Luck – Haiku 2024 Thursday Doors

Posted bySuzette BenjaminPosted inPoetryTags:
Autun Cathedral, Burgundy France. Image credit: Rog01 | Flickr CC4.0/ShareAlike2.0

hidden but not lost

spared from time’s vicissitudes

luck opened a door

*

Saint-Lazare Cathedral, Autun, Burgundy, France (Autun Cathedral), consecrated in 1132, was built on the city’s highest hill and on top of an earlier 8th-century church, which was deemed too small to accommodate the increasing numbers of visiting pilgrims.

Trivia #1 and #2:

The story of the Last Judgment Tympanum sculpture above the Main Portal doors, Autun Cathedral.

Back in the 12th century, members of Autun’s Clergy enlisted Master Romanesque sculptor, Gislebertus, to make a fitting grand tympanum for Autun Cathedral’s west portal (Main entrance).

Gislebertus was famous in those days for his skill in the then-new Romanesque French style of sculpture. Gislebertus accepted the commission for the work.

Gislebertus labored on the sculpture of the Last Judgment Tympanum for Autun Cathedral’s main portal for five years from 1130-1135.

His completed work of the Last Judgment Tympanum was accepted and installed above the doors in 1135 (See the present day photo of the *featured doors and tympanum below).

Main Entrance, Autun Cathedral, Burgundy France. Licensed image credit:  © Njarvis5 | Dreamstime

Now, as the story goes…

Fast forward, centuries later, a few members of The Clergy took a sudden disliking to the sculpture for a number of reasons, the key one stated was that they (a few members of The Clergy), did not like the Last Judgment Tympanum’s “Medieval style.” (No one knows for sure what was meant by that assessment, and many theories persist to this day).

Therefore, centuries after its acceptance and installation above the doors to Autun Cathedral’s Main Entrance, suddenly in 1766, certain members of The Clergy ordered that the Last Judgment Tympanum sculpture be plastered over and covered up for good, in situ, under thick layers of unadorned plaster.

And then history records… the French Revolution and the unfortunate effects on state and religious property beginning in 1789…

However, in what turns out to be a stroke of very good luck!

…The now-famous sculpture The Last Judgment Tympanum by Gislebertus above the featured door of Autun Cathedral was spared…

…because members of the French Revolution’s forces were unaware that a religious sculpture was “hidden” under what looked like a blank wall above Autun Cathedral’s Main Entrance doors!

Fast forward many more years later…

In 1837, the famous architect (who restored the great Notre Dame de Paris), Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, was hired to restore Autun Cathedral’s facade which after centuries showed signs of wear from the elements.

It was then, in 1837, that the Last Judgment Tympanum by Gislebertus, his signature and mark chiseled in small letters at the base of the sculpture…

…was discovered/uncovered when what was thought to be a blank wall above Autun Cathedral’s Main entrance door revealed the now-famous work, the Last Judgment Tympanum—A sculpture heralded since its discovery in 1837 as the best example of French Romanesque sculpture of the modern period.

Extra fact: Louis Renault, a legal researcher (jurisprudence) and educator born in Autun, considered one of the founding fathers of International Law, won the 1907 Nobel Prize for Peace, sharing the prize jointly with journalist and peace activist Ernesto Teodoro Moneta.

Autun Cathedral, Burgundy, France. Image credit: Michel Renouleau | Flickr CC4.0

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Published by Suzette Benjamin

Positive thinker, inspirational, writer, faith

43 thoughts on “Luck – Haiku 2024 Thursday Doors”

  3. Beautiful doors. Great poem and a wonderful story, Suzette. Talk about luck! I can’t imagine why they would opt to cover it, but I guess we’re lucky they did.

    I hope you have a great weekend.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yes, what amazing luck, a miracle (I think). I cannot imagine why the sudden need to cover up “Medieval” style but it worked out for good.
      Thank you for your best wishes. And the same blessings to you, Dan.

      Like

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  5. One more magnificent door, and equally beautiful haiku. Love the trivia. After reading the whole post, I find that all important features have been meticulously captured in your haiku.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. oh my word the piece divinely met its destiny.

    That is an amazing journey, it gives me goosebumps just reading through.

    Ah Autun like with the mustard and lavender history made the location of the cathedral exceptional with the excellent Lawyer and Journalist History.

    Love the Serendipity and Intellectual Excellence in the divine Thursday Offering – lovingly captured thoughts in your beautiful haiku.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I like that “divinely met its destiny” It looks pristine covered up and read to shine in the century and beyond. So amazing how things as another blogger commented, happen for good reason not envisoned at the time….!

      Thank you for noting the theme and thread of Burgundy in the last few posts!! Well spotted.

      And may grace shine in every way throughout your day’s ease. Cheers.

      Liked by 1 person

  8. I always enjoy the history with your brilliant poetry, Suzette. Thank you for opening the “doors” (not by luck? 🙂 to our imagination as I dream of visiting such exquisite places of beauty and architecture! Your hard work in research is appreciated! 💛💛💛

    Liked by 1 person

  11. What a story! The locals must have been completely appalled when they first covered that statuary ~ and with an unornamented wall, at that!

    Little could they have imagined then that it would, by the grace of that graceless move, be the very statuary to survive the ages!

    Liked by 1 person

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  17. Adore this haiku and the story behind the doors is fascinating! Isn’t it amazing how things can line up so perfectly? It almost feels like a miracle that the art was saved

    Liked by 1 person

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