Medieval knights sleeping, Abbaye Sainte-Marie-Madeleine, Vézelay, Burgundy, France. Romanesque-style artwork by French sculptor François-Michel Pascal (1810-82), added in the 1800s to the exterior of the former Benedictine and Cluniac basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene, built in the 1100s.
Vézelay, Yonne, Burgundy, France: knights sleep with their hands supporting their heads on the external face of the northern capital flanking the central western portal of the Abbaye Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay, the 12th century former Benedictine and Cluniac Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene. The Romanesque-style artwork, by French Romantic sculptor François-Michel Pascal (1810-82), was carved as part of a massive restoration programme undertaken between 1840 and 1861 to save the building from collapse. The abbey church, built between 1120 and 1150, had suffered serious damage during the French Revolution and much of its fine sculptural detail was disfigured by weathering and two centuries of neglect and vandalism. The team, led by architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, replaced much of the decayed and mutilated medieval sculpture and Michel Pascal was responsible for the 1856 Last Judgement stone bas-relief filling the tympanum on the west façade immediately above the sleeping knights capital. The abbey church was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites in 1979.
Size: 2707px × 2707px
Location: Vézelay, Yonne, Burgundy, France.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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