ROMANESQUE PAINTER, French
(active c. 1100 in Central France)

Fresco cycle

c. 1100
Fresco
Abbey Church, Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe (Vienne)

The fresco cycle in the vault of the monastery church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe narrates stories from the Old Testament in a rather confusing sequence. The artist had the task of representing the story of Moses, from the creation of the world until his death, and it had to be told by means of selected and exegetically representative scenes which were to be distributed all over the vaulted ceiling. As a result, the story of the Bible turns into a concise account of the history of civilization of the medieval world.