Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Wednesday 10 August 2011

Cluniac art at Berzé-la-Ville


Regular readers will know that one of my continuing interests is in the Cluniac tradition. Today I was pointed by a post on the Medieval Religion discussion group to some pieces about the Cluniac priory of Berzé-la-Ville, near to Cluny, and noted for its spectacular, well preserved Romanesque wall paintings. They were rediscovered under whitewash in 1887. They appear to have been the work of Abbot St. Hugh (d.1109).

photo

The chapel at Berzé-la-Ville

Image: vdbann'sphotostream on Flickr


There is an article about the paintings and their artistic inspiration here, and to mark the fact that today is the feast of St Lawrence here is the painting of his martyrdom from Berzé:



Berzé gives us some idea of how the great church of Cluny and its daughter houses would have been decorated.


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