. About six miles southeast of the abbey of Cluny lies the small farm or grange of Berze-la-Ville. In
Berze-la-Ville (Saone-et-Loire), grange, apse. Photograph courtesy of Whitney S. Stoddard.
The early 12th century, thirty granges around Cluny supplied food for the large monastic community. Inside the chapel of this grange are the finest extant Burgundian mural paintings. Christ in Majesty, surrounded by the twelve Apostles, is seated on a throne inside an almond-shaped mandorla. The inclusion of the twelve Apostles rather than symbols of the four Evangelists suggests a connection with Rome. On the spandrels below the semicupola are holy virgins and martyrs holding lamps, and around the base are nine half-length saints. The martyrdoms of SS. Blaise and Lawrence are depicted within niches on the sides of the choir.
The Berze muralist painted figures in reds, greens, purple, and white against a blue background. The dark blue sets off the figures in warm tonalities. The figure of Christ has the same frontal pose as does the Vezelay Christ, yet the anatomical articulation of the figure is more emphasized in the fresco. There seem to be strong connections between Cluny and painting in Rome ca. 1100, with its Byzantine flavor.
The martyrdom of St. Lawrence exhibits the compositional sensitivity of the Romanesque muralist. The painter is given a space framed by columns supporting capitals and an arch. The lower part of the mural is filled by the flattened grill with the nude martyr being consumed by flames. In his pose, the Roman delegate repeats the curve of the arch. The backs and heads of the executioners repeat the shape of silhouettes of column, capital, and arch, while diagonals unite the composition. Painting and architecture are united. The architecture of the two-storied grange, like the figures in the murals, is carefully articulated by many planes in space. The exterior resembles the first Romanesque style, with masonry pilasters or wall buttresses and arched corbel tables. The interior walls have multiple arches and responds.
Dating Berze-la-Ville is difficult. The spread among scholars is from the end of the 11th century to the middle of the 13th. Since Hugues, abbot of Cluny 1049-1109, probably used Berze for retreat, and since the style of the frescoes is related to dated manuscripts of ca. 1100 or the following decade, Berze-la-Ville may have been constructed and painted in the early 12th century.
Whitney S. Stoddard
Armi, C. Edson. Masons and Sculptors in Romanesque Burgundy. 2 vols. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1983.
Demus, Otto. Romanesque Mural Painting. New York: Abrams, 1970, pp. 98-100.
Koehler, Wilhelm. “Byzantine Art and the West.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 1(1941):63-87. Schapiro, Meyer. The Parma Ildefonsus: A Romanesque Illuminated Manuscript from Cluny. New York: College Art Association, 1964.
Stoddard, Whitney S. Monastery and Cathedral in France. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1966.
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