Cluny, Musée Ochier

The Palais de Jean de Bourbon, not far from the abbey church, houses the Musée Ochier which is officially called the Musée d'Art et d'Archéologie.

Claire-voie "des Vendanges" - Rue du Merle / Rue Joséphine Desbois

Even though the museum is strongly affiliated with the abbey it has considerably more to offer than the remains found during the excavations of the abbey grounds.

Claire-voie "des Vendanges" - Musée Ochier

In the streets of Cluny there are still some mediaeval houses which possess Romanesque claire-voies. These are decorated window galleries on the first floor of mediaeval dwellings.

Claire-voie "des Vendanges" - Musée Ochier

Quite a number of these houses have been demolished (partially during town renovations); the original claire-voies have in some cases been reused in other buildings or sold and transported elsewhere (one can even find them in the USA), in other cases they ended up in the Musée Ochier.

Animation Grand portail Cluny III - Musée Ochier

One of these houses is to be found in Cluny's main street (on the corner of 1, Rue du Merle and 2, Rue Joséphine Desbois). The original claire-voie "Des Vendanges" has been painted, as far as possible on the original location around the first floor windows. The remains of the claire-voie (the frieze supporting the columns is reasonably complete) however are on display in the museum, which makes a visit to the museum definitely worthwhile.

Frieze Narthex Cluny III - Musée Ochier

Apart from the claire-voies and smaller remains of Cluny III a few other highlights of the museum are parts of the frieze from the narthex of the church and the paltry remains of the tympanum of the grand portal of the abbey church.

Remains Grand portail Cluny III - Musée Ochier

The remains of the frieze are in good shape and give an excellent impression of the decorations used in Cluny III.
The portal was blown up, and what remains are some bits and pieces which are displayed on a background showing in an ingenious way the portal as it once was. However not all pieces on display are real. Some of the more complete fragments can be found in other museums in France (the Louvre, the Parisian Hôtel de Cluny); those parts on display in Musée Ochier are replicas.

Part of a claire-voie - Musée Ochier

The entrance tickets for the abbey are also valid for the museum, which should not be missed out on during a visit to Cluny.
Click here  for a reasonably complete overview of what is on offer inside the museum.

For our own website click here.

Cluny, farinier, a bonus

Besides the aforementioned eight capitals there are more things on display in the farinier.

Detail of marble altar tabletop

The marble altar tabletop stands in relation to the eight capitals roughly where it must have been in the choir, there are e few showcases with remains of various capitals, there are a few complete capitals, and what remains of the clôture of the monk's choir is displayed as well. The farinier also boasts a nice model of part of Cluny III.

Capitals and altar tabletop

Of the things mentioned I have made an arbitrary choice; this blog is not supposed to be a complete catalogue of Cluny's farinier.
However, there is more to see in the former abbey but the granary. The only part of the immense church that is still more or less intact, the great transept, is more than worth a visit.

Clôture

And in the Palais du Pape Gélase (the entrance to the abbey) some more remains of the church are on display, and one can also view an interesting 3D-film about Cluny III. In a word: the abbey certainly justifies a detour!
By the way, it is also good to know that the ticket to the abbey is also valid fot the Musée Ochier in the Palais de Jean Bourbon (a stone throw away from the abbey entrance).

Model

But I will save this interesting Museum for another blog.
Click here for the remaining capitals in the farinier.

Cluny, farinier, part 8 of 8 (The Last Four Gregorian Modes)

The farinier (granary, or literary flower barn) on the premises of the former abbey of Cluny contains a permanent display of 8 capials from the choir of Cluny III.

One of the last modes

Click here for the eigth and last album of a series of eight. This capital is called "The Last Four Gregorian Modes", with their description and matching musical instruments.

One of the last modes

Cluny, farinier, part 7 of 8 (The First Four Gregorian Modes)

The farinier (granary, or literary flower barn) on the premises of the former abbey of Cluny contains a permanent display of 8 capials from the choir of Cluny III.

