Page 19 - The Portal magazine - March 2025

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