A nun grasps an arrow as she stands, eyes raised skyward, with other female saints and martyrs in this square detail of a frieze, painted in rustic Baroque style in the early 1700s, below the nave ceiling vault of the Eglise Saint-Martin (Church of St Martin) at Lévignacq in the Landes, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.
Lévignacq, Landes, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France: a nun holds an arrow as she stands, her eyes raised to heaven, beside two other female saints and martyrs. The trio are among 26 Elected or Chosen characters depicted in a frieze painted on wood in the early 1700s above the southern nave wall and below the boat-shaped timber nave ceiling of the medieval Eglise Saint-Martin (Church of St Martin). The complete southern frieze features saints such as St Clothilde, St Anne, St Margaret of Antioch and St Lucia. Its counterpart on the northern side of the nave depicts 35 Elected or Chosen men, including monks, popes, cardinals, bishops, prophets, a man wearing a turban and saints such as St Dominic, St Nicholas of Myra and St Anthony of Padua. The ceiling ‘hull’ was decorated between 1713 and 1715 with three large biblical scenes painted in a grandiose but rustic Counter-Reformation Baroque style. The colourful depictions of the Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds, the Trinity, and the Transfiguration of Christ are probably by a Bordeaux-based painter named Jean or Jacques Fautier, a member of the Paris Academy of Art. The church, in the Pays de Born countryside of the Landes des Gascogne, close to the French Atlantic coast, is filled with many other artworks, including remains of 15th century frescoes in the choir vault.
Size: 2700px × 2700px
Location: Lévignacq, Pays de Born, Landes, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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