Spared by the fire, the cathedral’s paintings and tapestries, now restored, are reunited in the Gobelins gallery in Paris, where they reveal their mysteries at eye level before returning to their original home at the end of the year.

The Mobilier National is providing a rare chance to admire a magnificent series of paintings belonging to Notre-Dame de Paris—the famous “Mays”—at eye level before they return to the cathedral. The exhibition is also an occasion to see the hanging entitled “The Life of the Virgin”, on show every Christmas at Notre-Dame de Strasbourg—its permanent home—and the choir carpet commissioned by Charles X, which is not often displayed. On view as well are models of the new liturgical furnishings in patinated bronze and stone, designed by Guillaume Bardet and cast by Barthélemy Art in Crest (Drôme), and the solid oak chairs designed by Ionna Vautrin, currently being produced by Bosc in Hagetmau (Landes). And it revives memories of the great shock caused by the spectacular fire of April 15, 2019. During the ten days that followed, the masterpieces of Notre-Dame’s interior décor were evacuated in an operation overseen by the state heritage body DRAC Ile-de-France. All the paintings—including the famous Mays—escaped the flames, while the two parts of the choir carpet, rolled up in their cases, were saved by the water poured over the building, then dried out in the Mobilier National premises.

The First Mays: An Italian Influence

The story of the Mays goes back to a pagan tradition (planting a tree on May 1 to celebrate the fertility of spring) that was eventually appropriated by the Church. In 1449, a group of Parisian goldsmiths (the “May Companions”) decided to make an annual gift to the cathedral, known as a “May”—probably a green tree placed on the parvis. Over the years, this gift took the form of a wooden tabernacle with niches decorated with silk paintings, hung above the statue of the Virgin in the choir screen throughout the month. One of these is now in the Musée Carnavalet-Histoire de Paris. The early 17th century saw a large number of commissions designed to embellish churches and educate the faithful. Louis XIII and Anne of Austria were particularly devoted to the Virgin Mary, and in 1628, the Queen commissioned the architect François Mansart to build an altar to her in the cathedral. Two years later, the goldsmiths’ guild, with the agreement of the Chapter of Canons, decided to donate a large May each year: a painting measuring around 340 x 275 cm/134 x 108.2 in. In September, the two most recently elected masters of the guild would choose a painter, who was to be paid 400 livres to produce the work. The painter would present a sketch, execute a reduced replica for each patron, and deliver the painting the following April. With two interruptions in 1684 and 1694, the cycle came to an end in 1708, when the guild was dissolved due to financial difficulties. The Mays were gradually hung high up on the pillars of the cathedral. Their compositions were fairly similar, with the lively central scenes, in more vivid colors, placed in the lower section. The first paintings revealed the influence of Italian masters. For example, in The Descent of the Holy Spirit (the oldest of the Mays housed in Notre-Dame, painted by Jacques Blanchard in 1634), the faces turned towards the Holy Spirit are reminiscent of Titian’s style. The following year, Laurent de La Hyre painted Saint Peter Healing the Sick With his Shadow, followed by The Conversion of Saint Paul in 1637. “Now that the yellowed varnish and overpainting have been removed, we can appreciate the full force of the composition in this masterpiece,” says Emmanuel Pénicaut, Director of Collections at the Mobilier National and co-curator of the exhibition. “The painter’s virtuosity really shines in the rendering of the plumes on the helmets of Saint Paul and his companion.” From 1648 onwards, the artists were systematically selected from members of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. After a period in Rome, Charles Le Brun made a name for himself in Paris with his Martyrdom of Saint Andrew, delivered in 1647 when he was 28, followed by the Martyrdom of Saint Stephen in 1651—a painting in which the movements, the light on the tortured body and the expressive faces conveying the protagonists’ violent emotions were much admired.

