Choir Plan and Figure Study
Bib. Nat. ms. fr. 19093, fol. 28
Villard combined sketches on various topics on a single leaf. The caption to the plan on the to reads:
"Here is the presbytery of the Church of Our Lady of Vauxcelles, a church of the Cistercian Order."
Below, the caption to the lower sketch reads:
"This is a picture of Our Lord as He stumbled."
The juxtaposition of architecture and figure studies is not uncommon in the manuscript (note too, the bleed-through of roof truss designs from the other side of the leaf).
The plan sketch shows the column placement (circles) and vaulting pattern (single lines) for the apse of this particular three-aisled church, with its single axial square chapel, four radiating semicircular chapels and pair of flanking chapels (or these may be a transept that has been 'swallowed up' by the radial chapels). The vaulting is all simple quadripartite, except for the circular radial chapels, which use 5-part vaults and the 7-part vault over the center of the apse. Villard clearly took some time to study and draw this plan, although it is fairly ordinary as early gothic plans go.
The figure study of Christ is an excellent example of Villard's ability to draw folded drapery over an irregular form. In fact, this study is really only about drapery (and perhaps hair), as Christ's hands are poorly rendered (unless this is a case of the rare 'cult of the mittens'), and in order for His left foot to be showing as it is (notice, too, that He apprently had only 4 toes), it would have to be completely dislocated from its socket (which might explain why he stumbled...). Nevertheless, the drapery folds are impressive.
On the drapery, see Carl F. Barnes, "The Drapery-Rendering Technique of Villard de Honnecourt," Gesta 20.1 (1981): 199-206.
back to portfolio
|
|
