Rediscover the Saint-Blaise-des-Simples Restored Chapel

He first declined the offer, before changing his mind and giving free rein to his creative genius. In 1958, Jean Cocteau had just completed the decoration of the Saint-Pierre chapel of Villefranche-sur-Mer (Alpes-Maritimes), when he was asked by the mayor of Milly-la-Forêt, where he has resided for twelve years.

The councilor offers him to restore a religious building damaged by humidity. Located away from the village, this 12th century chapel is the last vestige of an ancient Maladrerie, where the leper was treated by invoking Saint Blaise, their healer. The adjoining garden then supplied medicinal plants, called “simple”, which were to inspire Cocteau for this site, undertaken in 1959.

Sense of the sacred

Presented on the first floor of the house of Jean-Cocteau, labeled “Maison des Illustres”, the exhibition “La Chapelle des Simples” falls timely, since it coincides with the reopening of the religious building. “Although raised in the Catholic religion, Jean Cocteau was not a practitioner,” explains Muriel Genthon, director of the Jean-Cocteau house and co-commissioner of the exhibition. “After the death of his mother, in the 1940s, he got closer to the couple of Catholic intellectuals Jacques and Raïssa Maritain, whose theological thought influenced him for a time,” she said. Until the end of his life, in 1963, he kept a deep sense of the sacred, interested in religious symbolism, but with a very personal approach to spirituality. “

Based on original documents – preparatory drawings, including the famous scene of the resurrection of Christ, Cartons des Vitraux, written testimonies and audiovisual archives -, “La Chapelle des Singles” retraces the creation process of Jean Cocteau. The exhibition also reveals the extreme care that the artist brought to the smallest details of his work, not hesitating to comment on his works with the mind that characterized him.

About the cat painted near the holy fond, he confided: “Maybe I will add a shovel … I hesitated …” Finally, the feline remains, watching for the angel which rises in the air like a bird. Painting, poetry, staging… Jean Cocteau has managed to transcend artistic disciplines with infinite freedom and inventiveness.