Calvary (sculpture)

A calvary is a type of monumental public Christian cross, sometimes encased in an open shrine. Wayside crosses with or more commonly without sculpture can also be found in Devon e.g. the Dartmoor Crosses and Cornwall and in other parts of Britain referred to as High Crosses. Usually a calvary has three crosses, that of Jesus Christ and those of impenitent thief and penitent thief.

History

The oldest surviving ''calvaire'', dating to between 1450 and 1460, is at the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Tronoën in the town of Saint-Jean-Trolimon, in south Finistère, near the Pointe de la Torche. This is raised on a large base which also includes carved representations of the Last Supper and scenes from the passion. Calvaires played an important role in Breton pilgrimages known as Pardons, forming a focal point for public festivals. In some instances the Calvary forms part of an outdoor pulpit or throne.

Calvaires are to be found in large numbers throughout Brittany, and come in many varied forms.

A 16th-century ''calvaire'' from Louargat, Brittany, transplanted to serve as a World War I memorial, stands at the ''Carrefour de la Rose'' near the Belgian town of Boezinge north of Ypres. The most notable Calvary monument outside Brittany is at Lourdes. This was specifically intended to represent Breton Catholicism. It was created by the sculptor Yves Hernot in 1900 as a gift to Lourdes from the main Breton dioceses: Rennes, Vannes, Quimper and Saint-Brieuc. The monument comprises a single central cross set within a raised square base at each corner of which a statue of one of the witnesses to the crucifixion is placed.

In northern France and Belgium, such wayside calvaries erected at the junction of routes and tracks "function both as navigation devices and objects of veneration", Nicholas J. Saunders has observedSaunders, "Crucifix, Calvary, and Cross: Materiality and Spirituality in Great War Landscapes", ''World Archaeology'' 35.1, The Social Commemoration of Warfare (June, 2003:7–21), p. 9. "Since medieval times they have fixed the landscape, symbolically acquiring it for the Christian faith, in the same way that, previously, Megalithic monuments marked prehistoric landscapes according to presumed religious and ideological imperatives".

Gallery

Image:Calvary - Rosary Square - Lourdes 2014.JPG, The ''Breton Calvary'' at Lourdes designed by Yves Hernot.
Image:ND de Tronoën Calvaire 2B.jpg, 15th-century calvaire at Notre-Dame de Tronoën, Brittany.
Image:Bretagne Finistere StJeanTrolimon 11037.jpg, The calvaire at St Jean Trolimon, in Finistère
Image:Saint-Tugen_Calvaire_26061.jpg, Calvaire at Saint-Tugen Chapel, Primelin, Brittany (second half of the 16th century).
File:Hernot.JPG, ''Calvary of Protest'' in Tréguier
File:Paul Gauguin 028.jpg, Paul Gauguin's painting ''The Green Christ'', depictring the Calvary of Névez
File:Castro Barbudo, calvario.JPG, Calvary at Castro Barbudo, Galicia
File:Cruceiro das Trece Cruces, Catoira.jpg, ''Cruceiro'' at Catoira, Galicia
File:Negreira.A Ponte Maceira.Galiza.jpg, A Ponte Maceira, Negreira, Galicia
File:Pastoriza, Arteixo -Casa Villariza 07.jpg, A Pastoriza, Arteixo, Galicia
File:Vilanova de Arousa.Galicia.33.jpg, Vilanova de Arousa, Galicia
File:Guitiriz, S. Pedro de Buriz, Calvario da Graña.JPG, ''Cruceiro'' at Guitiriz, Galicia
File:Cruceiro e ábsida de S. Xoán de Portomarín.JPG, ''Cruceiro'' at Portomarín, Galicia
File:Cruzeiro Milenar.JPG, ''Cruzeiro'' at Argoncilhe, Portugal
File:Jesus Convent 5.JPG, ''Cruzeiro'' at Setúbal, Portugal
File:Cruz 02.JPG, ''Cruzeiro'' at Olival, Portugal
File:Calvaire rue Claie à Aix-sur-Cloie Aubange Belgique.JPG, One of several calvaries in Aix-sur-Cloie, Belgium
File:Cruceiros de Galicia.gif, Several calvaries in Galicia

See also

* High cross, Irish and British sculptures
* Russian Calvary cross
* Memorial cross

References

{{Christian crosses
Breton art
Christian architecture
Cross symbols
*
Galician culture