Musée de Cluny – Musée national du Moyen Âge, Paris, 19th November 2024–16th March 2025  

There was a distinct atmosphere of celebration in Paris in early December 2024. A little over five years after the shocking fire of 15th April 2019, the cathedral of Notre-Dame rather miraculously reopened to the public, as President Macron had vowed the day after the conflagration.[1] It now stands restored, cleaned both inside and out, its roof and spire rebuilt, and the exhibition under review was planned to coincide with this new phase of the cathedral’s life. It is of course entirely appropriate that the Musée de Cluny should mount an exhibition dedicated to the detached Gothic sculptures from Notre-Dame, as the great majority of these pieces, mostly torn from the cathedral following the Revolution, form part of its permanent collection. However, what could not have been anticipated in the early stages of planning the exhibition was one of the most dramatic discoveries of medieval sculpture in recent years, inside the cathedral, between February and July 2022.[2] 

Ironically, if the 2019 fire had not destroyed the crossing vault and the flèche above, it is unlikely that the discovery would have been made at all. In early 2022 the Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (Inrap) excavated a long trench in the transept crossing in order to allow the construction of a temporary foundation to support the weight of the massive scaffolding folding tower needed to access the upper reaches of the vault and the inside of the spire. In doing so they found that the ground in front of the choir was densely packed with fragments of painted stone: no fewer than 1,035 pieces of sculpted work were uncovered, seven hundred of which are polychrome. It was immediately apparent that these precious survivals originated from the choir screen (jubé) located on the east side of the crossing at the entrance to the liturgical choir, with a narrow narrative frieze facing west. The jubé had been demolished in 1699 under Louis XIII. Probably constructed about 1230, it included scenes of the Passion of Christ with brightly coloured backgrounds in a rich blue with raised gilded ornaments, comparable to the jubé at Bourges Cathedral. 

A selection of thirty fragments from this jubé, all polychrome, take centre stage in the first section of the exhibition, in the Roman frigidarium. These include five fine bearded heads (cat. nos.40 and 48–51; Fig.4) – one of which, with closed eyes, is certainly Christ and probably from the scene of the Entombment – as well as several headless figures (nos.37, 39, 41 and 45) and a superb corner section with standing figures of Moses and probably Aaron (no.36; Fig.5). The exhibition and the catalogue that accompanies it are all the more valuable for introducing these pieces and discussing them, and the circumstances of their discovery, for the first time.[3] Full publication of all the fragments and the details of the excavation is promised in due course; their final home is yet to be announced. 

These new discoveries are the stars of the show and would justify a visit even if they formed a small independent exhibition of their own rather than being presented among the other detached sculptures from Notre- Dame. But the opportunity has also been taken to highlight other groups that have been the subject of recent conservation and research. The result is a series of nine ‘case studies’, divided between the frigidarium (the first six) and the permanent ‘Notre-Dame room’ (the final three). This is not a survey of the Notre-Dame sculptures – the now celebrated giant heads from the galerie des rois on the west front, discovered in 1977, are not included, for instance – but rather a scholarly presentation; and it has to be said that the second room is somewhat jumbled visually, with a slightly confusing mixture of sculptures, some included in the exhibition, others not.[4] 

The exhibition is laid out more or less chronologically, starting with the sublime jamb figures, alas now headless, from the St Anne portal (c.1145) on the south side of the west front. These now look better than ever, the fragments having been taken apart and reset in the case of the figures of St Paul (no.3; Fig.6) and another who may be Solomon (no.4). The extensive remains of paint on the fragments of the lintel from the central door of the west front, which depicts the Last Judgment (c.1230–40; no.15; and c.1210– 20; nos.16–18), have provided the basis for a reconstruction of the original colour scheme. The third portal of the west front (c.1210–20), to the north and dedicated to the Coronation of the Virgin, supplied the fine head of an angel (no.25), now newly cleaned, from the left side of the door. 

The sculptures from the portals are arranged around three of the walls of the frigidarium, while the jubé fragments are shown on screens in the centre of the room. The fourth wall is dedicated to the reliefs of the eastern part of the choir enclosure (clôture). In the catalogue new light is shed on the iconography and layout of these enigmatic sculptures, linking them to a series of leaves from a dismembered historiated bible (c.1340; various collections; nos.57–61), which appear to copy the scenes found on the clôture. A newly identified polylobed relief with a scene from the Old Testament story of Job (c.1330?; private collection; no.66a;) is set beside the only other relief of this type previously known from this part of the clôture (Musée du Louvre, Paris; no.66b). 

At this juncture, the exhibition moves into the neighbouring room, where the bulk of the Notre- Dame sculptures are permanently displayed. Here, the famous figure of Adam (c.1260; no.70) is featured, accompanied by a careful examination of the extent of its restoration. The final two sections are given to the sculptures of the two transept portals. The first features three heads from the portail du cloître, the north portal (c.1258), including the noble but damaged head of one of the three Magi (no.71), which has sufficient remains of pigmentation to allow a colour reconstruction. The final grouping includes two heads and four headless figures from the St Stephen’s portal on the south transept (c.1260), including the trumeau figure of St Stephen (no.80) and the jamb figure of St Denis (no.83), all placed on a low plinth in front of the other eight figures from the portal. Here, one of the most intriguing problems is the association of the remaining heads with the figures from which they may have come. 

The organiser of the exhibition and the editor and principal author of its excellent catalogue, Damien Berné, is to be congratulated on successfully bringing the project to fruition against a challenging deadline. The publication will be a lasting contribution to the literature on Gothic sculpture and a fundamental resource for the study of Notre-Dame. 

[1] For a summary of the issues facing the authorities shortly ter the fire, see A. Gajewski and M. Hall: ‘The fate of Notre-Dame, Paris’, THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE 161 (2019), pp.648–52. 

[2] See Editorial: ‘Politics versus archaeology in Paris’, THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE 165 (2023), p.355. 

[3] Catalogue: Faire parler les pierres: Sculptures médiévales de Notre-Dame. Edited by Damien Berné. 288 pp. incl. numerous col. + b. & w. ills (Éditions Faton, Dijon, 2024), €39. ISBN 978–2–87844–382–0. 

[4] A. Erlande-Brandenburg and D. Thibaudat: Les sculptures de Notre-Dame de Paris au musée de Cluny, Paris 1982, therefore remains indispensable.