Statue dite Vénus de Quinipily
MonumentHidden Treasure
Statue dite Vénus de Quinipily, located in Baud (Département 56), is a Renaissance château built in the 16th century. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Renaissance (16th century)
- Location
- Baud, Département 56, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.8690, -3.0334
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00091021
A mysterious granite goddess born in the 1st century, drowned by missionaries and then resurrected by the will of the peasants: the Venus of Quinipily defies the centuries in the heart of Morbihan.
History
Standing in a leafy park in Baud, in the heart of Morbihan, a dark granite silhouette rises with quiet authority: the Venus of Quinipily. This 2.20 metre monolith, naked and haughty, topped with a headband of hanging wings, belongs to a rare category of ancient sculptures found on French soil. Neither entirely Roman in its expression, nor entirely Celtic in its essence, it embodies that moment of fusion of cultures that the first centuries of our era produced on the fringes of the Empire. What makes the Venus of Quinipily absolutely unique is her turbulent destiny, made up of popular veneration, clerical persecution and inexplicable resurrections. For centuries, the local population attributed healing and fertile virtues to her, gathering around her in rituals that the Church deemed scandalous. Thrown into the river Blavet by missionaries in 1671, it was fished out and reinstalled a few years later, as if the Breton land refused to part with it. It wasn't until 1696 that she found refuge in Quinipily, on the lands of the Count of Lannion, in an architectural setting designed to show her off to her best advantage. The building that houses it today is itself remarkable. A late 17th-century ensemble - monumental plinth, Doric porch, granite basin forming a fountain - was designed to sublimate the statue while domesticating it. Visitors will discover a Baroque staging of an ancient sculpture: an unexpected dialogue between two aesthetics separated by fifteen centuries. The visitor experience is intimate and almost spellbinding. The statue is reached via a tree-lined driveway, in an English-style park that heightens the sense of timeless isolation. The murmuring fountain at the foot of the base is a reminder of the rituals of yesteryear. Lovers of archaeology, religious history and Breton heritage will find it an inexhaustible source of questions - and few definitive answers, which is perhaps the most profound charm of this place.
Architecture
The Quinipily complex is made up of two temporally distinct but visually harmonious entities. The statue itself - the ancient monolith - is carved from the characteristic grey granite of Morbihan. Standing 2.20 metres high, it depicts a standing, naked female figure, with massive volumes and stylised features that betray a local hand rather than an artist trained in Rome. Its most distinctive and enigmatic attribute is the headband, with both ends falling down the back, which has no exact parallel in known Roman iconography. Partially legible Latin inscriptions are engraved on its original pedestal. The 17th-century architectural setting is typical of French classical taste. The raised plinth places the statue in a dominant position, visible from the gardens below. It rests on a porch composed of a central semi-circular arch framed by a Doric order - pilasters, entablature, triglyphs - that is sober and elegant, in the Vitruvian tradition. At the foot of the ensemble, a rectangular granite basin, supplied with water, evokes the basins of ancient fountains and recalls the statue's age-old ritual use. The ensemble creates a striking dialectic between the raw archaism of the monolith and the classical regularity of its Baroque receptacle.
Related Figures
Pierre de Lannion — comte érudit qui fit transporter la statue à Quinipily en 1696 et lui offrit son écrin architecturalMissionnaires jésuites (1671) — acteurs de la noyade de la statue dans le Blavet lors des missions de christianisationÉvêque de Vannes (vers 1661) — premier à ordonner la suppression des cultes rendus à la statueArtisan gallo-romain anonyme (Ier siècle) — sculpteur présumé du monolithe sur les rives du BlavetAntiquaires bretons du XIXe siècle — premiers chercheurs à tenter de déchiffrer les inscriptions latines et à identifier l'iconographie
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Statue dite Vénus de Quinipily located?
Statue dite Vénus de Quinipily is located in Baud, Département 56 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Statue dite Vénus de Quinipily built?
Statue dite Vénus de Quinipily dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Statue dite Vénus de Quinipily open to visitors?
Statue dite Vénus de Quinipily is currently closed to visitors.