One of the last modes

Click here for the seventh album of a series of eight. This capital is called "The First Four Gregorian Modes", with their description and matching musical instruments.

One of the last modes

Cluny, farinier, part 6 of 8 (Trees and Rivers of Paradise)

The farinier (granary, or literary flower barn) on the premises of the former abbey of Cluny contains a permanent display of 8 capials from the choir of Cluny III.

River

Click here for the sixth album of a series of eight. This capital is called "Trees and Rivers of Paradise".

Tree

Cluny, farinier, part 5 of 8 (The Virtues and/or The Liberal Arts)

The farinier (granary, or literary flower barn) on the premises of the former abbey of Cluny contains a permanent display of 8 capials from the choir of Cluny III.

North side

Click here for the fIfth album of a series of eight. This capital is called "The Virtues and/or The Free Arts".
Each of the four sides show a human figure in an almond shaped mandorla.
North side : the inscription refers to Summer.

West side

West side : the inscription refers to Spring, however, the fact that the woman carries a book seems to contradict the inscription.
South side : the inscription refers to prudence, however, the person stands for Grammar chastising his pupil.

South side

East side : the painted inscription (disappeared) referred again to prudence, but the figure wears a coat of mail and used to carry a lance; this is more likely a depiction of Force or Rhetoric.

South side (left) en East side (right)

Cluny, farinier, part 4 of 8 (The Virtues and/or The Liberal Arts)

The farinier (granary, or literary flower barn) on the premises of the former abbey of Cluny contains a permanent display of 8 capials from the choir of Cluny III.

The Virtues and/or The Liberal Arts

Click here for the fourth album of a series of eight. This capital is called "The Virtues and/or The Free Arts".
Each of the four sides show a human figure in a hexagonal mandorla.
Conant saw these as depictions of the three theological virtues (faith, hope and love), others interpreted them as depictions of four of the seven liberal arts.

The Virtues and/or The Liberal Arts

Cluny, farinier, part 3 of 8 (The Four Winds)

The farinier (granary, or literary flower barn) on the premises of the former abbey of Cluny contains a permanent display of 8 capials from the choir of Cluny III.

Figure with a pair of bellows

Click here for the third album of a series of eight. This capital is called "The Four Winds". On the four corners the winds are depicted as human figures, partially hiding between the acanthus leaves. One of the figures uses a pair of bellows.

Cluny, farinier, part 2 of 8 (The Four Seasons)

The farinier (granary, or literary flower barn) on the premises of the former abbey of Cluny contains a permanent display of 8 capials from the choir of Cluny III.

Figure wearing gloves

Click here for the second album of a series of eight. This capital is called "The Four Seasons". On the four corners the seasons are depicted as human figures, partially hiding between the acanthus leaves. One of the figures wears gloves, another one is nude (possibly Summer), partially hidden in the acanthus.

Nude figure

Cluny, farinier, part 1 of 8 (Corinthian Capital)

The farinier (granary, or literary flower barn) on the premises of the former abbey of Cluny contains a permanent display of 8 capials from the choir of Cluny III.

Farinier - Cluny III

They are displayed as they were in the choir, however not 10 m from ground level but a bit lower. The abbey is open free of charge on the first Sunday of the month, from November till March. In this period there are hardly any tourists in Cluny, reason why one can observe these gems of Romanesque sculpture at one's leisure.

Concise explanation of the capitals - Cluny III

Besides, no one is bothered by the fact that you are walking around with a camera on a tripod in view of the longer exposures.
I have the various capitals archived in separate albums.
Click here for the first album of a series of eight. This capital is a Corinthian capital.

1. Corinthian capital

Original or copy?

The Musée Ochier in Cluny has the great portal of Cluny III on display, or what is left of it. And that is not much, considering that the whole portal was blown up in 1810.

