Thuret - Saint-Bénilde

The former church of a priory, built 1150/1170, got remodelled quite often over the centuries. This was done not only by architects, but as well by clerics. The church was dedicated to St. Genesius first, then to St. Limin, followed by Saint-Martin. In the 19th century the dedication changed to Saint-Bonnet and some decades ago to Saint-Bénilde, a saint born in Thuret in 1805 under the name Pierre Romançon.

The title "Le Vezelay de la Limagne", that I found on a local leaflet, is too ambitious. There are interesting carvings here. Ever since the art history discovered them as specific works of art, they have been a subject in the literature.

B. Craplet ("Auvergne roman", 1992) describes the carvings just as "unskilled". He in general disagrees with Z. Swiechowski ("Sculpture Romane D'auvergne", 1973), who sees this as the work of "naive folk art". A. Gybal ("L´Auvergne, berceau de l´artroman", 1958) describes
a specific "Thuret-style" being a totally simplified work of art. Only to be found here. For him, the simplification is the result of the artists inspiration. He makes totally clear, that this is not "folk art" ("l`art populaire"), but the result of artistic work of very skilled monks ("moines tres cultives").

A large ape, having a rope around the neck. Pegged to the ground. The ape has the typical round mouth and his look is pretty aggressive, what is no wonder. This icon "man/rope/ape" (here without "man") can seen more often in the Auvergne. The French call this "singe cordé".

I have learned, that within the Auvergne are about 20 (!) similar carvings, depicting apes/monkey roped.