Historic art pieces saved in Notre Dame fire to be exhibited in Paris
A new temporary home has been set for the masterpieces saved from the Notre Dame fire in 2019. As restoration works on the Paris cathedral continue, the artworks will be exhibited at the Mobilier National.
On April 15th 2019, the world was hooked to the news as a fire ripped through the iconic landmark of the French capital‘s Notre Dame. Built between the years 1163 and 1345, the blaze risked the old monument as the flèche, or the spire, collapsed. Firefighters did, however, manage to save an incredible amount of the structure, including the original stained glass windows, the facade and the great organ.
Luckily, the artwork held within the cathedral also survived. Emmanuel Pénicaut, director of Mobilier National collections, told the Observer, “We were lucky to get them out quite quickly with just a little water damage and dust. It was rather miraculous.”
22 paintings from the cathedral will now be on show at the Mobilier National. 13 of those, titled ‘The Mays’, will be able to be seen for the first time in two centuries and have been brought back to their former glory by the team.
“We began removing them the day after the fire and decided they would all be restored. The exhibition is a chance to see them all in one place, in the order they were painted, which is how they would have been originally displayed,” he said. He also added that with their restoration, the works look as good as new. “What you see now is how they would have looked the day they were completed.”
However, the entire cathedral collection was far bigger. 76 religious paintings were donated to the cathedral from a private collection between 1630 and 1707. It contained works from artists including Charles Le Brun, Laurent de La Hyre, Charles Poerson, and more. The mission to save and protect all the work has been quite a feat for the team involved.
The project has been overseen by experts from Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’Île-de-France, or DRAC Île-de-France, a decentralised department of the French Ministery of Culture set up to be responsible for restoration work on the church. Currently, they aim to have the church rejuvenated and ready to reopen in December 2024.
But for now, the ‘Mays’ paintings, along with nine religious paintings, an elaborate chancel rug used only a few times for major occasions such as the marriage of Napoleon III, and 14 tapestries depicting the Virgin Mary, will all be on display at Mobilier National. Allowing visitors to still connect with the cathedral’s collection, the exhibition opens on April 24th 2024.
