After the exhibition Things - A History of Still Life in 2022-23, the Fondation Etrillard is once again supporting the Musée du Louvre for the exhibition The Treasury of Notre-Dame Cathedral. From Its Origins to Viollet-le-Duc, presented from 18 October 2023 to 29 January 2024.
Jean-Alexandre Chertier after Viollet-le-Duc, Bust of Saint Louis. © Musée du Louvre, Guillaume Benoit
As restoration work on the cathedral enters its final stage, the Musée du Louvre dedicates an unprecedented exhibition to the treasury of Notre-Dame de Paris.
This treasury, uniting sacerdotal objects and vestments necessary for worship, relics and reliquaries, manuscript books as well as other precious artefacts given as acts of piety, will then return to the cathedral’s neo-Gothic sacristy, built to house it by Jean Baptiste Lassus and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc from 1845 to 1850 and renovated for the cathedral’s 2024 reopening.
Bréviaire de Châteauroux à l'usage de Paris by Louis de Guyenne, Bibliothèque municipale de Châteauroux © Médiathèque Équinoxe, Ville de Châteauroux, CNRS - IRHT
This exhibition provides a condensed history of the treasury through more than 120 works, restoring them to the context of its age-old history: from its origins to the Middle Ages up to its resurrection in the 19th century and full flowering with Viollet-le-Duc during the Second Empire.
The exhibition is curated by four curators from the Musée du Louvre: Jannic Durand, Anne Dion-Tenenbaum, Florian Meunier and Michèle Bimbenet-Privat.
lacide Poussielgue-Rusand after Viollet-le-Duc, Reliquary of the Holy Crown of Thorns, 1862. © Musée du Louvre, Guillaume Benoit ; Crosier said to come from Notre-Dame de Paris, Circa 1200. Coins, Medals and Antiques Department. Bibliothèque nationale de France. © BNF
This exhibition is part of the Fondation Etrillard's sponsorship of the rediscovery of the Middle Ages, which includes the restoration of two precious reliquaries from the Abbey of Saint Maurice in Valais (Switzerland) and support for medieval vocal practice through the Chanter l'Ars Nova programme (Royaumont Abbey and Foundation).
Jean-Alexandre Chertier after Viollet-le-Duc, Chrémeau: dove for the Holy Oils, 1866. © Musée du Louvre, Guillaume Benoit