Working for La Sauvegarde: an accidental discovery
The Fondation pour la Sauvegarde de l’Art Français, for which I work as a pro bono photographer, financially helps the restoration and preservation of churches built before 1800 and not otherwise protected —i.e., not listed as a Historic Landmark nor benefiting from another type of legal or regulatory protection. That means, mostly, village churches of secondary architectural and/or historical importance.
Therefore, the intrinsic power of attraction of each of those churches vary, and while most of them are, to my eye, interesting in some minor way, from time to time I make a truly memorable discovery that makes me go, “How come this one is not listed?”
That was the case when I stepped into the Saint-André church in the village of Sail-sous-Couzan in the département of Loire (old province of Forez, central France). Well, “when I stepped into the church” is not accurate, as indeed the whole nave was rebuilt in the 19th century and is, from my personal viewpoint, not at all interesting, even though I photographed it as well as I am capable of because it was my mission for La Sauvegarde.
Not the nave, no, but the transept and the whole eastern part of the church, oh yes! There, to my surprise, I discovered a genuinely Romanesque architecture and decoration, with a splendid collection of capitals, among which some even looked pre-Romanesque to me... What a find!
The church was being restored when I visited it for the first time, and I spoke with the chief restorer who, I quickly realized, had very reassuring ideas on how things should be done. She was tasked with repainting the church and was, at the time, seeking appropriate tones so that they would not clash with the Romanesque ambiance of the transept.
You will judge the results from my photos, but in my opinion, she has done a good job. The faint remaining traces of polychromy on some capitals were left alone —although that coat of paint is not Mediæval, but more likely 19th century. The capital here is Romanesque, late 1100s.
Working for La Sauvegarde: an accidental discovery
The Fondation pour la Sauvegarde de l’Art Français, for which I work as a pro bono photographer, financially helps the restoration and preservation of churches built before 1800 and not otherwise protected —i.e., not listed as a Historic Landmark nor benefiting from another type of legal or regulatory protection. That means, mostly, village churches of secondary architectural and/or historical importance.
Therefore, the intrinsic power of attraction of each of those churches vary, and while most of them are, to my eye, interesting in some minor way, from time to time I make a truly memorable discovery that makes me go, “How come this one is not listed?”
That was the case when I stepped into the Saint-André church in the village of Sail-sous-Couzan in the département of Loire (old province of Forez, central France). Well, “when I stepped into the church” is not accurate, as indeed the whole nave was rebuilt in the 19th century and is, from my personal viewpoint, not at all interesting, even though I photographed it as well as I am capable of because it was my mission for La Sauvegarde.
Not the nave, no, but the transept and the whole eastern part of the church, oh yes! There, to my surprise, I discovered a genuinely Romanesque architecture and decoration, with a splendid collection of capitals, among which some even looked pre-Romanesque to me... What a find!
The church was being restored when I visited it for the first time, and I spoke with the chief restorer who, I quickly realized, had very reassuring ideas on how things should be done. She was tasked with repainting the church and was, at the time, seeking appropriate tones so that they would not clash with the Romanesque ambiance of the transept.
You will judge the results from my photos, but in my opinion, she has done a good job. The faint remaining traces of polychromy on some capitals were left alone —although that coat of paint is not Mediæval, but more likely 19th century. The capital here is Romanesque, late 1100s.