Switzerland: Millennial frescoes
In the Vaud Jura, the Montcherand church, built in the 11th century, has retained its apse. This former priory dedicated to St. Stephen is one of the Cluniac sites in Europe and is located at the crossroads of the Via Francigena and the Via Jacobi.
“The treasure of this church was, so to speak, ignored until the 20th century,” says Jean-François Tosetti, founder of the Association for the Romanesque Church of Montcherand. In 1902 wall paintings were discovered that are among the oldest frescoes with figures of religious art in French-speaking Switzerland.
The fresco represents the twelve apostles, half life-size, carrying a scroll arranged in a semicircle around a central figure whose identity is still unknown.
“This is the enigma of the Montcherand frescoes: is it the Virgin Mary that was placed when it was discovered in 1902? Is it their son Jesus in earthly form? Or Mary Magdalene, the apostle of the apostles? To make matters worse, the people of Bern built a window in the middle of the apse during the Reformation,” emphasizes Jean-François Tosetti.
In the upper part is a fragmentary Christ in glory. He is seated in the mandorla (oval or almond-shaped figure inscribed with sacred symbols), flanked by the four animals of the ‘tetramorph’, of which only the winged bull remains, representing Luke the Evangelist.
The Latin inscription above the heads of the apostles is taken from Matthew 19:27-28. “Then Peter answered and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and have followed thee; what should we have? And Jesus said to them, Amen, I say to you, that you who have followed me, in the new birth, when the Son of man shall sit on his majesty’s throne, you also shall sit in twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel .” The text was completed during the third restoration in 1992.
Archaeologists have concluded that the author of the fresco was inspired by Byzantine art in the early 12th century. Researchers have found his model in a monastery near Asyut, Egypt, on the edge of the Libyan Desert. The illustration is from an old manuscript depicting a vision of the apocalypse: God majestically enthroned in heaven amidst the apostles and the Virgin.
The frescoes discovered in 1902 were restored by the brothers August and Otto Schmid. In 1969 a second restoration was carried out by Théo Hermanes. The supplementary additions have been removed so that the murals are presented in their incomplete found state.
A third restoration in 1992 by Thérèse Maurice, a graduate of the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro in Rome, in collaboration with the painter and lithographer Jacques Perrenoud, sketched in red chalk the figures of the apostles we can see today.
Since 2008, Montcherand Priory has been a member of the European Federation of Cluniac Sites, as have Payerne and Romainmôtier in the canton of Vaud.
The purpose of this federation is to unite the places in Europe created by the extraordinary influence of Cluny Abbey from the 10th to the 18th centuries: spiritual, artistic, economic, political and social influence. The monks of Cluny were at the origin of the building of hundreds of cities and towns.