Le Christ et le Lièvre / Eglise Saints Celse et Nazaire, Rennes-les-Bains

Named after the trompe d’oeuil of an hare in the right knee of Christ. It is said a spider is hidden in the clouds representing the immediate region (à Régnes, an old name for the area or ‘araigne‘, ‘spider‘). The Lièvre (Hare) is said to represent Louis XIV (who’s most important advisor was Thomas le Lièvre, Marquis de la Grange) or Louis XIV in combination with Nicolas Fouquet, who were portrayed as the Turtle and the Hare in the famous fable by De La Fontaine from 1668. Painted (copied) by Abbé Henri Gasq, Curé of Notre Dame de Marceille between 1856 and 1862 after Paulus Pontius’ engraving of  La Lamentation by Van Dijck. Read more here

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Saint Anthony and Saint Paul in the Desert / Shugborough Hall, copy after the original by David Teniers de Younger

Previously wrongly titled by the Courtauld institute as ‘Elijah and Elisha being fed by the Raven’  This painting was assumed by Henry Lincoln to be the David Teniers painting Bérenger Saunière bought a copy of in Paris around 1891. (Key to the Sacred Pattern pages 79 - 82)

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The Temptation of Saint Anthony / Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne

Painted by David Teniers de Younger around 1650. It is said Saunière bought a painting of St. Antoine from the Louvre around 1891 but is has never been established which one.

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The Temptation of Saint Anthony / Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia

Painted by David Teniers de Younger between 1636 and 1640. It was once owned by Hermann Goering after the Nazi’s had robbed some major art collections in May 1940. It is said Saunière bought a painting of St. Antoine from the Louvre around 1891 but is has never been established which one.

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St. Antoine / Notre Dame de Marceille, Limoux

One of the enigma’s surrounding the church of Notre Dame de Marceille in Limoux.

In 1670, François Charles Fouquet, bishop of Narbonne (and brother of Nicolas Fouquet, Treasurer under Louis XIV). commissioned a painting of St. Augustine from Ambroise Frédeau. Frédeau painted his work on top of an existing painting of St. Antoine by David Teniers the Younger. We can be certain of that from recordings in the journal of Abbé Henri Gasc in 1859 and 1872 and better still, from an etching of the interior dated 1850. Abbé Henri Gasc is himself believed to have changed the St. Augustine back into St. Antoine around 1870 by removing his torch and overpainting the name of the artist with a rock (left corner). Was he removing possible clues? It is known that St. Augustine was present during the sack or Rome on 24^th August 410 by Alaric I and the Visigoths. Perhaps it was this David Teniers painting that is connected to Saunière in some way. Many thanks to expert on Notre Dame de Marceille, Frank Daffos.

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