Notre-Dame Church of Any Grace of the Plate of ESA

The Église Notre-Dame of Any Grace is a church built in first half of the 20th century, of 1937 with 1946, on the Plateau of ESA, to 1000 m of altitude, vis-a-vis the chain of the Mont Blanc, on the territory of the commune of Passy (Haute-Savoie), on the initiative of the Chanoine Jean Devémy (1896 - 1981), by the Savoyard architect Maurice Novarina. It owes its celebrity with her decoration, carried out by the largest artists of the time. She is regarded as the building-key of the revival of the Sacred art at the XXe century. At the time of its dedication, in 1950, this church resolutely turned towards the Modern art shocked a traditionalist part of the French clergy, accustomed with more classicism.

Since the June 11th 2004, Notre-Dame of Any Grace is classified under the historic buildings.

History

Before the Second world war, the plate of ESA was a considered station sanatoriale, which accommodated the patients reached of the Tuberculose. One then counted there a score of establishments of care ( Sanatorium S ). In some, there was a small vault, in the others the patients were visited by chaplains. But, in this isolated place, there was no church.

As of 1935, the Devémy canon, chaplain of the sanatorium of Sancellemoz, thinks of building a church for the patients and the sedentary personnel of the plate of ESA. It decides, after agreement of Mgr Florent of the Wood of Villerabel, bishop of Annecy, launching a contest of architects which took place in 1937, at the end which it entrusted the realization of the church to the young Savoyard architect Maurice Novarina, which engaged in the construction of a church, without claim, for the construction of which it decided to use materials of the area: a stone of the country (a career was open for this purpose), wood and the slate. Work was entrusted to regional companies. They started in 1938 and were finished, for the carcass work heavy castings, before the declaration of war.

Whereas its church left ground, the Devémy canon wanted to decorate it. He has then at the head only to find a small “jewel” for his church. Friend of the Dominican artist and Marie-Alain Couturier, it is invited by this one with Paris to visit an exposure. He falls in stop in front of a stained glass from Rouault, representing a Christ of Passion . He returns with ESA, looks at measurements of the windows of his church: the work of Rouault is enchased exactly within the stone frameworks! It is, says it “the miracle of ESA”.

In 1941, the church was blessed and the crypt open to the worship.

Description

Architecture

Maurice Novarina, in collaboration with Edouard Malot, built green stone a church of the country, the sandstone of Taveyannaz, designed with the image of the robust Savoyard country cottages. Wrapped sloping roofs able to support heavy loads of snow, in an area where this one is particularly abundant, the building is firmly anchored on the ground.

The church, this motionless arch, is surmounted by a massive Campanile twenty-eight height meters, whose controlled vertical, enables him to form part without clash of tectonics of the landscape, starting again and reducing the structure. In addition, eight massive pillars support a deep hood of cinq  meters. The interior resembles a Romance vault, with a rectangular Nef flanked of two sides. The chorus, in hemicycle, is surrounded by a Déambulatoire and overhangs the Crypte. Various volumes are separated by arcades in semicircular arch assembled on pillars monoliths.

Decoration: an ECRIN of modern works

But what made the international notoriety of Our-Lady-of-All-Grace is its decoration, entrusted by the Devémy abbot to the largest Masters of first half of the XXe century; so the humble church of mountain was transformed into a genuine proclamation of the artistic movements of the time, marking a revival of the Sacred art. By a set of sincere friendships, the abbot contacts, thanks to his friend the Père Dressmaker, the most important artists of the time, who agree all to collaborate in the project with enthusiasm. Among those, Pierre Bonnard, Fernand Leger, Jean Lurçat, German Richier, Georges Rouault, Jean Bazaine, Henri Matisse, Georges Directs, Jacques Lipchitz, Marc Chagall, Constant Demaison, Ladislas Kijno, Claude Mary, Carlo Sergio Signori, Theodore Stravinsky etc signed paintings, sculptures, Tapisserie, stained glasses, ceramics and mosaic.

The artists were selected for their artistic qualities and not for their religious engagement, which caused a sharp polemic ( the quarrel of the Sacred art ).

A genuine proclamation of modern art

In a conference which he pronounced in 1996 in front of the Académie of the Art schools, Maurice Novarina, the architect of the Notre-Dame church of Any Grace, evoked admiration and the recognition which he carried to all the artists who agreed to collaborate in this “architectural epopee”: “They were the great names of the moment, all accustomed to personal actions. None hesitated to carry its talent within the single framework of this church answering a precise religious program, whatever its confession”, and he commented on some of works:

In the church

“Above the entry, the stained glasses of Bazaine, on the level of the platform, are of very an other nature. In the alternation of the yellows and the blue ones, a great flood of victorious light and invincible hope passes”. (Maurice Novarina) “We find, here, the light nuances, the so expensive minor agreements in the middle of Bonnard. However, the perfection of this mauve, floating fabric on bluish distances and orange ciels, does not appear with an inattentive glance; it is necessary to adhere to it with a personal sympathy which receives its answer immediately. For this work carried out a few months before its death, Bonnard had been interested beforehand much in the life of François saint the Dirty ones, this large Doctors of the Church, bishop of Geneva. After long research and long studies, its work was initially exposed to Paris, the Maeght Gallery. In spite of its morbid state and its distance of Paris, Bonnard remembered that he had forgotten the aureole in the portrait of this great saint. It moved, returned especially to Paris to carry out this aureole… and it says then to its entourage: “ Now, really, I can from go away ! ”. (Maurice Novarina) “On the furnace bridge, below ceramics, Braque had carved, of an original and pressing chisel, the symbol eucharistic very often repeated fish, surmounted by the word Ixtus. Unfortunately, work stolen and was ever found. We replaced it by a copy. All the genius of Directs concentrated in this reduced surface, of which it knew to make an admirable act of faith”. (Maurice Novarina)

