The polychromy of precious decorative pigments

Détail du décor peint de la chapelle des moines

The painter of this chapel used a wide palette of eight pigments, either pure or in mixtures!

A rich palette

With the important discovery, in particular, of the presence of minium we can say that many finishes have disappeared...

Plant motifs and character ornaments were much more colorful and vivid. This observation suggests that we must remain cautious when interpreting ancient images, whose appearance may be altered by color alterations.

Rare pigments

Another example is lapis lazuli, which is abundant in the Berzé-la-Ville base: it is of an extremely pure and fine quality, compared to the same material used in the Tournus avant-nef. The grinding of the material is more meticulous, demonstrating the artist's particular skill and perfect technical knowledge .

Lapis lazuli is an expensive pigment imported from the Orient via the Silk Road. Indeed, its hardness and impurities required lengthy preparation to extract it.

Innovative for its time

To sum up, Berzé-la-Ville's palette was rich for its time, with many blues and greens. It is on a par with other major European sites. This palette allows for more sophisticated nuances, with gradations in shadows and superimpositions.

From our study of other Romanesque paintings in Burgundy, we know that this is the most refined example among some twenty sites. What's more, the polychromy of the stones is exceptionally well preserved, and is one of the few surviving examples in France.

Last but not least, we note the repetition of various decorative motifs from Italian medieval painting, mosaics, icons and murals of various periods (paleo-Christian to the end of the 11th century).

It indicates that the master probably worked from a sketchbook drawn up during trips to Rome. The drawings were then adapted to suit the constraints of the location and his own imagination.