Poster Art for Sale: Languedoc-Roussillon
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Carcassonne.
The only Catholic Churchman generally recognised as
having acquitted himself with honour during the whole
period of Cathar represion was a Franciscan friar
called Bernard Delicieux. He is shown here releasing
prisoners who had been condemned by Inquisitors to
the "mur" - walled up alone in the cold
dark cells for years. Delicieux was eventually charged
with treason by his Dominican enemies.
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Jean-Paul Laurens.
One subject became a recurrent motif in many of his
easel works. Taken from an 11th Century chronicle
by R. de Coggeshall, the quarrels between the second
Capetian sovereign and the church provided Laurens
with his first theme.
His famous portrayal of "L'Excommunication de
Robert le Pieux" (Excommunication of Robert the
Pious) (1875) presents a dramatised version of the
sanction imposed on the king of France, guilty of
having married his distant cousin, Berthe.
"L'Interdit" (The Interdict) - painted
in the same year - shows abandoned corpses cut off
from the grace of God outside a boarded up chapel
door where the sacraments are no longer delivered
- a warning about the ensuing disaster for France.
Repression of Albigensian heresy was Laurens' second
favourite theme. It was through the character Bernard
Délicieux that Laurens resurrected this part
of French history as described by the historian Bernard
Haureau. His inspiration also came from the Latin
manuscript of the inquisition trials.
In "La Délivrance des emmurés
de Carcassonne" (Freeing of the imprisoned of
Carcassonne) (1879, Carcassonne town hall), Laurens
illustrated the riots caused by the sermons of Délicieux,
the Franciscan friar who stood up against the excesses
of the religious courts in the 1300s.
In a confrontation in "L'Agitateur du Languedoc"
(The Agitator of Languedoc) (1887) he is shown boldly
facing the judges.
The series is concluded with the painting "Après
la Question" (After the question) (1882), which
soberly portrays the mortal remains of the monk being
taken back to the dungeon after the torture.
The Inquisition is a theme that occurs in other works
by Laurens. Depicting the dangers of religious intolerance
and fanaticism, Laurens multiplied his variations
on this theme with, for example, Les Murailles du
Saint-Office (The walls of the Holy Office) (1883)
depicting the role of the pope's hidden advisor; Le
Pape et l'Inquisiteur (The Pope and the Inquisitor)
(1882) showing Sixtus IV with Torquemada who is examining
the Papal Bull making him Inquisitor General of Castilla
and Aragon in 1483; Le Grand Inquisiteur chez les
Rois catholiques (The Great Inquisitor in the time
of the Catholic kings) (1886) depicting the decision
to persecute Jews in the Spanish kingdom; Les Hommes
du Saint-Office (Men of the Holy Office) (1889) showing
the effectiveness of an entire institution at the
service of repression in this portrayal of Inquisitors
examining the files of those whose lives were in the
balance.
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