SCULPTURED STALLE Northern France, late 15th -... Lot 20

SCULPTURED STALLE Northern France, late 15th - early 16th century Oak H. 99 cm, W. 79 cm, D. 52 cm "To reinforce the walls, the inhabitants, perverse people, and without faith, had demolished the refectory and the cellar of the canons... And even, something more execrable, the stalls of the church" (Pierre des Vaux-de-Cernay, chronicle of the siege of Carcassonne in 1209, quoted by Pierre-Yves Le Pogam). This shows to what extent the stalls were an important element of the religious furniture, certainly one of the most carefully maintained. Our stall belonged to a larger group of stalls from an ecclesiastical community, traditionally arranged in the choir of the church on a wooden frame or framework in two rows. It consists of a movable seat, a backrest, a glazing bead with a carved support for standing up when seated, and a cheekpiece decorated on the upright with a pilaster with an interlacing motif. On the right, the glazing bead supports a horizontal armrest by means of a column with a smooth shaft, which may indicate a high position. On the left, the cheekpiece marks the end of the row; it has a figurative panel carved in low relief on the outside. Sitting during services was tolerated by the Church, denounced by some as a "depraved custom of the clerics" (Peter Damien, 1007-1072). Others, on the contrary, sought to improve the comfort of these stalls. The monks of Hirsau (Germany) seem to have been the first, in the eleventh century, to add a mercy seat to allow an almost sitting position even when the seat is raised. This mercy seat consists of a shelf supported by a sculpted console, the iconographic choices of which have not ceased to arouse criticism. Our stall, which was therefore located at the end of a row, probably the top row, is finely sculpted and moulded in all its parts. The ornamental repertoire of interlacing motifs, columns and pilasters, and large greasy leaves testify to the penetration of Italian Renaissance forms in northern France around 1500, in a region still attached to the Gothic vocabulary. The mercy has a beautiful plant bud while the support represents a man in bust with an open book or a phylactery, perhaps a prophet, as we also see in the Gothic stalls of Saint-Lucien de Beauvais (Fig. 1). This ensemble, which is kept in the Musée de Cluny, has preserved six cheekpieces featuring the patron saint of the abbey and the patron saint of the commissioner, thus shedding light on the meaning of the iconography of the side panel. In a moulded frame typical of the flamboyant Gothic style, but under a portico adorned with a shell supported by two columns emerging from plant chalices, in the spirit of the Renaissance, stands a holy figure blessing. He is wearing a mitre and a crosier and is accompanied by a small dog. This could be Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the patron saint of the Cistercians, whose dog evokes the one his own mother had seen in a dream while waiting for him.