A chapel set on a mountainous site, ‘with a campanile that is slim, tall,rounded in plan and rendered, distinct from the main body of the church’;
it has been suggested that this could be a description of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, the chapel famously built by
Le Corbusier in 1954. Instead, this is a description of Notre-Dame du Bon Conseil at Lourtier in Switzerland built by the Italian architect Alberto Sartoris
in 1932.
Dennis Sharp writes: ‘Born in Turin, Sartoris trained as an architect in
Switzerland and became one of the leading theorists and writers of the Modern
Movement. Sartoris was the man who put the word “functionalist” into the
architectural vocabulary …
"Our” movement in this context means the modern tendency started by
the group of architects under Le Corbusier. The Functionalist Group was
officially founded at La Sarraz in 1928 and called CIAM (Congrés Internationaux
d’Architecture Moderne) …
Alberto Sartoris was Le Corbusier’s choice as the Italian representative to
CIAM.’
As Robin Evans remarks in 'The Projective Cast,' ‘given that a photograph of the chapel was published in Sartoris’ influential book Architecture Nouvelle in1948, it’s impossible to think Le Corbusier was unaware of it’.
Prior to Maurice Novarina’s Church of Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce du Plateau d'Assy and more radical in design, this was the first modern church in an
Alpine setting. As a young architect, Sartoris agreed to rebuild, for a modest
sum, the original church which had been destroyed by fire. He had the support
of the villagers and the clergy but, once consecrated, his design was attacked
in the Gazette de Lausanne under the title of ‘The scandal Lourtier’.
This attack on Sartoris’ design would have been because of the factors
which Thomas Muirhead has identified as characterizing his work: ‘Sartoris
believed that modernist architecture must be based on a renunciation of useless
and superfluous elements, a respect for true tradition, an harmonious
distribution of line and colour, a rhythmical mastery of contrast and
assonance, and the investigation of a specific style.’ Accordingly Sartoris’ design
for Notre-Dame du Bon Conseil is clean, spare and minimalist. Internally, the
church is a simple white rectangle with a sleek arched wooden roof. Both the ceiling’s
planks and the grey-painted wooden pews draw the eye to the sanctuary wall containing
two large stained glass windows by Albert Gaeng.
The Futurist painter Fillia wrote that Sartoris’ plans for a Cathedral in Fribourg showed the direction that modern sacred architecture should take. His
description of these plans as ‘a play of volumes that define an absolutely
original rhythm and achieve a result of constructive severity that is of the
greatest significance’ could equally apply to Sartoris’ achievement at Lourtier.
Fillia and Sartoris collaborated on publications to do with futurism and
architecture. In one such article, published in November 1932, Fillia gave notice
that Sartoris had selected one of his ‘religious works to decorate a new
Rationalist church he has constructed’.
This was a mural based on Fillia’s painting Nativity-Mystical-Motherhood
of 1932 which was originally in the sanctuary recess between Gaeng’s two
windows. The mural has since been painted over and replaced by a small
sculpture.
Between 1928 and 1930 the futurist artist Fillia spent time in Paris with Gino Severini. During this time he also saw Severini's work in the Swiss churches of
Semsales and La Roche. The end of 1930 then saw a decisive reorientation of
Fillia's work towards sacred art which culminated in 1931 with the publication
of the 'Manifesto of Futurist Sacred Art' on the occasion of the International
Exhibition of Modern Christian Sacred Art in Padua, which had a Futurist
section of twenty two works by thirteen artists.
By these means the anti-clerical art of the Futurists inspired a flowering
of religious painting that constitutes one of the most unexpected episodes in
the history of that movement. Futurism eulogised the beauty of speed and the
energies and machines that produced it. Futurists saw themselves as “immersed
in the chaos of an old, crumbling era” but “partaking of the vibrations of a
new epoch in the process of formation.” They embraced continual progress and
viewed Catholic priests as fatally associated with old order hating “the
fleeting, the momentary, speed, energy and passion.” Not fertile ground for a
flowering of religious art, one would have thought.
Yet Marinetti, the great theorist of Futurism, maintained a significant
distinction between Christ and the Catholic Church that led to the explosion of
Futurist religious art which appeared in the 1930s. The “precious essence of
Christ’s morals,” he argued, “accorded every right, every pardon and every
sympathy to the impassioned fervour, to the fickle flame of the heart.”
Marinetti’s ‘Manifesto of Futurist Sacred Art’ appeared in 1931 and further
exacerbated the movement’s conflict with the Catholic Church by stating that
“only Futurist artists … are able to express clearly … the simultaneous dogmas
of the Catholic faith, such as the Holy Trinity, the Immaculate Conception and
Christ’s Calvary.” Pope Pius XI responded in a speech of 1932 by saying that
”Our hope, Our ardent wish, Our will can only be … that such art will never be
admitted into our churches …”
Marinetti had argued that only Futurists could express the simultaneous
dogmas of the Catholic faith because only they had “addressed the complex
matter of simultaneity” in their art.
