beyond the east end. Royal patronage financed much of the early construction. Conrad,
uncle of Charles II the Bald, ordered a wax model of the basilica to ensure the outcome of
his funds before building took place. The abbey church originally had a bell tower in
front of the church, three parallel apses, cruciform piers, and a tower-framed façade. The
abbey church has a 9th-century crypt with Carolingian frescoes and an upper church with
a 13th-century choir and 15th-century nave.
Stacy L.Boldrick
Denny, Don. “A Romanesque Fresco in Auxerre Cathedral.” Gesta 25(1986):197–202.
Louis, René. Autessiodurum christianum: les églises d’Auxerre des origines au XIe siècle. Paris:
Clavreuil, 1952.
Vallery-Radot, Jean, Marcel Aubert, Paul Deschamps, and Jean Lafond. “Auxerre.” Congrès
archéologique 116(1958):26–96.
AVALLON
. The church of Saint-Lazare at Avallon (Yonne) is a modification of Romanesque
Vézelay, 8 miles west. The nave and aisles were constructed in the 1140s in front of an
older sanctuary and crypt. The nave consists of five bays flanked by aisles, with a nave
arcade, blank wall above it, and a clerestory. Nave and aisles are crowned by groindomed
vaults. The elevation replicates that of the church of La Madeleine at Vézelay, but the
spaces of Avallon are thinner and taller than those of Vézelay. This slight shift in
proportions is the result of domical profiles of vaults in each bay. No capitals animate
piers, as in Vézelay.
The choir is 30 feet lower than the pavement in the western bay of the nave. A series
of steps, adjacent to the nave piers, lowers the level. This change is echoed by the
lowering of the molding that establishes the bottom of the clerestory. This simplified
variant of the Vézelay interior elevation, combined with sensitive treatment of a difficult
site, makes Avallon an interesting structure.
Only two of the three west portals have survived, and only one of the seven jamb
statues is in situ. The tympanum of the right portal depicts the Adoration of the Magi,
Journey of the Magi, and the Magi before Herod. Although related to Vézelay sculpture,
figures are thinner and more attenuated. Ornament, smothering bases and archivolts,
represents the late, baroque flowering of Romanesque Burgundian sculpture. The lone
jamb figure is clearly influenced by the west portals of Chartres, finished by the mid-
1140s, but the head remains Burgundian.
Whitney S.Stoddard
[See also: VÉZELAY]
Lasteyrie, Robert de. L’architecture religieuse en France a l’époque romane. Paris: Picard, 1929,
pp. 433–34, 599.
Porter, A.Kingsley. Romanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads. 2 vols. Boston: Marshall
Jones, 1923, Vol. 1, p. 130; Vol. 2, pp. 137–41.
Stoddard, Whitney S. The Sculptors of the West Portals of Chartres Cathedral. New York: Norton,
1987.
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