Following up on a post of two days ago, here are some more pictures which Nicola took in the abbey of St John in Müstair, Switzerland. The previous post showed the remains of the original fresco decorations of the Carolingian period; here will will see the Romanesque frescos in two of the churches three apses. (Unfortunately, the central apse is currently under restoration.) Here we see the apses from the outside.
Around the year 1200, when the abbey was over 4 centuries old, a new community of Benedictine nuns took possession of it, and commissioned a redecoration of the church’s interior; the new frescoes largely reproduced the iconographic program of the older one. (In the left apse seen here, we have episodes from the lives of Ss Peter and Paul.) As was done in countless other places, the older layer of fresco (from the first decades of the 9th century) was knocked full of holes to make it rougher, so the new layer would have more to grip on to. In this particular case, however, the procedure did not work very well, and much of the new layer simply slid off, exposed the older one. The frescoes were then further damaged by architectural changes at the end of the 15th century. Given all these vicissitudes, it is still remarkable how much remains, and how good a state it is in, relatively speaking.
At the top (Carolingian), the scene of the traditio Legis. Second register, left, Peter and Paul meet in Rome, right, the contest with Simon Magus. Third register: left, Nero condemns the Apostles. Under the window (the first surviving part of the Romanesque work), Peter and Paul praying, and the fall of Simon. In the bottom register, the deaths of the Apostles and their burial.
In the right apse, at top (Carolingian), Christ in majesty surrounded by the symbols of the Evangelists, and the Virgin Mary in a medallion at his feet. In the second register, the ordination of St Stephen (?) and the celebration of a Mass. In the third register (Romanesque), the ordination of St Stephen, his mission, his speech to the Sanhedrin. At the bottom, his stoning, the preparation of his body, and his burial.
The older fresco work was rediscovered in 1894, when layers of plaster which had covered most of the church for over four centuries were removed, As part of a major restoration carried out between 1947 and 1951, many of the fragments were removed from the wall, and are now displayed in the abbey museum. Here we see a part of one of the ten wise virgin in the parable of the lamps in Matthew 25, 1-13...
and Christ as He receives them.
Fragments an Ascension scene originally in the central apse.
The mythological figure of Atlas.
and more of the disputation with Simon.
A general schema of the decorations of all three apses. The central part is dedicated to the abbey’s titular Saint, John the Baptist; the surviving Romanesque frescoes in the lower part show the banquet of Herod and the burial of John’s body.