Accordingly, a key feature of Futurist
sacred art is the bringing together within the same picture frame of key events
from the life of Christ. The convoluted titles of many of these works, such as
Fillia’s 'Madonna and Child / Nativity / Nativity-Death-Eternity', indicate
clearly the telescoping of events that can be found in these works. This work
sets an semi-abstract/cubist Madonna and Child in front of a sky-filled cross
in front of a mountain in front of a rock in front of a globe ringed by the
outlines of churches as seen through the ages. Marinetti described this work as
“an impressive amalgamation of the concrete and the abstract; a synthesis of the
long development of Catholicism through the centuries.”
It is, when set alongside other works by Fillia, an example of a set of
identikit symbols – saint, cross, globe, mountain, churches – that several
Futurists juggle in works that sit uncomfortably between the later cubism of
Gleizes and the surrealism of Giorgio de Chirico. Not all Futurist sacred art
is of the poster book style and imagery of Fillia however. Giuseppe Preziosi,
for example, also used simultaneity in his Annunciation-Nativity-Death but here
the subtler harmonies of his colours combine with the interpenetrating planes
of his subjects to integrate Christ’s birth and death within the work.
Gerardo Dottori, known as the ‘mystic’ Futurist, made use of similar
techniques to create in his 'Crucifixion' of 1928 one of the genuine masterpieces
of Futurist sacred art. His crucified Christ is picked out in a heavenly
spotlight which also surrounds the two Mary’s grieving at his feet. Light also
emanates from the upper half of Christ’s body and outstretched arms
illuminating the darkened sky that has thrown the landscape of Calvary into
turmoil. Dottori’s stylistic use of light symbolises both Christ’s obedience to
God’s will and the light of salvation that his death brings into a world
darkened by sin.
Dottori also makes use of a second key theme in Futurist sacred art; that
of flight as a symbol of transcendence. His Annunciation in an Aerial Temple
sees Mary literally caught up in her spirit by the news that Gabriel brings (an
anticipation of her own Assumption, perhaps) and gives us an angelic
perspective on the event. Aeropainting was a major strand of Futurist art and
this interest in flight became a symbol firstly of physical liberation from the
earth and then of spiritual ascent. The Trinity, the Madonna, as well as the
expected Angels, all appear winged and in flight within these works.
One of the most striking of all the flight images is Nino Vatali’s
Ascension where Christ ascends on the cross in stop-frame images that build a Jacob’s
ladder ascending to the heavens. Whether the imagery of the cross as a ladder
from earth to heaven was consciously in Vitali’s mind as he painted or whether
he was simply transposing a Futurist technique with a sacred theme, the image
and imagery remain powerful.
Only Futurist aeropainters, Marinetti argued, “are able to express in
plastic terms the abyssal charm and heavenly transparencies of infinity.”
Again, his rhetoric tends to exceed the resulting works but, for all that,
their Futurist sacred art forms a fascinating subject that extends our
understanding of the influence of sacred themes and imagery in early twentieth
century European art even where artists and the Church were conflicted.
Gaeng, by contrast with these artists, was part of the St Luc Group which
had been founded by Alexandre Cingria. Sartoris knew Cingria but said in one
interview that, when he saw Cingria’s work at St-Martin de Lutry-Paudex, he
felt no religious feeling, making the choice of Gaeng, for Lourtier, a
surprising one. After completing at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Geneva he went
to Paris to study at the Atelier de l’Art Sacré set up by Maurice Denis and
Georges Desvalliéres. After meeting Antoine Bourdelle and Gino Severini, he
assisted Severini with the decoration of St Nicholas Semsales. The St Luc Group
also contributed to the decoration of Semsales. From 1926 to 1936 Gaeng was
almost entirely devoted to the decoration of churches (stained glass, mosaics
and frescos) in the cantons of Vaud, Valais, Fribourg and Jura.
Gaeng’s sanctuary windows, which depict St George on the left and St John
the Evangelist before the Porta Latina on the right, are dark, dramatic and
dense in detail. Coloured lines of force and movement cross rectangles constructed
without significant use of lead lines. His later windows from 1956 which depict
the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary are, by contrast, lighter, brighter and
with a futurist energy and aspect. Gaeng then supplements the figurative
windows with purely abstract designs that draw on the coloured grids of
Mondrian.
Lourtier is to be found among the imposing alpine architecture of snow-capped peaks in the Val de Bagnes, one of Switzerland's
largest nature reserves. Opposite Notre-Dame du Bon Conseil is a viewing area with
panoramic views looking down the valley, the river falling steeply away under
the bridge connecting two halves of the village. Erratic roofs straddle narrow
switchback roads surrounded by kush terraced pastures; old traditions and untamed
nature living side by side.
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Bill Fay - This World.
