NARRATIVE – Discovered by chance in the 1980s, this work is the only trace available to restore the rood screen destroyed in the 18th century.e century, and fragments of which have reappeared thanks to recent work carried out after the fire.
To the lay eye, the illustration is splendid. For the expert, it is undoubtedly beautiful, but far from extraordinary: four biblical scenes distributed in a square. The same pattern is repeated on each of the known pages of this manuscript. Here, the doubt of Saint Thomas, there, the appearance of Christ on the shores of Lake Tiberias. A bit by chance, in 1982, the historian Jean-Pierre Suau studied a reproduction and recognized one of the scenes sculpted in the southern fence which surrounds the choir of Notre-Dame de Paris. Little by little, specialists realize that many sheets are scattered all over the world, without making the link with the sculpted decoration of the cathedral. Pages are located in public or private collections in Bloomington (Indiana, United States), Chicago (Illinois, United States), London (England) or Hong Kong.
These discoveries remain confidential until 2022, when Pierre-Yves Le Pogam, chief curator…
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