In Albi, in the Tarn region of southern France, where the Cathedral is claimed to be the largest brick building in the world. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010. Whilst it has quite an austere exterior, the inside is richly decorated with frescoes and sculpures in the Southern French Gothic style (gothique méridional), which arose in the early thirteenth century following the victory of the Catholic Church over the Cathars. The main part of the cathedral was constructed between 1282 and 1300, with the 78 metre tall bell tower being added between 1355 and 1366. Much of the interior decoration was completed in the fifteenth century.

The rood screen, which separates the chancel and the nave, was made of filigree stone between 1474 and 1483. It is highly ornamental and surrounds the entire choir. Whilst it was threatened with destruction during the French Revolution and many of the statues on its outer face were smashed, fortunately the screen itself survived.

The fifteenth-century rood screen

The nave is 97 metres long, 30 metres high, and 19 metres wide and its walls and vaults are entirely covered with decoration.

The nave with its decorated vaults

The vaults of the choir

The mural of the ‘Last Judgement’ on the interior of the western front was painted at the end of the fifteenth century. Most of it is now in two parts as some of the central figures, including Christ and Archangel Michael, were removed in 1693 to make a doorway into the Chapel of Saint Clair. The upper part of the fresco depicts sinners awaiting judgement, whilst below are the torments of those condemned.

‘Last Judgement’ fresco (Fifteenth century)

The Treasury is a vaulted chamber attached to the ambulatory on the north side of the cathedral. It was constructed in the late thirteenth century and used to keep precious objects as well as the church archives.

‘Life of the Virgin and Child’ polyptych (Fourteenth century)

Chest containing relics of Saint Ursula (Fourteenth century)

At the Musée Goya in Castres for the exhibition ‘Goya dans l’œil de Picasso’, part of a series of fifty exhibitions being held throughout Europe to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Picasso’s death in 1973. This exhibition celebrates the links between the two great Spanish masters and in particular shows the influence of Francisco Goya on the career of Pablo Picasso.

Both artists shared a fascination with the tradition of bullfighting in Spain and both depicted it in their drawings, engravings and paintings and some of these form the main part of the exhibition. Examples of Goya’s print series ‘La Tauromaquia’, which consisted of thirty-three works completed between 1815 and 1816, were displayed alongside some of the twenty-six aquatints produced by Picasso for the 1957 republication of the bullfighting manual ‘La Tauromaquia’.

Francisco Goya ‘The Agility and Audacity of Juanito Apiñani in the Ring at Madrid’ (1816)

Francisco Goya ‘Another madness of his in the same ring’ (1816)

Pablo Picasso ‘Salto con la Garrocha’ (Pole Vault) (1959)

Pablo Picasso ‘El Picador Obligando al Toro con su Pica’ (1959)

Towards the end of his life, when almost blind, Goya produced four large lithographs, ‘The Bulls of Bordeaux’, which focussed on the bullrings and the attending crowds. Picasso also concentrated on the bullring in three coloured tracing papers produced for the documentary film ‘The Mystery of Picasso’ in 1956. Also displayed was Picasso’s more abstract depiction, ‘Corrida’, from 1935.

Francisco Goya ‘ El Famoso Americano, Mariano Ceballos’ (1825)

Pablo Picasso ‘Corrida’ (1955)

Pablo Picasso ‘Corrida’ (1955)

Pablo Picasso ‘Corrida’ (1935)

Both Goya and Picasso created hybrid, monstrous beings, possibly evoking the times they had lived through. Goya went into exile in Bordeaux after engraving ‘The Disasters of War’ and ‘Los Disparates’ and, now deaf, shut himself away in a world where he created his irrational monsters. Picasso had lived through two world wars and the Spanish Civil War and depicted his life through the figure of the Minotaur, which embodies his alter ego.

Pablo Picasso ‘Winged Bull Watched by Four Children’ (1934)

The exhibition ends with a section entitled ‘Death’, which explores the representation of death in the work of both artist through the genre of still-life, Goya is represented by ‘Still Life with Lamb’s Ribs, Loin and Head’ (1808 – 12) which is displayed alongside Picasso’s ‘Still Life with a Ram’s Head’ (1939). 

Francesco Goya ‘Still Life with Lamb’s Ribs, Loin and Head’ (1808 – 12)

I have been fortunate enough to see the excellent Quatuor Modigliani twice in the last three weeks – first in Montpellier and now in Monpazier in the Dordogne department of south-west France. Tonight’s performance in l’église de Monpazier was part of the Festival Eté musical en Bergerac.

Two of the three pieces in the first half of the concert, Haydn’s ‘String Quartet in G major, opus 54’ and Hugo Wolf’s ‘Italian Serenade’, were also played in Montpellier and tonight were performanced at the same high standard. The first half also contained Puccini’s ‘Crisantemi’, originally written as an elegy for the 1890 death of Puccini’s friend the Duke of Aosta, formerly King Amadeo I of Spain. It is a work full of emotion and was movingly played.

The highlight of the evening was Schubert’s ‘String Quartet no. 13 in A minor’, known as ‘The Rosamunde’. It was superbly played, as you might expect from a quartet whose latest CD release was a box set of all fifteen string quartets by Schubert. It was the only quartet to be published during the composer’s lifetime and takes its name from the play ‘Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus’, for which Schubert composed incidental music, one of its themes reappearing in the quartet’s second movement. The beautifully melancholic main theme was played with great emotion and the Minuet was extremely elegant. It was an excellent performance to end a memorable concert.

Joseph Haydn ‘String Quartet in G Major op. 54 n°1; Hugo Wolf ‘Italian Serenade in G Major’; Giacomo Puccini ‘Crisantemi for String Quartet’; Franz Schubert ‘String Quartet no. 13 in A minor, The Rosamunde’.