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The show
An innovative and multimedia exhibition gives life to four Gothic sculptures from the famous Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral that will accompany the public to reflect on crucial themes for art: the organization of work in a medieval construction site as complex as that of a cathedral , the theme of the destruction and mutilation of works of art for political reasons, up to that of the integrative "romantic" restoration of medieval monuments, which characterizes the interventions of the nineteenth century throughout Europe. The exhibition, curated by the curator of Palazzo Madama Simonetta Castronovo and set up in the Coat of Arms Room of the museum, is the result of a collaboration with the Musée de Cluny - Musée national du Moyen Âge in Paris.
The event is configured as a dossier exhibition dedicated to the theme of French Gothic sculpture in the first half of the 1200s and, in particular, to the construction site of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. The Head of Angel comes from the portal of the Coronation of the Virgin on the western facade, while from the portal of the northern arm of the transept come the Head of a Magus King , the Head of a Bearded Man and the Head of a Female Figure , an allegory of a theological virtue. . These four works, in addition to being examples of the highest quality of medieval European sculpture, are evidence of that moment of the Gothic civilization indicated by the famous art historian Cesare Gnudi as "Gothic classicism" or "Gothic naturalism", which had a strong influence, at the end of the thirteenth century, also on the protagonists of the Gothic in Italy: Giotto, Nicola Pisano, Giovanni Pisano, Arnolfo di Cambio.
The heads are presented with an engaging audiovisual set-up, created by Leandro Agostini, which recreates an architectural and environmental background for the sculptures, enriching the visit with projections and voiceovers, which animate the four characters and tell their story. In this way, the exhibition itinerary becomes an opportunity for in-depth study of the extraordinary Gothic sculptures of Notre-Dame, simultaneously offering visitors a narration on the Parisian Cathedral (from the Middle Ages to the destruction following the French Revolution, up to the integrative restorations by Eugène Viollet-le- Duc in the mid-nineteenth century) and an illustration of the different iconographic and stylistic characters of its portals.
Between 1793 and 1794 the four sculptures exhibited in Palazzo Madama were removed from the Parisian cathedral, along with many others that decorated the gallery of the Kings and the portals of the facade, on the orders of the Comité revolutionnaire de la Section de la Cité, as a symbol of feudality, monarchy and religion. In fact, by 1793 France had become a republic - Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette had been guillotined at the beginning of the year - run by a public health committee headed by Robespierre. The sculptures, many now in the state of fragments, abandoned for a long time in the churchyard, were subsequently sold to city entrepreneurs interested in re-using them as building material. A loss that is at the origin of the impressive restoration site of the Cathedral, in the years 1845-64, by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and Jean-Baptiste Lassus, who had to base themselves, to create the new sculptures, to replace of those lost, on ancient drawings and engravings depicting the portals, imitating the style of the language of the contemporary Gothic sculptures of Chartres, Reims and Amiens. Many of Notre-Dame's original sculptures, including the four works exhibited at Palazzo Madama, along with hundreds of fragments, were found in 1977 during work on the foundations of the Hôtel Moreau in Paris, home to the Banque Française du commerce extérieur, which later decided to donate them to the French state to be deposited at the Musée de Cluny, which has kept them since 1980.
The exhibition seals a fruitful collaboration relationship with the Cluny Museum , started in 2015 within the European Network of Medieval Art Museums, established in 2011 to promote joint exhibition initiatives, shared research, conventions and conferences on medieval art heritage. kept in such institutions. The network today brings together the Musée de Cluny in Paris , the Bargello Museum in Florence , the Schnütgen Museum in Cologne , the Diocesan Museum of Vic in Catalonia , Palazzo Madama - Civic Museum of Ancient Art in Turin , the Musée Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp , the Catharijnconvent in Utrecht and the Musée de l'Oeuvre Notre-Dame in Strasbourg . The Musée de Cluny and Palazzo Madama have already created an important partnership exhibition: Les émaux de Limoges à décorprofane. Autour des collections du cardinal Guala Bicchieri (Paris, Musée de Cluny, 13 April - 29 August 2016), then presented in Turin with the title A traveling cardinal. Guala Bicchiericollector of gothic art in Vercelli, Limoges, Paris and London (10 November 2016 - 6 February 2017).
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![[object Object] - The western facade of Notre-Dame in Paris](https://artsupp.com/pictures/partners_artworks_pictures/285x285/4702.jpg)
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