The elevation, vaulting, and architectural details show the influence of Cluny. The plan
features a nave of seven bays flanked by single aisles, projecting transept arms, and a
choir of two bays with single aisles. Small apses terminate the aisles with a larger central
apse behind the altar. The three-story elevation has a lower arcade with pointed arches
that is twice the height of the upper stories, a triple-arched passage for the triforium, and
a clerestory with a single opening in each bay. A pointed barrel vault spans the nave,
transept, and choir. The aisles are groin-vaulted, and a dome on squinches surmounts the
crossing. Fluted pilasters of classical inspiration extend from the springing of the
transverse ribs of the vaults through the compound piers of the arcade.
The sculptural program of Saint-Lazare has exterior decoration on the west-façade
tympanum and north-transept portal along with about fifty capitals and the tomb with
relics of St. Lazarus on the interior. The west tympanum is still in situ; fragments and
some of the capitals are preserved in the upper sacristy and the Rolin Museum. The
inscription GISLEBERTUS Hoc FECIT on the west tympanum identifies the sculptor,
and his work displays a consistent style and quality. In the Last Judgment of the west
tympanum, the static abstract presence of Christ at the center contrasts with the active
elongated figures of the elect and the damned to the sides. The expressive quality of
Gislebertus’s sculpture appears in the contortions of the damned and in the gentle touch
with which angels raise the elect. This artistic range continues in the historiated capitals,
where Gislebertus depicts torment, as in the Suicide of Judas or the tender bond between
the Virgin and Child in the Flight into Egypt. The reclining Eve from the lintel of the
north portal, a rare medieval portrayal of a female nude, is both sensuous and sensitive.
Because of the unity of its architecture and sculpture, Autun is one of the best preserved
and most outstanding monuments of Romanesque art in France.
Karen Gould
[See also: GISLEBERTUS; ROMANESQUE ART]
Grivot, Denis, and George Zarnecki. Gislebertus, Sculptor of Autun. New York: Orion, 1961.
AUVERGNE
. Region of central France, comprising roughly the present-day départements of Puy-de-
Dôme, Cantal, and Haute-Loire. Auvergne formed part of the subkingdom of Aquitaine
under the young Louis the Pious (779–840; king of Aquitaine from 781). In the late 9th
century, it became part of the dominions of the duke of Aquitaine, William I the Pious (d.
918).
By ca. 986, Gui (Wido), the hereditary viscount at Clermont, had taken the title of
count. From this same family came also the 10th- and 11th-century bishops of Clermont.
Nevertheless, the count’s regional power was weak, while the dukes of Aquitaine—a title
now held by the counts of Poitou—were only nominal overlords. Political and economic
power in the 10th and 11th centuries was exercised by numerous castellans, aristocratic
families who held and resided in castles. Their impact was great enough to shift
settlement patterns: the earlier villages of the fertile plains gave way to nucleated villages
centered on hilltop castles. Important patrons of monasteries and cathedral chapters,
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