[Sculpture of Virgin and Child, Notre Dame, Paris]
The mid-nineteenth-century's renewed interest in France's medieval past resulted in the restoration-sometimes heavy handed, sometimes imaginative-of many of the nation's most important monuments. The work on Notre Dame, which suffered deliberate damage during the Revolution and neglect in the years that followed, began in 1845 and lasted some twenty-five years. Under the direction of Viollet le Duc, new statuary was commissioned, including this sculpture of the Virgin and Child, a work by Adolphe Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume. In Mestral's photograph, which comes from the Geoffroy-Dechaume archives, the heavenly figures remain earthbound on the construction site; shortly after, they would be lifted to a central position on the west façade, above the main portal and in front of the rose window.
Artwork Details
- Title: [Sculpture of Virgin and Child, Notre Dame, Paris]
- Artist: Auguste Mestral (French, Rans 1812–1884 Rans)
- Date: 1853–1854
- Medium: Salted paper print from paper negative
- Dimensions: 35.1 x 27.6 cm (13 13/16 x 10 7/8 in. )
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2000
- Object Number: 2000.290
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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Auguste Mestral
1853–54
Auguste Mestral
1853–1854
Auguste Mestral
1853–1854
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Henri-Jean-Louis Le Secq
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