(Correze). The 12th-century church with magnificent sculptured portal, chapter house, several reliquaries, and a beautiful Virgin and Child covered in silver repousse are all that remain of the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Pierre, founded on the banks of the Dordogne in the 9th century and affiliated to Cluny at the end of the 11th. Typically Limousin in detail, the abbey church emulates the plan of the great pilgrimage churches: wide, groin-vaulted side aisles, galleries (albeit small and dark), transept with apsidioles, ambulatory with three radiating chapels. An octagonal dome, irregular in shape, crowns the crossing. The fagade dates from the 13th century (with later modifications) and the attached bell tower from the 14 th.
The format of the south portal (ca. 1130-40) appears to follow that of Moissac; the imagery, however, is novel. Most striking are the appearance of the bare-breasted Christ displaying his wounds, the prominence accorded the Cross, the seven gesticulating figures beneath the Apostles, and the double lintel arrangement of apocalyptic and exotic beasts. The theme of the tympanum, based on Matthew 24 and elements from the Apocalypse, is the Second Coming, which precedes the final Judgment. The reliefs of the porch evoke the penitential season of Lent. The whole may be seen as an affirmation of church doctrines threatened by heretical attack.
Jean M. French
Christe, Yves. “Le portail de Beaulieu, etude iconographique et stylistique.” Bulletin archeologlque du Comlte des TravauxHlstorlques et Sclentlflques 6 (1971):57-76.
French, Jean M. “The Innovative Imagery of the Beaulieu Portal Program: Sources and
Significance.” Diss. Cornell, 1972. [Summarized in Studies ln Medieval Culture 8-9 (1976): 19-30.]
Klein, Peter K. “‘Et videbit eum omnis oculus et qui eum pupugerunt.’ Zur Deutung des
Tympanons von Beaulieu.” In Florilegium in honorem CarlNordenfalk octogenarii contextum, ed. Per Bjurstrom, Nils-Goran Hokby, and Florentine Mutherich. Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, 1987, pp. 123-44.
Maury, Jean, Marie-Madeleine Gauthier, and Jean Porcher. Limousin roman. La Pierre-qui-vire: Zodiaque, 1960.
Vidal, Marguerite, Jean Maury, and Jean Porcher. Quercy roman. La Pierre-qui-vire: Zodiaque, 1969.
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