Grand portail Cluny III - Musée Ochier Cluny

One of the best preserved pieces is the eagle, symbol of Saint John the Evangelist. There is nothing on the wall, at least as far as I recall, which points to the fact that this eagle might be a copy, and hence I have always believed that this eagle once was physically part of the narthex of Cluny III.

Musé Ochier - Cluny

Until one day I encountered a very similar eagle in the Louvre in Paris, albeit with tiny differences. The stone in the louvre looks more weathered, and the top bit of the broken off part at the underside of the eagle shows a V-shaped scratch which has a slightly different shape from the one in Cluny.

Louvre - Paris

It seemed that Cluny's eagle is a copy, whilst the Louvre houses the original. Wikipedia confirms this, and contains a reference to the inventory of the Louvre. The original of a Saint Peter, high on the left hand side of the portal, can be found in the USA.

Brochure Saint-Germain-des-Prés

When in Paris recently, we visited the church Saint-Germain-des-Prés for the second time. This time I found a brochure there, saying that the capitals in the nave were copies, whilst those in the choir were still original. The choir is not accessible for visitors, and the distance between transept and the capitals is too big to take free hand pictures, even with flash and fast film setting.

Choir - Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Our visit to Paris coincided with the visit to Paris of an Australian Facebook friend from a closed photo group, whom we could finally meet in the flesh. The lady in question takes very nice pictures indeed, hence I popped the question: would she mind trying to photograph the capitals? This was not met with deaf ears, and a month later, after she had returned to Australia, I received a set of photographs.

Capital - choir of Saint-Germain-des-Prés (picture courtesy of B. Jacobs - Australia)

And since I love to share things with others who might be interested I sent a set to Bourgogne Romane, together with another series taken during my visit to the Musée de Cluny in Paris.
Quickly I received a mail concerning those batches of photos: at least one of the "original" capitals in the choir appeared to be a copy of a real original I had shot in the Musée de Cluny!

The same capital - Musée de Cluny

From which the conclusion may be drawn that not all museum captions are necessarily complete, and also that the brochures one find in churches not necessarily are to be taken for gospel. However, gospel can be found elsewhere in most churches.

Click here for the website of La Tuilerie de Chazelle.

Ignorance

In the area we live in one encounters regularly signs saying "Site Clunisien", which are located at the beginning of a village or, in some cases, fixed to the wall of a building, usually a church. I had always assumed that those were references to interesting Romanesque churches operating under the umbrella of and ruled by Cluny abbey. I am referring to churches like those of Chazelle, Malay, Saint-Gengoux-le-National, Saint-Hippolyte, etc. Analogous to this the church of Chapaize was a subsidiary of Tournus abbey, which would explain why there was no sign like that in Chapaize. This "theory" turned out to be based on sheer ignorance.

Sign at Saint-Hippolyte

The first time I assumed that there might be more to the word site clunisien than I thought was during an excursion I made in honour of the introduction of the website "clunypedia.com", a site hosting an interactive map of sites clunisiens in and outside France. Apart from Cluny abbey we visited the Chapelle des Moines in Berzé-la-Ville and the Domaine des Vignes du Maynes, a vineyard in Cruzille. Maynes appeared to be a corruption of the word Moines, so the connection with Cluny did not seem to be totally illogical. The monks from Cluny had been producing wine here, a long time ago. However, I completely failed to see the connection between a vineyard and a church building. Apart from that, the interactive map of sites clunsiens was not exactly densely populated with sites around here, something that surprised me a bit. The man who gave the introduction to Clunypedia emphasized that the whole site was still under construction, which would explain the lack of churches on the map.

Clunypedia - Sites Clunisiens around Cluny

Recently I was browsing on yet another website, "sitesclunisiens.org", and it seemed like a good idea to plot out all the sites clunisiens, at least around Cluny, on a map. I assumed beforehand that this site would show considerably more sites clunisiens than Clunypedia did. However, that turned out to be not true. On the picture the density of sites clunisiens around Cluny is not high at all, at least not when one knows how many Romanesque churches there are around here.

