French Romanesque

Noah's Ark - c. 1100 - Fresco - Abbey Church, Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe (click photo for larger image)The fresco featured here belongs to a Noah cycle related in eight episodes, in the context of an Old Testament series extending over the vault of the former Benedictine monastery church. A New testament sequence adorns the presbytery and galleries, and further frescoes are in the vestibule and the crypt. The superb series of paintings on the barrel vaulting were executed in one session by at least four artists. The remaining groups of works were apparently the responsibility of a single, leading artist in each case. Notice how the perspective seems to read up—rather than back. This is a fine example of work that isn’t concerned with formal elements such as proportion and scale—but which nevertheless is extraordinary fine art.