Page 19 - The Portal magazine - March 2025
P. 19

THE P    RTAL                              March 2025                                     Page 19

        The Annunciation


        at Rodez and Inières





        Dr Simon Cotton



             T THE CENTRE of the Aveyron département of France, the city of Rodez is dominated by its
        Ared sandstone cathedral, particularly the flamboyant campanile, 87 metres high. The building of the
        cathedral began in 1277, attributed to Jean Deschamps, who is also credited with the contemporary building
        campaigns on the cathedrals of Clermont-Ferrand, Limoges, Narbonne and Toulouse.

                                                                                    cathedral’s   south    portal,
                                                                                    created an Annunciation for
                                                                                    this chapel, where it remained
                                                                                    for three centuries, until the
                                                                                    French Revolution, when it
                                                                                    vanished. Detective work by
                                                                                    Louis Bosquet traced its move
                                                                                    to a place of safety five miles
                                                                                    away, the fortified church of
                                                                                    Notre-Dame-de-la-Nativité
                                                                                    at Inières (built around 1450,
                                                                                    thus contemporary with the
                                                                                    sculpture), where it remains to
                                                                                    this day (2) in a chapel on the
                                                                                    north side of the nave. Towards
                                                                                    the end of the 20th century, Les
                                                                                    Amis de la Cathédrale at Rodez
                                                                             1      undertook the creation of the
                                                                                    copy (1) which today enhances
                                                                                    the chapel in the cathedral.
          Entering  through
        the doorway of the
        south transept, you
        are    immediately
        faced by a sculpture
        of the Annunciation
        (Luke  1: 26-38)
        on the east wall of
        the chapel of Saint
        Arthemon       (1).
        The Virgin Mary
        is shown kneeling
        at her prie-dieu,
        addressed by the
        angel Gabriel, also
        kneeling.


          Around 1480, a
        sculptor    known
        as   ‘l’atelier  de
        Viguier’,      also                                                                                2
        credited with  the
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