Saint-Lambert

Scaldic Passion Altarpiece

16e siècle, bois polychrome.

L’église Saint-Lambert de Bouvignes est la gardienne de l’un des rares retables de production anversoise du milieu du 16e siècle qui nous soit parvenu. Actuellement, ce retable de la Passion est conservé sur un autel secondaire situé dans le bas-côté sud de l’édifice. Œuvre de l’ébéniste bouvignois Jean Leuthard, cet autel est constitué d’un sarcophage encastré sous une table, en bois peint à l’imitation du marbre. 

Le retable lui-même est en chêne sculpté et polychrome. Il mesure 3,50 m de hauteur sur 2,57 m de largeur et 0,35 m de profondeur. Il est composé d’une partie inférieure de 0,70 mètres de hauteur, appelée « prédelle », et d’une partie supérieure appelée « caisse » ou « huche ». Ces deux parties du retable s’inscrivent dans un rectangle. La caisse est compartimentée en six niches réparties par trois sur deux registres. Chacune de ces niches accueille un groupe sculpté représentant un épisode de la Passion du Christ. Le programme iconographique de l’œuvre lui a donné sa dénomination de « retable de la Passion » ou « retable de la Vraie Croix ».

Réalisé par un atelier anversois peu après le sac de la ville en 1554, il a été offert à l’église par Jean Patenier et son épouse Jeanne Bouille pour figurer sur le nouveau maître-autel. Il s’agit d’un précieux témoin d’inspiration Renaissance dans la vallée mosane.  

Le retable a fait l’objet d’une restauration au début des années 1990 par l’IRPA, grâce au soutien de la Fondation Roi Baudouin et de la Loterie Nationale. Au fil des siècles, l’ensemble a perdu quelques-uns de ses reliefs sculptés et peintures. Des trois panneaux peints qui ornaient à l’origine les trois compartiments de la prédelle, un seul est conservé : il a été retrouvé en octobre 2015 et restitué à l’église Saint-Lambert en février 2016.

En mars 2010, ce chef-d’œuvre a été déclaré « Patrimoine exceptionnel de Wallonie ».

Christ of Pity

1st  half of the 16th century, oak, h. 178 cm high.  

Wearing a crown of thorns, Christ is dressed in a perizonium (cloth around the loins). Bound and seated on a rock, he weeps as he awaits crucifixion. The whole figure is characterised by a contrast between the relatively slender upper part (head and trunk) and the massive aspect of the lower part. This contrast suggests the split between the spirit rising to God and the body imprisoned awaiting crucifixion. The suggestion of movement is evoked by the torsion of the bust and the inclination of the head to the left. The positioning of the right leg, slightly tilted, accentuates this impression. Its large size is quite unusual for this type of work.

It is generally accepted that the Christ of Pity in Bouvignes came from a Brabant workshop, the work of a master whose identity has not been revealed. This oak sculpture commemorates the end of the restoration work on the building after the wars with the people of Liège in the 15th century. Its relocation to the cemetery is attested in 1639. Protected by a lean-to, it was still there at the beginning of the 19th  century, when it was returned to the church.  

The work was partially restored in the 1920s by the Royal Institute for Artistic Heritage (IRPA).

Floreffe Pulpit of Truth

17th  century, oak, attributed to the Valencian sculptor Pierre Schleiff (1601-1640).  

On 9 May 1770, the town's magistrate bought the pulpit of truth from the Premonstratensian abbey of Floreffe, which was in the process of being refurbished, a pulpit that had been missing in Bouvignes until then.  

The start of the staircase is flanked by busts of Saints Paul and Peter. The banister is decorated with cherubs intertwined in the vines. At the corners of the vat, or barrel, are the symbols of the four evangelists: the eagle (St John), the child (St Matthew), the lion (St Mark) and the bull (St Luke). Around the pulpit, medallions include busts of the Virgin Mary, St Augustine, St John and St Norbert, the founder of the Premonstratensians.  

The upper part of the pulpit was surmounted by a canopy designed to support the preacher's voice towards the congregation. Now lost, it came from the chapel of the Augustinians of Bouvignes. The dove, which adorned its centre, is now attached to the cross vaults of the east choir.

Eagle- lectern

Early 17th  century, copper-based alloy, h. 150 cm.  

The lectern is the support for the gospel. The eagle that decorates it symbolises heaven, the soul and the Holy Spirit. The eagle, king of the heavens, has been known since antiquity as a bearer of power and victory. Like Christ confronting the devil, the eagle fights against the snake. It is also associated with the evangelist Saint John. For church lecterns, the eagle holds a globe under its claws, symbolising its universal sovereignty. During the Middle Ages, the brass eagle-lutrin was widely used throughout Europe.  

Because of its position, with its head curved towards its chest, the Bouvignes lectern is sometimes called a pelican-lectern. In iconography, the pelican is represented as piercing its chest to feed its chicks. This theme has been transposed into the liturgy to symbolise the charity, love and sacrifice of Christ. This type of lectern became more common in the 16th  and 17th  centuries.

A light fixture was hung on the bird's head. The work is attributed to the Bouvignois copper smith Antoine de Nassogne († 1621).

Funerary blade

About 1629, copper-based alloy, h. 116 cm.  

It was made for Antoine de Nassogne, who died in 1621, alderman and copper beater, and his wife Marguerite le Bidart, who died in 1629. It is decorated with the Nassogne-Bidart coat of arms. It shows a wild man armed with a club carried on his shoulder and surmounting a helmet in profile, coats of arms, a small cauldron and a winged angel's head.  

The blade used to be in the choir of the church. It was broken by a falling bell and restored shortly before 1888.

The treasure room (winter chapel)

At the instigation of the church's Fabrique, this space was converted into a winter chapel in 2008 to accommodate the faithful during Sunday services. It houses the church treasury, including numerous pieces of liturgical silverware. Exceptionally, the church has kept practically all the chalices of its servants since the end of the 17th  century.

The new high altar

2014, glass table supported by two hands representing those of Christ, copper-based alloy, h. 93.50 cm.  

The work of the artists Simon Lewi (1924-2020) and Piotr Stolowsky. Similar altars are preserved in the church of Sainte-Croix de La Futaie in Watermael-Boitsfort; Saint-Joseph in Wezembeek-Oppem and Saint-Antoine de Padoue in Etterbeek. Saint Michael's Cathedral in Brussels also has a remarkable group of works, including an altar with two pelicans, an eagle and a Paschal candle, which can be admired in the Chapel of the Virgin Mary. In Bouvignes, the artist also made the cathedra of the Saint-Lambert church (seat where the priest who presides over religious services sits).