About

The cloister of the Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame-en-Vaux housed a unique collection of finely crafted column-statues depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments. Erected around 1170–1180, these sculptures served the canons as aids for contemplation and instruction. Although emblematic of the early Gothic style, this artistic trend was short-lived and soon abandoned in the wake of subsequent liturgical reforms.

At the very beginning of Christianity, the accounts related to the New Testament were diverse, transmitted orally with a corpus that varied from one Church to another. The Canon of the Bible used in Roman Catholic Western Christianity was established between the years 200 and 500, and it includes four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, certain epistles, and the Book of Revelation. The four Evangelists—Saint Mark, Saint John, Saint Matthew, and Saint Luke—are thus central figures of the book.

Each is depicted on one face of the capital, writing and accompanied by an animal holding a scroll. These four animals, the tetramorphs, accompany the Evangelists at the beginning of each of their Gospels. Each of these companions holds a scroll, the inscriptions of which are now invisible.

Historical Background

Severely lacking funds for the upkeep of their cloister in the 18th century, the monks proceeded with the demolition of the cloister between 1759 and 1766. The cloister was destroyed, and the grounds were rebuilt using the debris for the foundations. The cloister and its sculptures would fall into obscurity for two centuries, escaping the destruction of the Revolutionary period. Rediscovered in fragments during excavations by Léon Pressouyre between 1963 and 1976, it was reassembled and supplemented with plaster reinforcements.

State of Preservation

The capital is highly fragmented, with the lower part of the capital, from the middle of the basket to the astragal, missing. The head of the angel accompanying Matthew is also incomplete.