"A l'école du Moulin" by Robert Pirault

Book "A l'école du Moulin" by Robert Pirault - Sculpture in the Basilica of Vézelay

To take in the beauty of the Abbey of Vézelay, to admire, as they deserve, the tympanum and the capitals - the most famous of which is the "Mystic Mill" - is to listen to the inflections of a high-flying style of writing. Straightforwardly and with the humble casualness of great talent, she speaks to the Eternal and stages the universe and all its inhabitants.

These works of art, reflections of the inner man, have not aged a day, because in them the symbol still works. In them, the beautiful and the useful have come together under the command of the monks and in the gestures of the builders to magnify the greatness of every human vocation.

Robert Pirault lived in Vézelay for a long time. In the summer months, he often tried to pass on his enthusiasm to visitors; in the harsh winter months, alone in the immense vessel, he had time to pursue his quest for the meaning of this sculpture, whose keys to interpretation can be found in the Fathers of the Church and in the works of 12th-century spiritualists.

Here he presents the fruit of his research, which analyses every detail of the sculpture, to the point of inviting us too to go through this "School of the A "mill" that transforms multiple grains into a single flour and bread.