BEAULIEU-SUR-DORDOGNE
(Corrèze). The 12th-century church with magnificent sculptured portal, chapter house,
several reliquaries, and a beautiful Virgin and Child covered in silver repoussé are all that
remain of the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Pierre, founded on the banks of the Dordogne
in the 9th century and affiliated to Cluny at the end of the 11th. Typically Limousin in
detail, the abbey church emulates the plan of the great pilgrimage churches: wide, groin-
vaulted side aisles, galleries (albeit small and dark), transept with apsidioles, ambulatory
with three radiating chapels. An octagonal dome, irregular in shape, crowns the crossing.
The façade dates from the 13th century (with later modifications) and the attached bell
tower from the 14th.
The format of the south portal (ca. 1130–40) appears to follow that of Moissac; the
imagery, however, is novel. Most striking are the appearance of the bare-breasted Christ
displaying his wounds, the prominence accorded the Cross, the seven gesticulating
figures beneath the Apostles, and the double lintel arrangement of apocalyptic and exotic
beasts. The theme of the tympanum, based on Matthew 24 and elements from the
Apocalypse, is the Second Coming, which precedes the final Judgment. The reliefs of the
porch evoke the penitential season of Lent. The whole may be seen as an affirmation of
church doctrines threatened by heretical attack.
Jean M.French
Christe, Yves. “Le portail de Beaulieu, étude iconographique et stylistique.” Bulletin archéologique
du Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques 6 (1971):57–76.
French, Jean M. “The Innovative Imagery of the Beaulieu Portal Program: Sources and
Significance.” Diss. Cornell, 1972. [Summarized in Studies in Medieval Culture 8–9 (1976):
19–30.]
Klein, Peter K. “‘Et videbit eum omnis oculus et qui eum pupugerunt.’ Zur Deutung des
Tympanons von Beaulieu.” In Florilegium in honorem Carl Nordenfalk octogenarii contextum,
ed. Per Bjurstrom, Nils-Goran Hokby, and Florentine Mutherich. Stockholm: Nationalmuseum,
1987, pp. 123–44.
Maury, Jean, Marie-Madeleine Gauthier, and Jean Porcher. Limousin roman. La Pierre-qui-vire:
Zodiaque, 1960.
Vidal, Marguerite, Jean Maury, and Jean Porcher. Quercy roman. La Pierre-qui-vire: Zodiaque,
1969.
BEAUMANOIR, PHILIPPE DE REMI,
SIRE DE
(ca. 1250–1296). Jurist, author, and royal official, Beaumanoir came from the village of
Remy, near Compiègne, where his family held a fief from the abbey of Saint-Denis. He
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