Apr 16, 2019 at 11:57am
Notre Dame Cathedral houses a number of priceless paintings, leaving many to wonder if the paintings survived the devastating fire that swept the cathedral on April 15.
Unfortunately, a number of experts are supposing that the paintings will not have survived the fire, not only because of the risk of being burned but because of how the smoke and water damage may have impacted the precious artifacts.
To USA Today , Camille Serchuk, a professor of art history at Southern Connecticut State University who was in Paris at the time of the fire, said, The combination of heat, smoke and fire, it's very unlikely that any paintings inside survived but we will have a better sense in the coming days.”
Here's what you need to know about the most famous paintings inside Notre Dame, as well as what information is available about their fate.
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The Visitation is one of the largest paintings that was on display at the time of the fire. Its fate is, unfortunately, unclear. Per The Washington Post, a Notre Dame priest did confirm that the paintings of Notre Dame were taken out of the Cathedral at some point during the fire, but whether they survived any water or smoke damage is unclear. Restoration Brothers Randolph are now being stored at The Louvre.
In 1709, the canon of La Porte (1627-1710), financial instigator of the wish of Louis XIII and the total recasting of the choir, decided to offer the cathedral six paintings on the theme of the life of the Blessed Virgin. He died on December 24, 1710, at the age of eighty-three years, without seeing finished the work he is sponsoring, which will come to an end, thanks to the legacy he bequeaths to the cathedral.
Thus will take place eight monumental compositions in the choir of the cathedral, all executed in 1715, except two:
- the Annunciation of Hallé (1717)
- the Visitation of Jouvenet (1716)
- l' Assomption and Jesus at Coypel Temple
- Escape in Egypt and Purification of Boullongne.
At the Revolution they will, like all works of art, be removed from the cathedral and transferred to the Museum at Versailles, with the exception of three of them whose destination whose destination is not known. The restitution of the five surviving canvases was decided following the Concordat, and they resumed their places in 1807 in new frames. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc reports that on the occasion of the baptism of the Prince Imperial, June 14, 1856, the paintings of Jouvenet sic have been descended and we have thus seen the advantages that there would be for the worship … not to replace these paintings that clog the arches of the aisles and darken all this side of the choir He adds that this removal would restore damaged and undermined pillars so as to compromise the solidity of the building …”.
The paintings will be deposited in the Louvre Museum in the 1860s, only Jouvenet's painting will return to the cathedral in 1947, thanks to the work of Pierre-Marie AUZAS, Inspector General of Historical Monuments.
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The St. Thomas Aquinas painting (as seen above) is another massive painting that was on display at the time of the fire. Its fate is unclear.
The portrait of St. Thomas Aquinas, who actually visited Notre Dame Cathedral at one point, was painted in 1648 and was taken out of the Cathedral at some point during the catastrophe, according to The Washington Post The painting is now undergoing restoration at The Louvre, but its fate is unclear, as it could have sustained significant smoke or water damage.
Per Notre Dame's website , here is some information on this painting, translated from French to English:
This painting, probably dating from 1648, is attributed to a painter langrois, Antoine Nicolas. We do not know who this picture was for; however, the Dominican community of Saint-Maur-des-Faussés, to whom it belonged before arriving at the convent of the Annunciation around 1950, was established in Langres in 1621. The search for the origin of the painting goes to Pierre -marie Auzas, An unpublished French representation of St. Thomas Aquinas” in Bulletin of the Society of the History of French Art , 1974, pp. 35-42.
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