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").

Just a small detail from on of the many capitals. A shepherd carrying a sheep on his shoulders. Probably referring to the "Parable of the Lost Sheep" (Matthew, 18:12-14 / Luke 18:12-14). This shepherd-theme ("Pastor Bonus") is very typical for the Auvergne (Issoire, Biozat,..), but the style here is pretty different.

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