs (D. Merov. no49 ds Nierm. : In oraturio nostro super cappella domni Martine), v. Naz, s.v. cape de St Martin, le mot ayant p. ext. désigné le trésor des reliques royales, puis l'oratoire du Palais royal où était conservée la relique (788 ds Nierm.; v. aussi Naz, s.v. chapelle); d'où p. ext. d'une part, « oratoire rattaché à un domaine privé, église non pourvue des pleins droits paroissiaux » (801-810 ds Nierm.) d'où « bénéfice attaché à une chapelle » (av. 842 Dipl. Karoli M. ds Mittellat. W. s.v., 202, 62); d'autre part « chancellerie » (794 ds Du Cange t. 2, p. 117c); enfin « objets de culte, vases, livres liturgiques » (811 ds Nierm.); « clercs chargés du culte au Palais royal » (972, ibid.). Bbg. Goug. Mots t. 1, 1962, p. 21; t. 2, 1966, p. 20. − Schiley (P.). A Chappelle in the Miracles de Nostre Dame. Mod. Lang. Notes 1943, t. 58, pp. 493-497 (s.v. chappelle).

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    4. Don't get me started on this subject!

      Wikipedia should be fine if only they let knowledgeable people correct crying mistakes.

      Somebody created a Wikipedia page about my grandfather that is ripe with mistakes. I, who knows more about my own grandfather than that somebody, cannot correct those mistakes!

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    5. Je lis sur cette page que "n'importe qui peut modifier" l'article sur Charles-Henri Michel. Est-ce faux ?

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  4. Looks like a wine cask under one foot and a basket of grapes under the other. Definitely looks like a vigneron.

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  5. The more I look at this window, the more I like it!

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  6. Is it a dog next to the right arm of the man?

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    1. It looks like an owl to me. The window is very interesting to ponder.

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    2. I like this window too. Another one tomorrow...

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What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?