Geography
Crossroads of civilizations, Provence is also
in its south-western part, a ground of contrasts and division between
sea and mountain. In the west of the department, the Camargue,
with its 26 000 hectares of ponds, its marshes and its rice plantations,
remains the kingdom still preserved of the bulls, the horses and a rich
coloured fauna of 400 different species (Vaccarès).
Crau, on the other side of the Large Rhone, where little
by little the market gardenings encroach on stones rejected by the Durance,
forms between Alpilles and the pond of Berre a sorry surface where breath
the wind, the mistral.
In the east, the solid limestone masses (Alpilles, Sainte-Victoire,
chain of Star (L'Etoile) alternate with the richer plains; it develops
there the corn, the vine, the traditional olive-tree , but especially
the fruits and vegetables of Provence.
The maritime activities and fishing animate on the other hand the coast,
of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer to Ciotat. Idyllic and brilliant
image under the sun of midday, which in the historical memory the memory
of the earthquake hardly comes to disturb which, June 11 1909, devastated
all North-East of the department. More sensitive sums us undoubtedly to
the difficulties of the mines of Gardanne or the fires
which, the summer, devastate the accesses of the department periodically.
Generally however, the tourist will retain rather, with the liking of
his southernmost holidays, the beauty of pink Flemish of the Camargue,
the light of the slopes of Manosque, the heat perfume of the scrubland
or the roughness of the Cassis creeks bathed by the sea.
Arts, activities and economy
Well before Rome doesnt print its mark in the "Provincia", the
soil had known an artistic life which one can find the first traces as
of the prehistoric time. The archaeological excavations made
it possible to discover, for the following centuries, of the villages,
the sanctuaries, the necropoles pre-Romans which are
among most curious about the South, at Mouriès, Roquepertuse
(temple), Entremont (quoted close to the Valley of the
Arc), and Saint-Blaise (commercial agglomeration, ramparts).
Etruscan contributions and Greek influence mingle with
it. Innumerable preserved ceramics, the vestiges of Marseille
(the theatre, the port) and the currencies massaliètes
inspired of the Hellenic models testify to the economic
vitality of the area during this period, and its originality.
The traces left by the Roman conquest are however more
and more imposing. The oldest Gallo-Roman monuments hardly
date that second half of the 1st century; it is with
Auguste that architecture develops with size : in Glanum
(mausoleum of Jules, triumphal arch, thermal baths), with Arles
(arenas, theatre, walls), in Saint-Chamas (Flavien bridge).
Christianity, while settling in Provence, brings a renewal
of the topics and forms announcing the Romanesque art.
The museum of Arles, the Borély museum in Marseille
keep the most beautiful parts of them : Saint-Victor altar in Marseille,
tomb stones like that of Geoffroy of Provence buried with Montmajour in
1062, sarcophagus. It is between 1125 and 1225 however that the Romance
rebirth finds its true rise with Arles for capital :
Saint-Trophime, Sainte-Croix of Montmajour, the Major in Marseille, Saint-Paul-of-Mausole
and the small Saint-Gabriel church near Tarascon, testify to the sobriety
of this art of Provence still marked by the ancient model where carved
decoration opens out especially on the bell-towers, on the gates, with
the capitals of the cloisters.
The Gothic art on the other hand has evil to be established;
it is necessary to await second half of the 13th century to find a building
entirely Gothic, the Saint-Jean-de-Malte church in Aix. St. Laurent of
Salon, with its bell-tower with the octagonal belfry of the end of the
14th century, holds however the attention (Nostradamus is in addition
buried there) as well as the chorus of Arles with its déambulatoire
Gothic, the only one of Provence (1454-1465).
The civil architecture and military develops on the contrary
with power, especially in the Rhone-native area: turns with the Baux,
Châteaurenard, Tarascon, Living room, Barbentane, but also the St-Jean
Fort in Marseille or fortifications of Saint-Victor. Arles is
dethroned little by little with the profit of Aix and especially of Avignon
(Vaucluse).
The Rebirth makes it possible Provence to join again with antiquity at
the time even of its fastening in France. Works of the Italian sculptor
Francesco Laurana illustrate it with wonder : thus the retable of Saint-Lazare
to Major Cathedral of Marseille, the lying one of Tarascon. In the same
way architecture remains marked by this influence like the set with diamonds
House and the If castle in Marseille and especially the
city of the Baux, together remarkable of the end of the
16th century (house of Porcellet, house of the queen Jeanne). But, in
spite of the efforts of king René himself, the Rebirth
marks Provence little.
Poetry will certainly retain the name of Bellaud of Bellaudière;
humanism, remarkable, of Peiresc, but it is necessary
to wait the traditional period to see developing truly art in
Provence : Aix is an example striking with Sainte-Madeleine or
Saint-Jean-Baptist, but also Marseille with the Charity of Pierre Puget
and his ovoid dome (1679-1707) or the Chartreux church
(1680-1702). Vauban, the knight of Clerville, also mark of their influence
the military architecture (St-Jean and Saint Nicolas forts in Marseille),
while the civil architecture carries out beautiful examples with the Hotel-of-City
of Marseille or that of Aix, the market with the grains of Aix or the
old Law courts of Marseille, without speaking about the private mansions
or houses of the fields in Aix which offer pleasant goals of walks (Mirabeau
course, Rotonde, Vendôme house). The name of Pierre Puget in Marseille
(1620-1694), that of Jean-Claude Rambot in Aix illustrate the sculpture
of Provence at the 17th century. For 18th, it is necessary
to retain, inter alia, that of Antoine Duparc and that of Chastel. In
painting the dynasty of Parrocel, that of Vanloo, that of Vernet, Francoise
Duparc itself, make homage to traditional Provence, while the
art of earthenware develops in Marseille (Clérissy, Fauchier,
Leroy, Perrin).
The Revolution abruptly stops this production which sets
out again with the 19th century with this time a marked influence of art
romano-Byzantine (Marseille cathedral, Notre Dame de la garde)
a return to the Gothic (The Reformés) or the creation
of a composite art Napoleon III (Longchamp Palace in
Marseille). Architecture is done monumental and utility then (pier of
Marseille, aqueduct of Roquefavour), while waiting for factories, motorways
and docks, without leaving very great names (except at the 20th century
Corbusier in Marseille).
Painting on the contrary account in its rows Constantin,
Granet, then with the following generation Loubon, Engalière, Guigou,
but especially Daumier, Monticelli, Ricard in Marseille and Cézanne
in Aix. All celebrate the southernmost landscapes and the light which
the dutchman Van Gogh will be able to evoke so well and who, from Mistral
to Giono, Pagnol or Andre Suarès, while passing through Victor
Gelu and even Edmond Rostand, spouts out with such an amount of force
in the literature of Provence.