// OAK / POLYCHROMY
// L. 60 x W. 13 x h. 23 CM

// SINGLE PIECE

This oak element is often known only to the Bretons, although they are not the only ones to use it. An essential part of the framework, the runner is a horizontal beam supported on the wall; it supports the loads of a floor or more generally a part of the vertical loads of the building. Before installing this delicate piece, a bed of sand was traditionally placed in the area reserved for it. As the element was placed, the sand flowed slowly and gently as the beam took its place, thus ensuring its perfect stability and horizontality. Because of the special precautions taken for its installation, the beam was called a sandpit.

Much higher up than the stained glass windows or the works of art offered to the faithful, the runners offered a convenient space for artistic expression which carpenters and joiners seized upon between the end of the 15th and the 17th centuries.

A curious walk through the Breton churches reveals the regional specificity of these carpentry elements. Two characteristics allow us to better understand their forms. The first is that the location of the runners, often very high, regularly in the shade, sometimes makes it difficult to read the ornaments. The second reason is that the location is not conducive to religious discourse, so secular subjects are tolerated and the imagination of the craftsmen is free. Hence an astonishing diversity of fanciful subjects borrowing from the daily life of the time as well as from legends awakening pagan memories. For a long time, Christianity had no choice but to live in harmony with the resurgence of local myths and creatures inherited from ancient cults.

Breton carpenters and joiners carved their creations in high relief to ensure their visibility. Our sandpit bears witness to these confident gestures. Without hesitation or apprehension, the wood chisels carve a dragon that the craftsmen imagine to be polychrome by nature as much as by necessity: the color catches the light on this high relief, attracting the eye where it would not normally be drawn. With its gaping mouth, sharp fangs and forked tongue, the monster is not difficult to identify. Paradoxically, the dragon is nevertheless the most polymorphous of all medieval creatures. Its crocodile head - at least reptilian - is probably the only stable aspect of its physiognomy. Nothing is more shifting than the dragon. Both evil and diabolical, the Church wisely reminds us that no creature can be evil by nature, for God has fashioned it. Should the dragon be forgiven? In Brittany, Celtic influences do not forget its beneficial influence inherited from Eastern mythologies. The dragon is powerful, a formidable adversary and at the height of royal greatness, sometimes at its service; let's remember many Breton coats of arms. The monster defends hidden treasures, ferociously fights archangels and other saints as well as devours sinners on the Last Judgment. Like the fox or the owl, the dragon sows trouble; it is one of the most freely sculpted creatures on Breton sandpits. Invited to the heart of a sacred place, it seems to question our certainties. Can we really freeze the symbolism of this creature that literally carries the church on its shoulders?

Text by Marielle Brie

PRICE ON REQUEST