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Origin and history

Notre-Dame-des-Douleurs Chapel is a Catholic chapel located in Peillon, Alpes-Maritimes. Built in the fourth quarter of the 15th century, it is a remarkable example of late medieval religious art in the region. His murals, made around 1495 and attributed to the Piedmontese painter Giovanni Canavesio, illustrate scenes of the Passion of Christ and representations of saints. These frescoes, inspired by those of the Notre-Dame-des-Fontaines chapel, are among the oldest in the Nice region.

Originally, the chapel was probably linked to a brotherhood of the White Penitents, founded around the same time. This brotherhood, which initially met in the church of the castle of Peillon, became its owner around 1661, dates from the oldest records kept. She then enlarged the building by adding a nave higher and wider than the early chapel, while preserving the paintings of the choir, which remained intact.

The wall decoration, executed in the wet, covers the vault and the bedside. There are eight scenes of the Passion (such as the Kiss of Judas or the Coronation of Thorns), as well as a central Pietà surrounded by St.Antoine and St. These works, before those of Notre-Dame-des-Fontaines according to some experts, bear witness to the influence of the primitive painters of Nice in the Southern Alps.

The chapel underwent reshuffles in the 16th and 17th centuries, including the addition of a sacristy and the alteration of the nave, originally carpented, now covered with a glass cradle. The choir, vaulted in a crib, kept its original decor. Classified as a Historical Monument on 27 March 2000, it is now owned by the commune of Peillon.

Historical sources also mention links to other painted chapels in the Niçois country, such as those of Lucéram or Sigale. Its iconography and architecture reflect the devotional and artistic practices of the region at the end of the Middle Ages, marked by the influence of penitent brotherhoods and Italian artists.

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