Thuret - Saint-Bénilde

The former church of a priory, built from local limestone 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. Within the 19th century the dedication changed to Saint-Bonnet and just some decades ago to Saint-Bénilde, a saint born in Thuret in 1805.

This church has very interesting carvings, but the title "Le Vezelay de la Limagne", that I found on a local leaflet, is too ambitious. As the carvings in Thuret are extraodenary, they have been a subject in the literature ever since.

The tympanum, over the southern portal, is a first example. A very common scene: Christ in a mandorla, holded upright by two angels. The arms and the hands of the angels are too long, the trees on the side are very simplistic while the large wings even have feathers. Christ, in a blessing gesture, is sitting in a very stiff position.

B. Craplet ("Auvergne roman", 1992) identifies the angels as the archangels Gabriel and Michael and describes the work as "unskilled". He disagrees with Z. Swiechowski ("Sculpture Romane D'auvergne", 1973), who sees this as the work of "naive folk art". Craplet points out the delicately carved clothing of the three sculptures (hard to see here) - and so has a proof, that the artist was "able" to do "better". A. Gybal ("L´Auvergne, berceau de l´artroman", 1958) describes a specific "Thuret-style" being a totally simplified work of art. 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").

Note the cat on the right capital.