Great decors restored from Notre-Dame de Paris

1. Exhibition on the great decorations of Notre-Dame at the Galerie des Gobelins,
ground floor, presentation of the Mays
Photo: Didier Rykner

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The exhibition that the Louvre should have organised is finally being staged by the Mobilier national, and so much the better, as its spaces are perfectly suited to hanging large-format paintings (ill. 1), and of course tapestries. So for four months we can see the Mays from Notre-Dame and several other paintings that used to hang in the cathedral, all recently restored, as we have never been able to do before, and as we will probably never be able to do again when these works are put back in place in chapels that are often narrow and for which they were not designed.
Despite the rumours circulating at the time of the fire (checking facts before informing sometimes seems to be an option for some), no May was destroyed by the disaster. Better still, not a single work of art was damaged, with the exception of the modern altarpiece commissioned by Mgr Lustiger, which nobody regrets. In the end, there’s nothing surprising about this: the medieval vault played its protective role perfectly in the event of a fire, with only the collapse of the spire succeeding in piercing it, without causing any further damage to the interior of the building.

2. The Mays on show at the Musée
Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Arras
Photo: Chatsam (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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3. Joseph Parrocel (1646-1704)
Predication of Saint John the Baptist, 1693
(not in the exhibition)
Oil on canvas - 437 x 335 cm
Arras, Museum of Fine Arts
Coming soon in Paris, Notre-Dame cathedral
Photo: FFF72 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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We won’t repeat here what the Mays are, offered each year by the brotherhood of goldsmiths: they have been studied more or less exhaustively in Delphine Bastet’s book published by Arthena, and we refer readers to the article we devoted to her.
Although the Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Arras (ill. 2) displays seven of them (but keeps seven others in storage), many are still hidden from the public, with the Louvre showing only one. Fortunately, in addition to this fortunate initiative by the Mobilier National, the future looks brighter for these works: two of them should find a place on the walls of the Musée du Grand Siècle, and - we hope in any case - many others in the Louvre and Arras should eventually be shown in the future Musée de l’Œuvre that everyone is so keen to see. It should also be noted that while thirteen Mays were still in Notre-Dame before the fire, a fourteenth, now hanging in Arras, The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist by Joseph Parrocel (ill. 3), will return to the cathedral.

4. Lubin Baugin (1610-1663)
Virgin of Pity, c. 1645-1655)
Oil on canvas - 220 x 144 cm
Paris, Notre-Dame Cathedral
Photo: DRAC Île-de-France/D. Bordes

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5. Lubin Baugin…