BURNAND, Master of

The style of the Burnand Master presents strong relationships with Catalonia. The apostle figures are massive and almost sculptural, with clothes painted in flat surfaces, enhanced by thick folds and typical white highlights in three point series.  These elements and the pictorial technique of fleshes, as well as the particular form of some veiled hands, seems to come directly from models like the antependium of la Seu d’Urgell (ca. 1120). Technical similarities are so close that we suppose the Burnand Master has been trained in a Catalan workshop. The Roda Bible (second quarter of 11^th cent.) could also have been used for the reference to the lion with undulated coat. Another indication is situated at the entrance of the Burnand apse, where a figure is wearing a short tunic, with flared sleeves and pointed shoes, according to a typology found in Catalonia (Burgal, Seu d’Urgell), in some Cistercian manuscripts and in western French paintings of the second quarter and middle of the 12^th century.

Relationship exists also with the wall paintings of Saint-Chef-en-Dauphiné, near Lyon, which shows Iberic characteristics. In the central bay of the Burnand apse, there is a vegetal element, kind of tree with branches ending like mushrooms, detail which is present in Saint-Chef-en-Dauphiné (inferior Saint-Clement chapel). 

The paintings of Burnand are briefly described by L. Blondaux in the general catalogue of wall paintings in Burgundy and dated from the beginning of the 12^th century, and nothing else gives us matter to historiographical discussion.