SUMMARY

MORVILLEZ Eric, The Apse-Lined Room of St-Rustice Villa (Haute-Garonne) and its Marine Scenery.

In 1833, a large mosaic exhibiting a marine scene was discovered at St-Rustice, near Toulouse. Beyond a number of iconographical questions, this pavement raises the problem of the scenery themes and of the possible function(s) of this apse-lined area. The scenery permits to identify the particular figure of St-Rustice Ocean god and underlines his original emphasis ahead of four putti holding a background-tapistry. On this pavement dating from the end of IVth C. or the beginning of the Vth C. AC, inscriptions identify each god picture : these are the cues for this unique document which will illustrate the mythological learning taste of the South-Western Gallic Upper Classes.

CAZES Quitterie and ARRAMOND J-C., Excavations in the Site of "Musée St-Raymond" in Toulouse.

Excavations undertaken during the years 1994 to 1996 in the underground of the "Musée St-Raymond", nearby the St-Sernin basilica, provided more evidence for the potentialities of a site which was already known as important. A part of the Antiquity necropolis, some remains of the XIth C. hospital and of the XIIIth C. college are the major findings reported in this paper.

BACCRABÈRE Georges, Tolosan XIVth C. Ceramics from the Old "Recollets" Area.

From a water well in Achille-Viadieu street, a number of samples of tolosan earthenwares were digged out, the material dating as a rule from the XIVth C. The list includes cooking earthenwares as pots and pans, tablewares as over-handled jugs and jars. One of the jugs was glazed, another pot was painted. A rare jug sample was made of a one-piece turned log.

CRANGA Françoise and CRANGA Yves, Snail in Southern France : an iconographic Approach.

A double iconographic approach is suggested by the peculiarities of the animal, as illustrated by a corpus of pictures : supports and sceneries are decorated by the formal plasticity of the snail ; on the other hand, its ambivalent nature is enlarging up the meaning of the pictures with a strong and long-bearing symbolic size. This new reading is enforced by a deliberately trans-disciplinary approach of the anthropozoologic problem.

HENG Michèle, The Nay Square House, the so-called "Hôtel de la Reine Jeanne d'Albret" : a Reappraisal of the Subject.

The Nay (Pyrénées Atlantiques) "Maison Carrée" is a mansion dating from the second half of the XVIth C. It was classified as a historical monument in l862. Its public purchase in 1990 allowed a partial study : indeed, it would deserve a monography, since a number of archiv problems (connected to its first landlord, a pastel-trader merchant), datation and style questions are still far from being clarified. It seems that the Nay Square House has not been submitted to any irreversible damage, according to the restoration report.

COSTA Georges, Pierre Levesville and the Reconstruction of the Nîmes Cathedral.

The first contract for the cathedral reconstruction was concluded in 1610. However, the defects of the work required many assessments, as soon as 1611. The 1614 assessment was due to Pierre Levesville, an Orleanian architect living in Toulouse, and another master-contractor and architect Didier Laguiole of Beziers. The major influence of P. Levesville is obvious in their reconstruction project. As the new building was nearly completed in 1621, it was again destroyed by the Protestants.

TOLLON Bruno and PRIN Maurice, An Unpublished Architect Project for the Capitol Front : Toulouse and Rome during the XVIIth Century.

Two unpublished documents will clarify the history of this monument. A drawing shows the Capitol front in its 1575 shape with the 1671 new design of its gate.The second document drawn at the same scale is ascribed to Rivalz, the City architecte. It measures up to the future front place, scheduled as soon as l676. The project style illustrates his fondness for the roman models : the country-like sill, the fronton-windows, the statue-adorned attic. The sophisticated iconography of the statues is completing the "Salle des Illustres" and fits with the ever-living "Palladia Tolosa" tradition.

MONTAGNES Bernard O.P., The Carved Work of Michel Beaujean for the Rosary Brotherhood of Toulouse (1676).

A book published in Toulouse in 1676 by the Provencal Dominican Jean-Vincent Bernard was illustrated by the Tolosan carver Michel Beaujean (1638-1717). This carver created an original iconographic corpus, twenty-six different plates of which have been recovered : eleven of these are directly related to the written commentary and fifteen others picture the Dominican characters associated to the Rosary. Some carvings illustrate a number of truly odd Tolosan or southerner topics. Jacques Simonin, the carver of a diploma for the same brotherhood in 1690 was inspired by his predecessor’s work.

PUJALTE Marie-Luce, A XVIIIth C. Mansion in Toulouse : "l'Hôtel de Nupces".

Land register and notary act examination provided evidence to classify the "Hôtel de Nupces" as an XVIIIth C. tolosan mansion. The building was adapted to the local tradition since it was made almost exclusively of bricks : furthermore its remarkable classicism and beautiful wrought iron decoration are most surprising. This wondrous witness of its epoch has been in danger of disappearing in the XXth C. and was saved from destruction by its restoration undertaken in 1972.

ARIBAUD Christine, The Leather-Chasuble of St-Bertrand-de-Comminges.

This chasuble was, according to tradition, inherited from Donadieu de Griet, the Comminges Bishop from 1625 to 1635. Its style and manufacturing technics provided evidence that this chasuble was in fact connected to a little-known display of leather liturgical clothings, probably made in Southern Germany during the first third part of XVIIIth C.

BOYER Jean-Claude, St-Jacques’Life Cycle, after the Paintings Due to Charles-Joseph Natoire, Displayed in the Church "St-Jacques-de-Villegoudou" in Castres (Tarn).

Five large anonymous paintings hanged up in this church illustrate St Jacques’life and martyrdom : they should be ascribed to the painter Natoire (1700-777). Two drawings and two modelli of this work, issued from Natoire’s proper hand, have been uncovered. This set of paintings was undoubtedly worked out in Rome during the beginning of the 1760 decade. Even though the precise circumstances of undertaking are not known, it might well express some objection against the dominance of tolosan painter Despax.

POUSTHOMIS Nelly, The Tarbes Cathedral Restoration during the XIXth and XXth C.

During the XIXth C., the Romanic-designed Tarbes Cathedral aimed some projects of enlargment and embellishment required by its small size and its lack of prestige. Of Romano-Byzantin or Gothic styles, no one of these projects was brought to light ; however they resulted in providing the building with a comparative isolation from the town web. From the year l895 to 1940, the building underwent some important transformations dictated by a different aim, the ideal reversal to its "primitive look". Strongly questioned and controversial as indeed they were, these works introduced to a better insight of the structure, leading to the required reflexion basis in order to elaborate a new restoration scheme.

MESQUI Jean, The Falaise Donjon Restoration.

The monument analysis and the study of its restorations underline some reappraising questions on how our historical wealth is conceived and how the responsible organizers do function.

Translated by Claude Péaud-Lenoël