St Micheal

It may look like a mad salad but it is in fact the plaster work and carving of St Micheal defeating Lucifer over the altar in our eponymous church. I have no idea how old it is - its clearly not 12th century, like some of the church - nor is it 15th, judging from the picture below it which is a fresco of St M from Strasbourg.

 

 

It was the sandals that got me. One can be a warrior with a frilly skirt and ribbons and flowing drapery but those feet would make life hard. A bit of research showed they all have them, since 1640's or thereabouts - here are Murillo, Rubens and Raphael with others, all flaunting the same basic cossie and sandals.

 

 This image is the most like ours; its by Dosso Dossi. He was dead by 1542 so perhaps his vision of the kit was the first... how did a sculptor in Esperaza  get to see it? Anyone know the date of ours?

The statue below is at the Churchs entrance and is plainly of the same age and type as the Abbe Saunieres statues in Rennes les Chateau. The sandals are more like leather boots here, despite the effeminacy of the rest of the work - though you'd be hard-pushed to call them business-like. Its quite remarkable for the way that the sculptor has lost any tension or dynamism; St M is merely doing his job with a smudge of smugness and the poor demon is being done in because that's his job too. Hardly fair.

                   


 These reflections were caused by attending Msr Francois funeral.

The church was freezing:)

                        There was a very decent turn-out and many tears, the priest clearly knew him well and talked lengthily and with affection of his life in the town.       

At the offertory,  the piped music changed to a tape recording of the l'hymne de esperazanaise - I've seen the words but never heard the music, which was composed in Andrees house on her mothers piano by Louis Alibert (1866-1926)                                                        

We were played out to it.

Want to go back and put a beret on St Micheals head in memory of Msr Francois. Seems only polite.