The Treasury of Notre-Dame cathedral

Contrary to what you might read here or there (and even in some of the texts of the remarkable catalogue accompanying the Louvre exhibition), the treasury of Notre-Dame cathedral was not saved from the flames on 15 April 2019. Although it was wisely evacuated (an elementary precaution), the sacristy in which it was kept and displayed was never threatened by the blaze, even though the first alarm led a poorly trained security guard to believe - falsely - that the fire had started in its attic, just as it was beginning to devour those of the cathedral.

Evacuated to the Louvre along with the paintings preserved in the chapels (including the 13 Mays still in the building), these works will now be on display in the museum for three months. First of all, we are delighted to see what Jean-Luc Martinez had called the "small gallery" finally becoming a place for classical exhibitions, rather than being devoted to presentations that are often uninteresting and supposedly intended for "all audiences" (see this article).
Nothing like that here: a real exhibition, with a solid scientific catalogue. This deserves to be highlighted.

2. Jean Jouvenet (1644-1717)
The Mass of Canon Delaporte,
between 1708 and 1710
Oil on canvas - 162 x 141 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: RMN-GP/M. Urtado

See the image in its page

1. Thomas Germain (1673-1748)
Project for the "Petit Soleil"
of Notre-Dame, 1716
Pen, black ink, grey wash - 58 x 39 cm
Paris, library of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts
Photo: Ensba

See the image in its page

While many of the objects are very well displayed, there is just one regret: at the start of the tour, the illuminated manuscripts are placed too low, behind glass cases that are impossible to lean over, and are virtually invisible. It is certainly not easy to display this type of object, but the solution found here is without doubt the worst imaginable.
Most of the items in the Treasury no longer date from the…