SUMMARY

 Louis LATOUR, Ancient oil lamps from Auterive(in the Haute-Garonne) 

A study of the oil-lamps of Auterive shows how rapid was the process of Romanisation in the lower Ariège valley between the first century B.C. and the first century A.D. The Gallic levels of the later Iron Age contain lamps of Campanian origin and in traditional Greek style along with local or regional imitations of these, whereas the more recent levels reveal a surge of Italic-style lamps dominated by traditional Roman decoration illustrating characters from mythology or popular circus scenes. Lamps with birds’ heads are still found, but more rarely, and also lamps with banded handles and an elongated nozzle, but lamps with a triangular nozzle and no projecting spout, and without handles, become the most frequent type and are characteristic of the first century A.D.

 

Vincent GENEVIÈVE, Coins from Gallo-Roman settlements in the Martres-Tolosane plain. 1. The hoard of antoniniani called Bergès II and other monetary treasure hoards from the end of the third century A.D. 

Of the four treasure hoards excavated during the last decade of the 19th century on the communes of Martres-Tolosane and Cazères, none were discovered by Léon Joulin himself. All of them were fortuitous discoveries made in the course of agricultural work during the period when this scholar was working in the area. These finds were rapidly dispersed but fortunately were all recorded in his voluminous work on the Gallo-Roman settlements of the Martres-Tolosane plain, published in 1901. This article provides a fresh analysis of the numerous publications concerning these four treasure hoards of the late third century, basing itself in particular on a manuscript report by Michel Labrousse of 1948. This study concentrates on the hoard known as Bergès II, many hundreds of coins from which are found in the coin collections of the Musée Saint-Raymond in Toulouse.

 

Valérie ROUSSET, The church of Saint Martin in Mayrinhac-Le-Francal (Rocamadour, Lot) 

The little town of Mayrinhac-Le-Francal grew up around a small Benedictine priory of the Abbey of Tulle (in the Corrèze), on the pilgrimage route linking the Dordogne valley to Rocamadour. All that remains of this monastic establishment is the church of St Martin, with its high and narrow single rectangular nave, with a narrower quadrangular chancel, whose stone walls preserve the traces of numerous phases of construction. The earliest parts of the structure, dating from the first half of the 11th century, are seen in the quadrangular chancel and the first bay of the nave. It is characterised by narrow windows with a semicircular arch above and by semicylindrical buttresses unique in the Midi. A 12th-century building phase was followed during the Hundred Years War by a construction campaign aimed at fortifying the church which then in the second half of the 15th century or early 16th century was provided with an interior cistern necessitating the raising of the level of the nave.

  

Virginie Czerniak, Jean-Marc Stouffs, Myriam Tessariol, Floréal Daniel, The painted figures and polychrome decoration of the west porch of the Cathedral of St Etienne in Cahors: a multidisciplinary study 

The cathedral of Saint-Etienne (St Stephen) in Cahors has preserved minute traces of its exterior painted ornamentation and of the polychromic décor of its main porch which was probably carried out at the end of the 13th century. These elements have been compared with the medieval paintings preserved inside the building on the rear of the western wall, but it was worth seeking confirmation of this comparison in a fuller investigation, given the relative legibility of the exterior paintings. Samples were thus taken and physico-chemical analyses carried out. The results obtained bring enhanced understanding of the precious exterior decoration of one of the great cathedrals of the Midi, providing a view to which traditional art history methods could only accede in part.

 

Gilles Séraphin, The medieval castle of Blanquefort-sur-Briolance

 The castle of Blanquefort in the Agenais is a 19th-century reconstruction from apparently disparate elements of the 13th and 15th centuries. The castrum which preceded the castle appears in archive records of the first half of the 13th century and was probably founded by the neighbouring lords of Fumel in the former parish of Notre-Dame de Veyrines, and was linked to a priory of Sauve-Majeure. An analysis of the building shows that above the ruins of previous buildings (housing for soldiers?) next to the original tower, a second tower was built at the time (mid-13th century) when the Fumel were forced to share the lordship with another family, the Pujols. The Pujols became sole masters and unified the site from the end of the 13th century. At the end of the 15th century, Bérenger de Roquefeuil (alias Pujols) undertook a modernisation of the whole site by adding residential wings flanked by a military tower. But this work was soon abandoned in favour of the site of Bonaguil, some few kilometres further west. From the 13th-century there remain the remnants of the two main towers and the nearby buildings, of a connecting parapet wall, a residential wing with adjacent tower, and a guardroom. The better preserved of the main towers is in an archaic architectural style (the windows) which has led to its being taken for “Romanesque”. The 15th-century military tower shows an interesting mixture of defensive, residential and domestic apparatus which lead one to question typological concepts.

 

Lisa BARBER and Michèle PRADALIER, The church of Notre-Dame-du-Clocher and the Clocher de Noguès in Lescure (Ariège) 

The Clocher de Noguès still stands beside the ruined church of Notre Dame du Clocher, known earlier as Notre Dame Descoemps. What one can learn of the history of this church is traced from the few documents that survive of earlier centuries, notably a Papal Bull of 1195, notarial registers of the 16th century, episcopal visitations of the 18th century, and the 19th-century registers recording the meetings of the municipal council. The architecture of the church and of the belltower in particular is then examined and analysed, revealing a complicated history of building and restoration work at various periods.