Multiple Decorative Works

Throughout the 17th century, various works were created for the cathedral interior. Stained glass windows in grisaille and whitewashed walls now reflected the light from outside. In 1638, Louis XIII vowed to consecrate France to the Virgin Mary and ordered the choir to be refurbished. The same year, Michel Le Masle, Richelieu’s intendant (administrative official) and canon of Notre-Dame, launched a project for four wool and silk tapestries illustrating the Life of the Virgin, wreathed with cherubs. The project finally included 14 tapestries, which took 20 years to produce. The cartoons by Jacques Stella were woven in Brussels, while those by Philippe de Champaigne and Charles Poërson were assigned to various Parisian workshops, including that of Pierre Damour. After the choir was refurbished at the beginning of the 18th century, the tapestries were placed in storage and finally sold to Strasbourg Cathedral in 1739. Between 1645 and 1655, Lubin Baugin painted 19 pictures for Notre-Dame, including for the chapels, five of which have been identified. Two of them returned to the cathedral in the 1960s: The Virgin of Pity and The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew. But the most moving painting is undoubtedly The Nativity of the Virgin by the Le Nain brothers, dated around 1642. “They combined deep spirituality with narrative details like a cradle, or a child holding a cloth up to dry. Its restoration has revealed the incredible interplay of whites in the linen and in the bodice of the woman nursing the Virgin,” says Caroline Piel, Inspector General of Heritage and co-curator of the event. In the 18th century, the hang of the Mays was changed, as some of them had probably been dispersed to other churches in Paris. Between 1708 and 1723, Robert de Cotte, First Architect to Louis XIV, gave the cathedral choir its current form. The decor partly consisted of paintings by masters of the time, including Jean Jouvenet, Charles de La Fosse, Louis de Boullogne and Antoine Coypel, later joined by Carle Van Loo and Joseph-Marie Vien. During the French Revolution, Notre-Dame was stripped of its decorative works. The Mays were moved to the Musée des Monuments Français (housed in the former Augustinian convent from 1795 to 1816) and the Muséum Central des Arts, which opened in the Louvre in 1793. In 1802, when religious worship was re-established, some of them returned to the building. To disguise the dilapidated state of the walls, five paintings seized during the Italian campaign were hung on them, including Guido Reni’s Triumph of Job, later joined by an Adoration of the Shepherds painted by Jérôme Francken the Elder in 1585 for the Cordeliers convent. However, the reorganization overseen by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc from 1845 onwards excluded most of these paintings, and it was not until the second half of the 20th century that some of them were reinstated. From the 1940s until his death, Pierre-Marie Auzas (1914-1992), Inspector General of Les Monuments Historiques, expressed a deep interest in the paintings of Notre-Dame. 52 Mays have now been located, including eight in the Louvre and 14 in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Arras, in addition to the 13 newly restored. The others are scattered around private collections, churches and other museums. Although they escaped the fire unscathed, 22 paintings, including the 13 Mays housed in the cathedral, underwent an exemplary restoration work in 2022 and 2023, carried out by the DRAC and the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF). “The Mays are monumental paintings, but there is sometimes a small animal that goes unnoticed, a secret smile on an angel’s face—little signs left by the artist so that we can really connect with the work,” says Emmanuel Pénicaut.

Successive Restorations

For two years, 50 restorers worked in turn on the paintings in an undisclosed location. With help from the C2RMF, each piece was given a scientific imaging file. Ultraviolet light was used to identify overpainting from previous restorations. Infrared light, sometimes combined with reflectography, revealed changes in the composition, reworkings, and even the preparatory drawing. In the case of Aubin Vouet’s The Centurion Cornelius at St Peter’s Feet (1639), the imaging revealed an underlying composition, suggesting that Simon Vouet’s brother had re-used a previously painted canvas. In Francken’s painting, reflectography revealed three bodies beneath the layer of paint—probably angels—with Italian-style modeling. Oriane Lavit, curator at the C2RMF, was thus able to add to the historical dossier on the works, compiled on the basis of Delphine Bastet’s thesis published in 2021: “We knew that the Mays had been restored in the early 1960s. But we were surprised to discover that work had been carried out from 1731 onwards. When we repaired the relinings, we found a piece of paper used as a support, which we dated to 1779. There were also restorations in 1844. So our process is just continuing the long material history of the works.” Studied, scrutinized and restored, these large-scale paintings will return to their rightful place on December 8, 2024, in a cathedral as radiant as it was in the 17th century.
 

WORTH SEEING
“Grands décors restaurés de Notre-Dame” (Notre-Dame’s Large Paintings Restored”),
Galerie des Gobelins, Paris 18.
Until July 21, 2024.
www.mobiliernational.culture.gouv.fr

WORTH READING
Under the direction of Caroline Piel and Emmanuel Pénicaut, Grands décors restaurés de Notre-Dame de Paris, Silvana Editoriale, 112 pages, €15.