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Saturday 5 April 2014

Frescos and Spring Crazy Block



St Meard de Dronne is the next village to us, down in the valley. This morning we were given a guided tour of the church and the recently exposed Frescos.

St Meard (also known as St Medard) evidently was the Bishop of Noyon in the early 6th century. It is believed that there has been a church dedicated to St Meard on this site since those times as several sarcophagi dating from then have been excavated there.

The reason for our visit was to look at the fresocs in the apse.


It is thought that the fresos were painted around 1500 and that the whole of the interior of the church would have been covered in paintings. However, just 30 years later the paintings were deemed to be blashphemous and attempts were made to destroy them.


In this picture you can clearly see the scratches in the stone made by farm implements in an attempt to destroy the picture. However it seems that this was taking too long and so the pictures were then covered up with chalk. Fortunately for us it means that the pictures were preserved and over the last ten years money has been raised and these paintings have been exposed. It will now take more fundraising before the next section of the church can be cleaned.

On either side of the apse are depicted views of heaven and hell!

Here is heaven showing souls escaping from their graves and queing up at the gates, then St Peter letting them in.


This is hell!


There is also a Last Supper


and Palm Sunday



It is not known who the artists were - it is likely that they were a group who went from church to church in the area. Also the quality of the artwork varies considerably.

This was a very interesting visit and I hope that it is not too long before the rest of the Frescos in the church are exposed.

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Linking up with Carli at Good Earth Quilting here is my completed spring crazy block.


I loved doing those little bees and playing with my new collection of silk ribbons.

Hope you are having a good weekend

Lin

11 comments:

  1. Wow! The frescoes are just so incredible. Thanks for sharing the photos. Your spring crazy block is just so pretty. Perfect stitching. I am stalled on my blocks. I haven't finished my winter one yet. I need a kick to get going and get it finished so I can start the Spring one.

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  2. Those frescoes are amazing...thank you for the tour. Your spring block is lovely...all those sweet flowers and the cute bees.

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  3. What an interesting morning you had. The Church looks amazing and maybe worth a visit at some point. Is it open regularly? Your crazy patchwork is wonderful. I love the colours. Janet

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  4. What an incredible sight to see these lovely paintings , isn't it wonderful they are uncovered . Your crazy block is beautiful !

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  5. Hi Lin thanks for sharing the Fresco history truly fasinating. Your crazy springblock looks lovely your embriodery is beautiful. x:)

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  6. Your fresco history is lovely. Your crazy quilt block is gorgeous hugs judy

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  7. It's so wonderful that those fresco's have been discovered - and preserved so well quite by accident! thanks for sharing those pics Lin, they're wonderful...

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  8. Very interesting post about the church tour your made and the frescoes. Thanks for sharing that with us Lin. Your spring block looks wonderful especially the bees :)

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  9. Thank you Lin for sharing those wonderful fresco's, very interesting. You spring block looks absolutely gorgeous. I love the silk ribbons and the bees.

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  10. Hello Lin,

    Amazing artwork, thanks for sharing them with us. Lovely block, my book arrived this week!

    Happy days.
    Bev.

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  11. Such interesting art and I can't help but wonder what they found offensive about it? What a shame that they were partially destroyed. What a lovely block! That looks like time spent so happily and peacefully, stitching away :-) I can see why you like it so much.
    Have a great weekend,
    Judy

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