Wall Paintings and Spirituality in the Templars and Hospitallers: a status quaestionis for France

Abstract

The articles points out the historiographical partitionings which have led scholars to deal with spirituality and liturgy of the military orders without even suspecting the rich visual background of the commanderies. On their side, most of Art historians have studied the paintings of the conventual chapels without considering their historical background and, above all, the deep originality of military monasticism. It is possible then to offer an assessment, necessarily temporary, on the iconographic corpus preserved for the Templars and the Hospitallers in current France. The inventory of the painted images which have been preserved is not only provisory; it is not entirely significant as it is mostly reflecting the state of researches and as new findings can always enlarge the known material. From a chronological perspective, some scattered traces of ornamental decorations are remaining from the second half of the twelfth century, but most of the figurative images can be assigned to the last decades of the thirteenth century. Are these lieux d’images (using a french concept) revealing specificities which could be linked to the peculiar regular life which was followed in the commanderies? In other words, was the visual culture or the figurative thought of the military orders somehow distinctive?