The flames destroyed part of the mythical, imposing and literary Notre Dame on April 15, 2019. Saint Theodore’s Day, gift from God in Greek. But the images that went around the world did not seem like a blessing. The paradox is that, in part, it was.
Paris, in the midst of the Olympic pre-campaign, will reopen its cathedral on December 8, the Immaculate Conception, with pomp and brilliance and all its works of art not only intact but clean, fixed and full of splendor. It’s hard to believe but none of them suffered any damage, not irreparable, not even serious.
In the fire, the safety protocols and the skill of the firefighters (who did not wet them or spray them with flame retardants) left them intact. Now the tapestries, known as Mays, and paintings by masters such as Charles Le Brun, Laurent de la Hyre, Carle van Loo and Guido Reni have been thoroughly restored by hundreds of artisans who have left the pieces as if they had just been painted and manufacture.
Now, its spectacularity and brilliance, and the lighting that you will not enjoy in the cathedral, can be seen in all its grandeur (real and metaphorical) in the exhibition rooms of the Mobilier National, together with Les Gobelins, the French State agency which deals with the preservation of its artistic and heritage heritage.
Emmanuel Pénicaut, director of collections, ended his visit to the exhibition on Tuesday with this diary from a pedestal where one could admire a part of the dazzling Choir Carpet (made between 1825 and 1833), which measures 25 meters in length and more than seven wide and used on rare occasions: visits by kings, presidents and popes. Right now you can see half while the other is being restored.
“When it arrived at the restorers they realized that it was moth-eaten, so the damaged fibers have been replaced with new ones made of the same material. If there had not been a fire in Notre Dame we might not have noticed,” explains Olivier Peyratout, deputy director of Heritage.
The paintings and tapestries, which shine with bright colors and have lost that ashy and sallow grayness because they have not been restored in decades, have stories of survival and change of hands so extensive that they could not perish in the pyrotechnic tragedy.
They were put up, taken down, some were sold, others were kept in the Louvre and some of the 76 original pieces were lost. “We have data on 52, 24 we know were lost and of the 52 those that have survived to this day, these thirty, are the ones that will return to the cathedral decorating the chapels,” explains the director of collections. The others that survive are either in the Louvre or in churches throughout France. Another was sold to the British Museum.
“The paintings now restored are called Mays and for decades they were a gift from the Paris goldsmiths’ guild every May 1st in honor of the Virgin. A contest was held, the best religious scene was chosen and before accepting the complete painting, a smaller sketch was requested,” details Pénicault.
In some tablets in the exhibition you can see how the Mays have mutated from their dead appearance that they presented until the day of the fire to their brilliance today. By simply moving your finger on the screen, a line marks the before and after. For painters, in centuries where the concept of exhibition did not exist, showing their piece at Notre Dame was an honor and a showcase for more commissions.
Saint Peter and Saint Paul, the two columns of the Church, are the most common protagonists of the paintings. Paul losing his hair and dialoguing with an image of God in heaven who tells him: “You are the one who persecutes me.” “Curiously, God does not appear in the sky in the model. We can think that the guild may have suggested that De la Hyre paint it so that the scene – explains Pénicault – would be more illustrative.”
Saint Paul suffers the pains of flagellation in a piece by Louis Testelin from 1655. Saint Peter appears preaching in an oil painting by Charles Poerson (1642) and crucified, terrible pain, blood dripping in another by Sébastien Bourdon (1963) a year later.
Everything in Notre Dame has been restored and repaired, except the liturgical furniture, the altar, the baptistery, which have been designed following 21st century patterns after becoming unusable. All these pieces (and the chairs of the bishop and his assistants 9) have been designed by Guillaume Bardet; the chairs of the parishioners by Ionna Vautrin, point out Maxime Deurbergue and Laurent Prades.
The value of the exhibition (which opened yesterday and closes its doors on July 21) is not measured only in the quality of the restoration, but in how the works have been placed (close and low, at the height of the viewer). In the new Notre Dame they will be hung higher. On Earth, not in Heaven, but you still need binoculars to appreciate certain details: the folds of the robes painted by Louis Chéron or the eyes of the false prophet whom Saint Paul blinds in a painting by Nicolas Loir that has been re-painted. see the light. The fire brought manna. The paths of Notre Dame are inscrutable.