Snail man and hairy beast carved on cloister corbel of the Royal Monastery of Brou or Monastère royal de Brou at Bourg-en-Bresse, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France.
Bourg-en-Bresse, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France: snail man and hairy beast carved on stone corbel in cloister of the Royal Monastery of Brou or Monastère royal de Brou. In medieval times, the snail was associated with laziness and in Christian art they were also considered a symbol of sin. During the Renaissance, however, snails were seen as an image of the Virgin Birth (people could not understand how they could possibly reproduce with their thick shell) and were used as symbols of resurrection and purity. The monastery was built in the 16th century by Margaret or Marguerite of Austria (1480 - 1530), Duchess of Savoy (Savoie) and Regent of the Netherlands, to commemorate her late husband, Philibert II, Duke of Savoy (1480 - 1504). It is a masterpiece of Flamboyant Gothic style. Its church, designed by Flemish architect Loys Van Boghem and built between 1513 and 1532, has a roof of multi-coloured varnished tiles in Burgundian style, lavish decoration and elegant tombs carved in marble and alabaster. Margaret, daughter of Habsburg archduke Maximilian, later Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, and Mary, Duchess of Burgundy, was one of Renaissance Europe’s most powerful and well-connected women. She was made Regent of the Habsburg Netherlands for the future Emperor Charles V by her father, holding the post from 1507 to 1515 and again from 1519 to 1530. In Brou, she carried out her mother-in-law Marguerite de Bourbon’s wishes to rebuild the run-down abbey. Bourg-en-Bresse is in the Ain department of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, 70km (43 miles) northeast of Lyon. It was capital of the ancient province of Bresse and, since the Revolution, has been capital of the Ain. Throughout much of the middle ages it served as a major outpost of Savoy. It passed to France in 1601. Brou is an historic suburb of Bourg-en-Bresse, a mile east of the centre.
Size: 3909px × 2645px
Location: Bourg-en-Bresse, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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