The south transept
The ribbed vaults of the transept cover rectangular bays, which are technically more difficult to balance than the square spaces of the chapels. The gable is pierced by a large 8-lobed rose. All these features demonstrate a perfect mastery of Romanesque construction, pushed to the limits of its technical possibilities.
The only ancient statue preserved at Pontigny is the one of the Virgin of Mercy, or Virgin of the Cloak (late 16th century), to whom all Cistercian churches were to be dedicated. [To go further]
The quotation
‘O Mother of Mercy!
By the tenderness
of your most pure heart
the Moon - that is, the Church -
prostrate at your feet
invokes you with fervent supplications,
you who have been appointed her mediatrix
to the Sun of Justice:
that in your light
may she see the Light,
and the grace of that Sun,
may she obtain it through your intercession.
For He has truly loved you above all others and,
to make you beautiful,
He has clothed you with a robe of glory,
and placed on your forehead
a crown of beauty.'
Bernard of Clairvaux (+ 1153)
Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon for the Sunday in the octave of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, 15: Sancti Bernardi Opera, t. V, ed. J. Leclercq and H.-M. Rochais, Rome, 1968, p. 274 (Patrologia Latina, t. 183, col. 438 B-C).
The picture
Virgin of the Cloak, Cîteaux Jean de Cirey, Collecta quorundam privilegiorum ordinis cisterciensis, Dijon, 1491, fol. a2 r°.
To go further
A Cistercian from the early 13th century recounts that a monk, who had been raptured in spirit to heaven, was surprised not to find any of his fellow monks there. When he asked the Virgin where they could be, she opened her cloak and showed that she was protecting ‘an innumerable multitude of monks, lay brothers and nuns’ of the Cîteaux order. The Virgin of Pontigny extends her protection on her right to a Cistercian and two lay people, and on her left to a bishop, a Benedictine nun and a Franciscan.
Glossary
Ribbed vault:
a vault generally made up of two barrel vaults intersecting at right angles and forming, from four supports, four fine edges that meet at a single point.
Bay :
space generally delimited by four supports (walls, pillars, columns) and surmounted by a vault, constituting a basic element of church plans.
Monk, nun :
religious man or woman, usually cloistered, who has vowed to live according to a precise rule of life (in the Middle Ages, often the Rule of Saint Benedict).
Franciscan :
religious, belonging to an order founded by St Francis (Latin: Franciscus) of Assisi († 1226).