Pentecost in Perillos

 

Pentecost in Perillos

At the occasion of the festival of Pentecost (to be specific: the Monday immediately following Pentecost), there was, in the vestiges of the old village, a special mass held in the open air which attracts more people each year. A religious event for many, a strange and nostalgic moment for others, this ritual celebration returns Perillos once again to life. If this demonstration deserves respect, it is also remarkable for a more bizarre reason. Indeed, for this event, a venerated statue governs the the proceedings: a Black Madonna.

Description

The statue is of a standing Madonna, the arms forwards. The left arm is resolutely holding the open hand palm upwards in a sign of gift or reception. The arm of right-hand side is slightly folded, and the hand remains closed, though it seems to have originally held an object: a stick, cross, a symbol or instrument of martyrdom, etc... The arms, now solidified by a thick layer of white paint, could perhaps formerly be articulated with her shoulders.

A radiant head

The only external decoration, a kind of metal silver plated disc radiating a flowering ash at the top of the head. Originally, the rays regularly alternated ten plates, finished by a star, with five branches and ten other simple blades. If one imagines the full disc, and not partially inserted in the head, it could consist of... 28 simple and spangled rays!
The face is framed with thick hair, without any particular effect, now coloured with a dark black, while the mouth is accentuated by two sharp red features. Only the face and the two hands extend from a long gown which is loosely tightened at the waist with a light blue ribbon.

Three pieces of wood

The body of the statue is gracious and is nicely proportioned. However the anatomical details stop with the waist and the lower prolongation is nothing more but one block of hardly trimmed wood being completed at the bottom by a square section with four cut sides giving an approximate octagonal final base. The total height of the representation is made of the first two sections of wood superimposed at the base and a third part of only holding the hair. The arms are brought back on the sides. Obviously the author of this work never intended that the statue would represented differently than covered by a very long dress, because no outline of movement is outlined on the wood. If the work appears pure and simple, the features of the face are fine, harmonious, although serious and austere. The whitened skin and the accuntuated lips, as well as the eyebrows, all of this strange decorative ‘finishing’ is recent... our interrogation of the responsible party answered that it was ‘much cleaner like that’!

The wood chosen for this small statue is a fruit tree identified as a... pear tree. This choice, is it the 'fruit' of chance... or of a will to resemble heraldic symbolism, as the blazon of the lords of Périllos is decorated by... three green pears? It is difficult to give a date, or a style, for this statue. As for its origin, it is mysterious and deserves, in more than one way, our attention.

Underground!

It has been found in a cave close to the village of Périllos, known as "the Caune". Was it venerated there, or dissimulated during the dangerous times of the Revolution? One day, it was brought back from the half-light to clearness by an inhabitant of Opoul...
The few opinions concerning this sculpture converge by affirming that it is St Barbara. A strange St Barbara in fact, because the assertions make her the patron of the local shepherds... but there is some sceptism about these hypotheses. At most, we can admit a deviation from the popular belief.