Revisiting the past

Each era has its own way of revisiting the past. In the 19^th century, from the 1830s onwards, France developed a certain passion for the gothic style and all its expressions, while Victor Hugo was writing his bestseller, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Two centuries later, are we currently witnessing the emergence of a neo-neogothic movement?

Baldassare degli Embriachi

Retro-futurism

With the rise of virtual reality and the proliferation of retro-futurist series, among other things, the present day nurtures a fascination for the Middle Ages and its entire fantasy universe in which the fetish animal is the unicorn. Even in the world of finance, aren’t young and highly valued startup companies known as “unicorns”?

The lady and the unicorn

Kiki Smith

Artists of today place great importance on art from the Middle Ages. Both the American artist Kiki Smith (See the report about Kiki Smith here) and the British painter David Hockney currently use the Bayeux tapestry as a reference point.

Mark Bradford

While the high-profile abstract painter from Los Angeles, Mark Bradford, has just unveiled a whole series of painting at the Serralves Foundation in Porto directly inspired by the Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries, which belong to The Cloisters in New York (See the report here).

Ariana Papademetropoulos

Ariana Papademetropoulos

The chapel, musée de Cluny

Musée de Cluny

Effigy of the whife of Jean des Martins 1450-1460

Treasure of Guarrazar, 7th century

For the past two years it hasn’t been on show because its setting, the Musée de Cluny, was closed for renovations. The institution has just reopened in its new guise, accompanied by a great wave of restoration.

To my sole desire

The lady and the unicorn

You will have to pass through twenty rooms to discover, or rediscover, at the end of the layout the space entirely covered by the six panels. Commissioned around 1500, they are themed on the five senses. The sixth is enigmatically entitled “A mon seul désir” (To my sole desire). It has a red background, with pines, orange trees and flowers. A disturbing serenity emanates from the general composition.

The aesthetic impact is powerful. The heroine, who features in each of the six panels, is a beautiful woman accompanied by a lion, a unicorn and even a little dog.

Frigidarium

This experience alone is worth the visit, which begins nonetheless with the impressive frigidarium, the old thermal baths (the thermes de Lutèce), with a 28-metre-high ceiling, a room entirely dedicated to the vestiges of Notre Dame after the fire, followed by the chapel at the Hôtel des Abbés de Cluny, a flamboyant feat of gothic architecture.

Headless statues

From the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris

It’s surprising to find, all along the chronological promenade among the 1600 works exhibited (out of the 24,000 in the collection), so many headless statues. The Revolution passed through here it would seem, but also, as the museum’s director Séverine Lepape explains, “the bad reputation of the Middle Ages for a long time did not incentivize the preservation of its heritage. But it was a resplendent period.

From the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris

” The Musée de Cluny ought to benefit from the current interest in the medieval period and its mysteries. To your sole pleasure, then…

https://www.musee-moyenage.fr/en/