Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence

The Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence, (German Rosary Chapel ), also known as " Chapelle Matisse", is a small chapel, built for nuns of the Dominican Order in Vence on the French Riviera and inaugurated on June 25, 1951 by the Bishop of Nice been. It is based on plans by Henri Matisse. The rather plain -looking from the outside, lying on a hill chapel contains, among other wall decorations and stained-glass windows designed by the artist. Matisse described the chapel as his masterpiece.

Formation

" In the chapel, the main task was to bring a filled of light and color face and a blind, only one graphic in black and white animated wall into balance. This chapel is the fulfillment of a whole life devoted to work for me. In it, an enormous, sincere and painstaking effort finally came to blossom. "

As Matisse had been operated on in 1941 in Nice from cancer, he took during convalescence the help of a young nurse, Monique Bourgeois, to complete. She stood him well model and was involved in the preparatory work to Matisse's art book Jazz in whose accompanying the artist's clearest statements formulated with a focus on Christian themes.

1946 decided Monique Bourgeois, as a nun in a convent of Dominican nuns enter in Vence, where she received the name Sister Jacques -Marie. There they met again Matisse, who had bought a house nearby. She planned glass windows for the shed, which served the sisters as a chapel, and asked Matisse to his advice. The artist decided to sell, even to plan the building, windows and equipment, the liturgical vestments and altar cloths themselves, which meant a new experience for him.

Matisse was at this time already 77 years old; Planning and construction of the Rosary Chapel took him four years almost exclusively to complete. There was a new building with the help of brother Rayssiguier, a student of architecture, and under the direction of the architect Auguste Perret. The Dominican priest and critic Marie -Alain Couturier, who was also involved in the artistic features of several Catholic churches after the Second World War, the project followed. The foundation stone was laid in December 1949. Sister Jacques- Marie, who died at the age of 84 years in 2004, wrote in 1992 about the friendly cooperation with Henri Matisse documentation.

Architecture and furnishings of the chapel

The fifteen meters long and six meters wide, L-shaped chapel is built on a hill. The blue and white jagged covered roof carrying a large cross. Above the glass windows of the apse exterior shows a created from ceramic tympanum the Virgin Mary with her son. Inside, the altar in the apse marks the place where the meet the L-forms. The larger room was meant for visitors and students, the smaller for the nuns who lived there and taught.

Link to image ( Please note copyrights )

Link to image ( Please note copyrights )

There are three glass window, three black-and- white murals, a stone altar, a bronze cross, provided with carvings doors and priest clothing. At the glass windows Matisse worked the longest, his designs were made of colored paper cuts that had already been the basis of his work in jazz. He directed The topic of his stained glass forth from the biblical Book of Revelation - an abstract tree of life as a symbol of the golden age adorns the window next to the altar. These consist of narrow strips high, connected by white wall parts, which take over the role of stems; the yellow and blue leaves of the tree of life on a green background have a shovel- shaped. The smaller window in front of the altar is equipped with cactus -like shapes in bright yellow on blue- green background. The other walls are decorated with ceramic plates, wear the black brush drawings: In reduced form, they show the Passion of Christ, the Virgin Mary with the Child and Saints Dominic, founder of the Dominican Order. Matisse at the time was already in his mobility so limited that he with a long rod the image parts placed from a wheelchair in paper form, of which a translation has been adopted in the form of tile artisans.

Copies of Matisse's priest clothes are stored in the Vatican Museum of Modern Religious Art. Sketches of the designs shows the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Literature and Film

• Henri Matisse: La Chapelle du Rosaire. In: Color and likeness. Fischer, Frankfurt 1960, Pages 105-110
• Volkmar Essers: Matisse. Bags, Cologne 2006, ISBN 978-3-8228-6365-7
• Sœur Jacques- Marie: Henri Matisse: La Chapelle de Vence, Grégoire Gardette 2000, ISBN 2-909767-00-0
• A Model for Matisse, Documentary by Barbara F. Freed, 2003
• Rolf Italiaander: Henri Matisse builds a church. In: Time, No. 22/1950