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.

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").

So this is what André Gybal describes as the "Thuret style" of total simplification.

Eve, the snake, the apple. That tells the whole story. The Garden of Eden exists out of exactly three trees (one is behind the corner). These trees not even have leaves, just stem, branches, apples. Exactly one apple per branch. The right tree seems somehow "anorganic", standing on a base. Eve, a huge head on a skinny body, has a very strange look in her eyes.

Bernard Craplet wrote
"Is there a system within the obviously incoherent sculptures? Is there a hidden message within the unskilled carvings? This is probably not the case. Neither here nor somewhere else."

Maybe there is at least one question to ask here. There are 3 trees, 18 branches and 18 apples. Where does the 19. apple come from? The apple the snake offers to Eve.