Saulnier, Lydwine, and Neil Stratford. “La sculpture oubliée de Vézelay.” Bibliothèque de la
Société d’Archéologie 17(1984): 27–29, 33–37.
Stoddard, Whitney S. Monastery and Cathedral in France. Middletown: Wesleyan University
Press, 1966.
——. The Sculptors of the West Portals of Chartres Cathedral New York: Norton, 1987.
VICQ
. Located within the diocese of Bourges, the parish of Vicq (Indre) was one of many
highly desirable sites in the 11th and 12th centuries. Although little specific
documentation survives about the Benedictine abbey church of Saint-Martin at Nohant-
Vicq, the parish of Vicq is often mentioned as a possession of Déols, in relation to
surrounding areas and possessions. By the later 12th century, a dispute arose over parish
rights between the priory of Aureil, which had acquired many possessions in the parish,
and Déols. In the end, Déols kept the abbey.
Sometime between the last quarter of the 11th century and the early 12th, the church
of Saint-Martin at Vicq was constructed and later painted. (It was transformed into a barn
in 1700.) No architectural sculpture but much wall painting survives. Inside, each of the
three successive spaces grows increasingly small. Within the rectangular nave, the
transverse wall contains a small entrance into the choir and an enthroned Christ in
mandorla, Apostles, and scenes from the life of Christ and the Virgin. Small windows
illuminate the wall paintings of the life of Christ and scenes from the Old and New
Testaments in the cubic choir and half-round apse. Around the apsidal arch are paintings
of biblical and saintly figures and within the apse a Christ in Majesty.
Stacy L.Boldrick
[See also: ROMANESQUE ART]
Hubert, Jean. “Vic.” Congrès archéologique (Bourges) 94(1931): 556–76.
Kupfer, Marcia. The Romanesque Frescoes in the Church of Saint-Martin at Nohant-Vicq. Diss.
Yale University, 1982.
——.“Spiritual Passage and Pictorial Strategy in the Romanesque Frescoes at Vicq.” Art Bulletin
68(1986).
VIDAME
. Term (Lat. vice-dominus) that originally referred to the lieutenant or stand-in of the lord
of a great seigneurie. Rather early, it acquired a more specialized meaning: the man
responsible for the temporal possessions of a religious house or bishopric. His tasks
involved administering justice and defense, as well as leading the troops whom the
bishop or monastery had to send if the king summoned them to military service. A
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1802