Notes on the Holy Sepulchre Chapel at Vienne

A chapel dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre, probably of Carolingian date, was incorporated into the rebuilt Romanesque nave of the cathedral of Saint-Maurice at Vienne. It was transferred in 1524/1525 by the Dean of the Chapter, Guillaume Palmier, to the little cloister to the north, where it was rebuilt with a new dedication added, to Notre-Dame de Pitie, a cult already very popular in the Dauphine on the eve of the Reform. This chapel was destroyed in 1804-1805 but its appearance is known from a unique engraving. Palmier’s will gives details of the transfer of the chapel. In the Romanesque nave of the cathedral the chapel was overlooked by sculptures of Christ and five seated angels, placed at the apex of the arcades above the chapel and contemporary with this part of the building, of the second quarter of the 12th century. The capitals in this area reflect in their subject-matter the chapel’s dedication to the Holy Sepulchre, but do not seem to have been part of a more generalised ‘programme’ of capital sculpture in the nave

Ancient history · Art · Art history · Chapel · Cult · Nave · SAINT · Sculpture · Visual arts · Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History · Medieval European History and Architecture