mardi 1 octobre 2013

Fresques historiques d'Andelot IV / Andelot historical murals IV

Here is another one...I installed it by mid-July. This is one more astonishing example of the richness of the history of this small community.
Around 1432 , after Joan of Arc'c trial and execution , two "chevaliers" of Andelot where commissioned to take part to the Joan's rehabilitation trial.
In these times Andelot was in fact the official legal center of a vast territory which included Domrémy, Joan's home town ...where she grew up, as a shepherdess, and heard her "voices" ( God telling her to go help Charles IV become king and kick our british neighbours out of french kingdom !)
The two men rode to Domrémy and gathered information about Joan's life and personality  from different local witnesses.
Their report said that Joan was certainly not a witch and on the contrary a good christian. This of course  was not what Joan's opponents ( led by the bishop Cauchon) wanted to hear and the local authority, the Bailly of Chaumont ( larger city ruling over Andelot ), was not happy at all with the chevalier's report.

I have represented this confrontation , on one side the chevaliers and their men, on the other the Bailly and some priests or bishops and their guards.
In the background, Joan in the middle of a furious battle , in the foreground the chevaliers riding to Domrémy...
My source of inspiration for the composition was a marvelous painting by Albert Herter.


Friday morning , 9 am; I have stapled up the whole canvas on the plywood panels and am about to start applying the glue on the right half.

Around 11 am, I have had a hard time installing this one but I did it.


After installing another mural in some other part of the village I came back on the evening and took a picture without the scaffolding in front.


A proud soldier

An old dude and a curious soldier

The two chevaliers of Andelot


The chevaliers galloping towards Joan's place.

Joan of Arc, legendary.

Joan's home in Domrémy, I remember visiting this house when I was a kid. This is a special place in our history; this weird green stands for the "strangeness" of this whole story and the reds and oranges for the flames of Joan's pyre.


The confrontation.