REPORT – The Draguignan Museum of Fine Arts is hosting this summer an exhibition dedicated to a chapel restored by artists, friends of Marguerite and Aimé Maeght. The opportunity to enter into the intimacy and passions of the couple.
Special envoy to Arcs-sur-Argens (Var)
A patron saint, artist friends and a world of art for eternity… It is 4 kilometers from the medieval village of Arcs-sur-Argens (Var), in a 13th century chapel.e century today included in a wine estate, that the values and passions of the Maeght couple can perhaps be read at their most intimate. These supporters of some of the greatest visual artists of the post-war period can rest in peace in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. They have given themselves the means to do so here.
Inconsolable after the death of their second son, Bernard, who died of leukemia at the age of 11 in 1953, Marguerite, as a good Provençal Christian, had sought comfort in particular from Saint Roseline, a Carthusian sister from the Middle Ages canonized in the 19th century.eIn 1962, after believing she was going to die during a trip to the United States, she again recommended herself to this nun, to whom many regenerative miracles are attributed – notably that of making rain fall, if we are to believe the annual local pilgrimage still in force.
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Six years later her wish was granted: Jules, her first and only grandson, was born. Then, in the manner of what was customary under the Ancien Régime among the nobles, Marguerite undertook to finance the entire restoration of the dedicated chapel. And, for its interior decoration, she called on friends. Who agreed to collaborate freely, only too happy to be able to return the favor with their creations to their devoted merchants.
Popular piety
Diego Giacometti designed two bas-reliefs, unique pieces in his production. In a curiously neo-Egyptian style, the first depicts the miracle of the roses (the flower metaphorizing the gift needed by the poor). Also, for a reliquary niche, he modeled a pair of doors with floral handles. Otherwise, we admire on site, in front of the altar, similarly cast in bronze, an imposing lectern with plant motifs. It refers to the crown of thorns of the Christs painted all around.
The stained glass windows are abstract. Bazaine’s filter the day with a blue that matches the lapis lazuli backgrounds of the painted scenes. Ubac’s, in the choir, tint the air with the red of the Passion. A few years after their installation, Chagall came to complete the ensemble by covering the right wall with the largest of his interior mosaics. In the same pastel blue-pink atmosphere, we discover a group of picnicking angels, reminiscent of the joyful meals taken outdoors in Saint-Paul-de-Vence.
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No flashy avant-gardism on either side of these spans. The new aesthetic of the turn of the 1970s harmonizes ideally here with the traditional expressions of . In contact with recent additions the sacred character of the central altarpiece, dated from the beginning of the 17th centuryeand also that of Roseline’s remains permanently exposed in her glass shrine even seem reinforced.
The Maeghts titled their art review Behind the mirror. And, in fact, in this chapel, between local faithful and international tourists, one really does believe oneself to be there. Twelve kilometers further north, in Draguignan, the Museum of Fine Arts is offering for its first major exhibition since its reopening last November, sketches, documents and testimonies relating to this well-understood artistic modernization of an ancient place of worship. A portrait of Saint Roseline by Nicolas Mignard (1606-1668) from Washington is displayed alongside that of Marguerite Maeght by Alberto Giacometti (on loan from the Foundation).
Until September 22 at the Museum of Fine Arts, 9, rue de la République, Draguignan (83). Catalog Le Passage, 108 p., €15. Tel.: 04 98 10 26 85. mba-draguignan.fr