SitesClunisiens - Sites Clunisiens around Cluny

The picture below shows how many Romanesque churches there are in roughly the same area. The difference is stunning! A closer look at "sitesclunisiens.org" revealed the following: according to this site there were not more than approx. 110 sites clunsiens in the whole of France. All entries on this site are exclusively prieurés, doyennés or domaines (vineyards). And it was only then that the penny started to drop.

Romanesque churches around Cluny

A prieuré (priory) is a subsidiary, hence a "daughter" monastery of the "mother" abbey. And that Cluny abbey had quite some daughters was well known to me. A doyenné (deanery) is a supplier of agricultural goods to an abbey or priory, and since monks cannot live on fresh air alone it seemed logical that there were quite a few deaneries near the many monasteries in the area. A doyenné has a different meaning in the hierarchic structure of the Roman Catholic church as well, which will be explained later. That wine suppliers ranked quite high among the sites clunisiens can be explained by the fact that Cluny is located in Burgundy. Sacramental wine has got to come from somewhere, right? The amount of sites clunisiens was by now more or less equal and identical on both websites concerning this subject.

The doyenné of Chazelle

But whatever happened to all the other churches around Cluny, such as Jalogny, Ameugny, Ougy, just to name a few? Were they excommunicated because they had been disobedient, and kicked out on the harsh streets of the Clunisois? Or had they decided to gang up with other abbeys, such as Tournus or La Ferté? It was then that the penny really dropped. An abbey or monastery is simply not in charge of parishes or parish churches! Parish churches fall under the jurisdiction of a doyenné (to increase the confusion, a doyenné in French is also the administrative layer between the individual parishes and the diocese), and the deans running those deaneries are reporting to a bishop, not to an abbot or prior! And of course, most or all of these sites clunisiens have a church; the reason is simply that every priory or abbey has a priory or abbey church. And that is very often the only remaining part of the priory or abbey.

Domaine des Vignes du Maynes - Cruzille

Who would however ever have thought that an interest in Romanesque churches would lead to thinking about the organisation charts of the Roman Catholic church?
Despite the story above, around La Tuilerie de Chazelle there are more than sufficient sites clunisiens to keep those interested busy for a day!
http://www.latuileriechazelle.com/home.html

Old, older, ancient

This spring the population of Cluny and other people interested were given the opportunity to have a look at the most recent discoveries in Cluny's former abbey church. A huge team of archaeologists works there, day in day out, year in, year out, discovering more and more of the remains of Cluny III, this immense building demolished around the year 1800.

Grand portail - Musée Ochier Cluny

Although not part of this year's tour, trying to fit together the tiny bits and pieces left over from the "Grand Portail" was one of the chores of previous years. This portail was one of the highlights of Romanesque architecture and sculpture, until an explosion blew the portail to smithereens in 1810. Whatever has been saved and could be located can now be admired in the Musée Ochier in Cluny.

This year's tour emphasized heavily on the discovery and restoration of the lavabo (a covered area with hand wash basins in use by the monks - they utilized them before a service), and of the pedestal of the altar of Cluny II, the predecessor of its much bigger sister Cluny III.

Petit cloître - Ensam Cluny

The picture shows a corridor, known as the "petit cloître". This is the former 18th century chapter house, at the side of which a number of columns of the medieval chapter house were found (the recesses on the right hand side). Behind the low gate lies the sanctuary of Cluny II.

This sanctuary once possessed some relics of the apostles Peter and Paul, of whom the church carried the names. The remains of these apostles, who play a major role in the perception of the Roman-Catholics, is the reason why Cluny became a very important place of pilgrimage.

Sanctuaire Cluny II

The conductor of the tour, the administrateur or head of the archaeologists, put quite a bit of emphasis on the friction that exists between the National Monument Body on one hand and the town council of Cluny, the Haras (National Stud) and the Ensam (a very prestigious university) on the other hand, and how the skirmishes between those parties are solved by giving and taking a little. Each of those bodies either owns or uses a certain part of the area occupied by Cluny III. If only North Korea and the USA could follow their example....

