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history art

Art is present in Jonas : magnificent mediaeval frescoes can be seen in the chapel. Five scenes were painted on the following themes: Peter's denial of Christ, Jesus receiving the Crown of Thorns, Jesus' body taken down from the Cross, the discovery of the empty tomb, and the Blessed Virgin sitting enthroned with the Infant Jesus on her lap.

Left, the artist painted Peter being exposed as one of Jesus' accomplices. As he was denying the accusation, a cock started crowing and Peter remembered that Jesus told him he would deny him before the the cock would crow.

Below, Jesus the Saviour is being held prisonner and his torturers crown him with the Crown of Thorns.

Colours are protected by the lime salt coating that naturally forms on the surface during drying, through chemical reaction with carbon dioxide.


This chemical reaction takes only one day. Therefore, the artist can only paint one section of the wall at a time : every morning, a new coat is applied to the section that he can paint before the end of the day.

In the Jonas chapel, the artist used only a few pigments (coloured powder substances) : red ochre, yellow ochre, some red oxide, black (from burnt matter) and white (lime).