  • Marc Chagall (1887 - 1985):

    • Passage of the Red Sea (ceramic) to the characters in weightlessness, guided by their covered patriarch of yellow, Braces.
“the baptismal font, located under the bell-tower, was decorated by Chagall, which gave free course to its inspiration by carrying out this ceramics on biblical topics which are familiar for him. We also owe in Chagall two white marble low-reliefs and two stained glasses with the soft colors, intended to materialize the rites and the symbols of the baptism”. (Maurice Novarina) “In Fernand Leger is entrusted the decoration of the wall behind the columns of the porch of the church. It is an immense mosaic carried out by Gaudin. “It is - writing Bernard Dorival - a masterly work of colors and richness, of a monumentality which proved, without any doubt possible, that the artist had found there his field and that it was qualified to measure with this vast wall”. The heavy green granite columns, by a calculated contrast, are used to put forward in counterpoint the admirable mosaic of Fernand Leger who heats, lights and makes radiate the frontage. Fernand Leger added beauty to the one of the most beautiful landscapes of the world, while agreeing with his character. When Leger arrived a beautiful morning on the quay level in front of his masterly work which had just finished, I was at his sides and I held it by the arm. Suddenly, I felt it to waver and it strongly tightened me the hand. Its emotion was large, it had tears in the eyes. This man, of hard aspect like a rock, was of a great sensitivity. I am allowed to say to him: “Main, you are touched by the Grace! ”. A little bougon and full with decency, it leant abruptly towards me and told me some moving words. The light was in him”. (Maurice Novarina)

  • Jacques Lipchitz (1891 - 1973):

    • Virgin (Sculpture)
“On the right of the porch of the church, close to the confessionals, a very beautiful sculpture of Lipchitz marks the entry of the baptismal font. The artist signed his work by these moving words: “Jacob Lipchitz, Jew faithful to the faith of his ancestors, made this Virgin for the good agreement of the men on the ground so that the Spirit reigns”. (Maurice Novarina) “While penetrating in the nave, we are seized and fascinated by the tapestry of Lurçat. Work of visionary, who whirls in a blaze of exuberant forms of black, of white, alternate colors. This monumental tapestry, with the tormented character, worthy of the most beautiful Romance frescos, is a seizing spectacle. Lurçat said to me, a long time ago: “I battled during thirty years to return to wool his frankness”. (Maurice Novarina) “Above the secondary furnace bridges, a ceramics of Matisse represents Saint Dominique, owner of the Dominican ones. André Chastel recognizes in this work “a simple and serious writing”. (Maurice Novarina)

  • German Richier (1904 - 1959):

    • Christ in cross (Sculpture)
“German Richier carried out an extraordinary Christ. She gave him another expression that of an inexpressible suffering. The semi-figurative character of its work involves us with a torn meditation, which leads finally on tenderness and an incomparable love”. (Maurice Novarina) “In connection with the Christ of the pains, Georges Rouault designed the stained glasses which furnish the lower windows with the frontage. Two of these stained glasses are devoted to the scenes of the Passion. In the vault of Deaths appears, under the features of Sainte Veronique, the effigy of the girl of the artist, mixes extraordinary purity and of mystical grace. One notices, with a certain perplexity, the two “stained glasses with the flowers”, which prolong, on both sides entry, the two attitudes of Christ suffering. Each bouquet is underlined by these some notes which disconcert: on the right, “he was maltreated and oppressed” and, on the left, “he did not open the mouth”. Words drawn from the Isaïe prophet and who obviously defer us to Passion. It is the topic of the five stained glasses of Rouault and it is, at the same time, their unit through the verbal trilogy of Passion, the suffering and the disease. Could one better than with the Plate of ESA, place of waiting of health, to associate the suffering under the features of the Christ of the pains, and the hope in the flowered form which evokes it? I point out that Rouault, with which we had proposed this realization, had told us all his joy; but he had added: “Why did you wait until I would be so close to my last voyage to entrust this important work to me? ”. (Maurice Novarina)

  • Carlo Sergio Signori (1906 - 1988)

    • Tank of the baptistry
“the baptismal tank of Signori, out of Carrara marble, with the elegance and the completion of a flower, opening the purity of its chalice with spouting out water of the grace”. (Maurice Novarina)

In the crypt

  • Claude Mary:

    • Gate vault

On the square of the church

  • Gilles Turned russet
    • Plea for the Human rights (monumental Sculpture engraving Stainless steel on concrete, August 2000).

External bonds

  1. Photographs of the Notre-Dame Church of Any Grace of the Plate of ESA

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