VIRGIL CHAIR N°005

The Virgile chair draws its inspiration from Dante’s Divine Comedy. The first part, the hell, is made up of several circles, divided into songs. The collection explores the songs of the author, more precisely, around the 6th song. In this book, Virgil accompanies Dante throughout his travel during the Divine Comedy, providing a protective and loving figure. Virgil’s role evokes that of the guide, the person who provides answers to Dante, describing their travel to him. Virgil could refer to a guide like chaplains and chapels were during the medieval period, when Dante lived.

The chapels making up the churches were born from the XIIIth century, at which time the clergy in Western Europe encountered changes in worship. The practices of the faithful increased and so did the need for places of worship. As the presbytery could be saturated, the construction of annex chapels in the churches made it possible to meet the need to attend the service from annex spaces, close to the presbytery, in a reduced-scale alcove.

Allegory of the «radiant chapel» (chapel around the ambulatory) and the protection, the seat of the chair is inspired by the circular apse, the more intimate altar towards which Dante in his travel finds advice and support.

The composition in two parts also evokes two-story chapels, the visible part on the ground floor is decorated, covered with a floral fabric without being reminiscent of Virgil and his work the Georgics. As for the second part, it evokes the less visible part of certain chapels, that located in the crypt (like the chapel of the Notre-Dame-du-Port church in Clermont), apart from the ornamentation, which is generally more brut.

The quarter-round exterior composition is inspired by the structure of the chapels, in vaulted arches, taking up the codes of the exposed columns and the formations found in the churches of Saintonge - today’s region of northern Aquitaine, Gironde and Charente- Maritime1-2).