Decorations (3)

It is essential to view the pictures of this blog at full size; by clicking on the relevant picture it will be sufficiently enlarged.
Picture 1 shows a number of relatively simple decorations, applied to the facade of the abbey church of Tournus. The Lombard bands, supported from lisenes are clearly visible; the facade also has two more friezes. The upper one shows a flat saw teeth motif in the plane of the wall; the lower one has a protruding saw teeth motif with the teeth protruding perpendicularly to the wall.

1. Saint-Philibert - Tournus

In a book about Romanesque art I once read a good piece of advice: when you go visit a church, it is a good idea to bring a torch and a pair of binoculars. This may sound a bit strange, but crypts can be rather dark, and a torch can help you to see an interesting capital. The same goes for capitals high in the nave of a church. A pair of binoculars could make those capitals visible. How to go about high capitals in a dark church is something the author did not tell. A pair of binoculars however can also be useful for studying tall bell towers.

2. Saint-Philibert - Tournus

Picture 2 shows a number of finely sculpted columns, three with a helical motif (on the corners) and three in the shape of an human figure (on the top storey, in the middle and on the right hand corner). The modillons are also beautifully carved.

3. Saint-Philibert - Tournus

The decorations in picture 3 are a bit less exuberant, however not less interesting. Here also very distinct bandes lombardes, but exceptionally interesting are the sculpted capitals in the shape of distorted faces. For these sort of pictures a zoom lens is worth every penny. I am quite content with the results I obtain with my 18 - 105 mm zoom lens.

Tournus is only 25 minutes driving away from La Tuilerie de Chazelle.