Lavabo - Cluny

Profetic words

In the previous blog I moaned about some capitals bricked into a wall of a farm in Cluny we had been unable to find. I closed my blog with the more or less profetic words: " It would not surprise me if the wall has been demolished and that the capitals have disappeared to a museum somewhere...."

The gate and wall we were looking for

A pit bull never let go, and the same goes for me when it comes to seeming hopeless search actions.
I did not have much to go on. We were looking for a wall giving access to the courtyard of a farm "Ferme Sainte-Odile", not far from the "Porte-Sainte-Odile". All information came from three different websites, although they were somehow interlinked. One of the websites even suggested a possible location on a map of Cluny, but it also rated the reliability of this location as extremely low. The spelling of the farm and the gate was also not very reliable, since Saint-Odile was a man, and certainly not a woman (Sainte-Odile).
Cluny is a small town, and we regularly meet well known authorities on several subjects in its streets. People we know include the Mayor of Cluny, the writer of a number of books on local history, and several people involved in organising guided tours and lectures about the history of Cluny. This would not have been the first time that I tackled one of these authorities in the street with a burning question.

Google Earth of St-Odile quarter in Cluny

Suddenly I thought "Why on earth would I wait till I bump into one of them?". It must be possible to find an email address of one of the historians in Cluny, and a search action in my archives brought a brochure to light which had the email address of Jean-Luc Maréchal on it. He lives in an old historical building, and does every so often guided tours, which include a visit to his own house as well. During one of these visits we had bought a brochure, and that was the one I just had found.
An email with my question was quickly dispatched, and after that it was just hoping for an answer.

Could this be IT?

When we came back from doing some shopping, there also was an answer. Not from Maréchal, but from another expert on the subject, Jean-Denis Salvèque, who obviously worked closely together with Maréchal. His words were, freely translated:

"The 'Ferme Saint-Odile' is located approx. 100 m south of the Chapelle Saint-Odile. The capitals have been removed in the fifties, were on display in one of the abbey buildings, and went into storage in 2010."

The Porte Saint-Odile is not far from the chapel, and with these data it did not require magic to locate the farm with the help of Google Earth.

Or was this IT?

And once again we went to Cluny, hoping to find at least the old bit of wall. At the farm we found three different gates, all with stone posts, and all with hedges on both sides of the gate.
But the farm had two access roads, of which one was closed with a low but locked gate. I just was going to take a picture of the farm which was quite far away at the end of the road using my zoom lens,, when the owners of the neighbouring house came back from a walk. After we had explained to them that we were looking for something that had disappeared years ago, they thought at first that I came straight from the loony bin, but once they realised we were seriously looking for something they defrosted. The man had endless stories about the farm, even though he had never heard of these capitals. He knew for example that the farm had been built from stones bought from the demolished church Cluny III around 1800.

This looked more like it...

They had right of way on their neighbour's ground, and they opened the gate for us so that we could at least take some pictures of the gate down the road from nearby. The size of the gate looked quite similar to that of the gate on the black-and-white picture, so we thought we had found what we were looking for.
Until... we got home and sat down to study the pictures we took. The gate we thought was "THE" gate had an open background. The black-and-white photograph clearly showed a roof in the background, with a bit lower a lean-to and to the right a roof of an extension. On one of the pictures we had taken on the other side of the house however we could clearly see a roof, and below it a lean-to. Comparing the two pictures led to the following conclusion:

But this was THE gate!

The original gate and wall had been demolished after the capitals had been saved. Gate and walls were replaced with a new gate, stone posts and a high hedge. The building behind it was still intact, including the lean-to; the extension however had most likely also been demolished.

So my last remark on the previous blog was maybe not spot on, but close enough to boast supernatural tendencies!

For our own website, click here.