Why go
Read the panels as a conversation between sacred story and human devotion. Moses encounters the Virgin and Child in the central image, while King René and Queen Jeanne pray in the wings. Their presence makes the painting a useful link between the cathedral's art and Provence's rulers.
What to look for
- Moses and his flock occupy the foreground beneath the Virgin and Child.
- King René and Queen Jeanne appear in devotional poses on the two side panels.
The full story
Froment was an Avignon painter, and this 15th-century work came to the cathedral from a Carmelite convent destroyed during the French Revolution. In its central panel, Moses tends his flock in the foreground and reacts to the vision above him. The burning bush carries the Virgin and Child. The side panels portray the work's patrons, René, ruler of Provence and King of Naples, and his consort Jeanne. The cathedral's other paintings broaden that encounter with religious storytelling. Jean Daret the younger's Last Supper belongs to the south transept; Louis Finson's Incredulity of Saint Thomas is associated with the lower Gothic nave. The cathedral also acquired tapestries of Christ's life that were originally woven for Canterbury Cathedral in 1511. Their journey through England, Paris and Aix adds another strand to a collection assembled from different places and periods.