 

Pascal JULIEN, Gervais Drouet and the main altarpiece (1662-1667) of the Cathedral of St Etienne in Toulouse: a sculptor’s honour 

A remarkable and very visible inscription on a black marble plaque at the base of the huge main altarpiece of Toulouse cathedral records that Gervais Drouet designed this whole altarpiece but that ‘with his own hands’ he only carried out the Stoning of St Stephen, and gives the date of 1670. In religious art it is rare to find a work signed by the artist, except occasionally on the back of a statue or under the finish of some gilding, completely discreet and in full humility. One can thus find nothing comparable to this ostentatious declaration of the sculptor Gervais Drouet.
             A number of documents allow one to trace the circumstances that led to the construction of this imposing piece and the succeeding stages of its construction. The canons of the cathedral had wanted it to outdo in its splendour all other altarpieces in the region, and entrusted this sensational decorative work to an artist whose great talents were already well-known. Gervais Drouet worked in the line of inheritance of the altarpiece sculptors of western France, he had been trained in Rome under the greatest masters of the time, but he also possessed a rich and deep inventivity and knew how to combine great monumental size with sophisticated decoration and carefully studied set scenes. If his touchy pride led him to defend his honour in writing, then it was because he had indeed staked it in this exceptionally ambitious work, one of the most beautiful altarpieces of the seventeenth century, a triumph of the sculptor’s art.

 

Jeanne BAYLE, The former archbishop’s palace of Toulouse, up until the time of Archbishop Colbert

The former archbishop’s palace of Toulouse, now the Préfecture, seems to be in a homogenous style dating from the time of Archbishop Colbert, of the very end of the 17th century. But it preserves important traces of the earlier palace. Nothing is known of the 13th-century building apart from the chapel whose tiled floor is known. The 15th-century buildings have determined the plan of a large part of the left wing, the height of the walls of this wing on the ground and first floors, and the situation of the garden wing. The extensions of Cardinal François de Joyeuse at the end of the 16th century are no longer visible, but the regularisation of the façade of the left wing as it fronts on to the garden, carried out by Charles de Montchal, was a precursor of the similar work carried out by Archbishop Colbert in the main courtyard.

  

Georges COSTA, Artistic work at the Dominican convent of Toulouse during the reign of Louis XIII 

The Dominican convent (the Jacobins) saw great artistic activity during the reign of Louis XIII, reflecting a newfound devotion based on a return to full observation of the Rule. Among the most notable works of the period is the altarpiece for the high altar in the conventual choir, whose wood panelling was the work of the sculptor Antoine Morizot, the painting being by Jacques de la Carrière (1611). Next came the building in 1615 of the Rosary Chapel which was given a sumptuous décor: the altarpiece was the work of the cabinet-maker Louis Behorry and the sculptor Artus Legoust, and the paintings were done by Jean de Salinge (1618); this decoration of the end wall was gilded and painted by Bernard de Saint-Gaudens (1621). One must also mention, although they are later, the paintings of the cupola for which the painter Paul Romiguières was engaged. But the most prestigious project was that of the new mausoleum built to house the relics of St Thomas Aquinas, kept in a reliquary made by the Parisian goldsmith Jean II de Laon (1619-1621). This monument, designed by two lay-brothers of the convent, Claude Borrey and Jean Raymond Renard, was remarkable in its design, its dimensions, its sculptures and its use of marble. It was inaugurated in 1628. Among other work one can cite the rebuilding of the chapel of the merchants’ confraternity, known also as the Chapel of the Three Kings, which opened out on to the small cloister. It was decorated with a remarkable panelled ceiling containing 64 portraits of kings of France and religious figures, painted by Gabriel Rivet (1623).

  

Jean-Claude BOYER, A “May” in Gascony: the Assumption of Antoine Coypel; from Notre-Dame-de-Paris to Mirande 

The parish church of Notre-Dame de Mirande in the Gers has preserved a large painting of the Assumption (classed as an historic monument in 1981), which has remained anonymous until now. It came from the former Abbey of Berdoues, where it was at the time of the Revolution, and was acquired by the commune in 1806, along with the whole altar to which it belonged. A document in the Archives Nationales (published as an annexe here) confirms this provenance and shows that the work was at that time attributed - without any basis - to Rubens. In fact its style denotes a youthful work by the Parisian Antoine Coypel (1661-1722), his “May” of 1680 for which two preparatory sketches are known (one in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the other sold recently at auction). This commission for an Assumption marked a notable stage in his brilliant career and its importance was at once underlined by the Mercure galant. But in the famous series of “Mays”, presented between 1630 and 1707 to Notre-Dame de Paris by the goldsmiths of the city, and then dispersed at the Revolution, this painting now in Mirande stands apart: produced at a period of crisis, it seems in fact probable that it was never put up in the cathedral. How it reached Berdoues is unknown, but one might draw attention to the visit there in 1743 of Nicolas-Philibert Guyot, Abbot of the Order’s mother-house (Morimond, in the Langres diocese), who is said to have been an active art-lover.

  

Bulletin of the Academic Year 2006-2007

 The minutes of the meetings of the Society give an account of its various activities, recording in particular the discussions which followed the lectures presented, whether or not the latter are published in the Mémoires. Also included is information on archaeological digs, restorations in progress and various discoveries in Toulouse and the region, as well as the following summaries and notes: The collegiate church of St-Etienne de Capestang, a remarkable work of the first half of the 14th century; Notes on the theme of the Ascension in the Miégeville gateway; The influence of St Sernin in Toulouse as seen through medieval prayer associations; Gervais Drouet and the main altarpiece of the Cathedral of Toulouse (1662-1667): a sculptor’s honour; The church of Boccarrisse (in the commune of Gazax-Boccarrisse in the Gers).

 

Translated by Lisa Barber

 

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