Les images des saints dans l’art monumental à la période romane : quatre exemples méridionaux

Abstract

Hagiographic Images in the Architectural Art of the Romanesque Period. Four Examples in Southern France. The study of Romanesque hagiographic images in architectural art in a specific area enables to have a global vision of the cult of saints at that time. Four examples of buildings in southern France representing universal and local saints are analysed in the present paper. The first two examples, narrative cycles dedicated to Laurent in the churches of Nogaro and Panjas, clearly show the polysemy and the plasticity of hagiographic images. The choice of the figurative images and of their places in the buildings determine the meaning of the iconographical programme. Other images enhance the strength of the saint in order to legitimate and promote the cult of his memory. The image of Foy in the tympanun of the abbey in Conques fully comes within this logic. From a general point of view, hagiographic images reflect the devotion of diocese to local saints but also to universal ones. The representation of saints in churches situated at the periphery of a given diocese enabled them to assert that they belonged to and were rooted in the diocese, as can be seen in the church in Saint-Eutrope des Salles-Lavauguyon.