Make the stones speak. Medieval sculptures of Notre-Dame

Paris, Cluny Museum, from November 19, 2024 to March 16, 2025.

our petition if you have not yet done so) and also for the best: the reopening of the cathedral, first of all (see the article), but also this exhibition at the Cluny Museum, the first opportunity for each of admire some of the sculptures found in the rood screen. This is nevertheless much broader, since it focuses on the entire medieval sculpted program based on works preserved at Cluny and at the Louvre, with the exception of the king's heads discovered in 1977 which are only mentioned. and who remained in the room where they are normally presented.

1. Presentation of the fragments of the statue-columns of the Sainte-Anne portal

in the exhibition

Photo : Didier Rykner

See the image on his page

The exhibition and its catalog will appeal to both neophytes and specialists, and it is no small feat to succeed in satisfying such diverse audiences with the same event. Simple amateurs will be able to admire the works in a simple museography but which magnifies the works by putting them in their context (ill. 1). The catalog for its part, alongside particularly technical essays on past and current restorations, on polychromy and the identification of iconography, does not forget to tell fascinating stories, such as that of the discovery during work in a building in the 9th arrondissement of the Banque Française du Commerce Extérieur of a significant number of sculptures from Notre-Dame, the heads of kings that we mentioned above, but also a number of fragments from four of the five portals of the cathedral.

The objective of the exhibition is not to present in an exhaustive manner these sculpted ensembles which are still the subject, following the restoration and excavations, of very in-depth studies…

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