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!
Contrary to the one featured in the previous photo, this capital screams Carolingian, both because of its shape and of its motif, an archaic-looking angel with wings extended like the orants (praying figures) would extend their arms.
This is a lovely naive carving that has come to us through the centuries. I’d say it is from the 800s and was obviously part of an earlier church that existed on this site before the Romanesque one was built. Such an image sends us back traveling in time to the very first moments of Christianity in the province of Forez...
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!
Contrary to the one featured in the previous photo, this capital screams Carolingian, both because of its shape and of its motif, an archaic-looking angel with wings extended like the orants (praying figures) would extend their arms.
This is a lovely naive carving that has come to us through the centuries. I’d say it is from the 800s and was obviously part of an earlier church that existed on this site before the Romanesque one was built. Such an image sends us back traveling in time to the very first moments of Christianity in the province of Forez...