Is the Art Work Inside the Notre Dame Saved?
What'south Been Saved and What's Been Lost in the Notre Dame Fire
Later it had become apparent that the burn down that engulfed the Notre-Dame Cathedral on Monday threatened to bring downward the entire edifice—equally the vast amounts of woods in the centuries-old building ignited rapidly and at a height beyond the reach of typical fire fighting measures—Paris Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire told French media that first responders had focused some of their attending to saving the priceless art, precious artifacts and other items in the cathedral.
Now it seems, based on reporting from French media, that that effort was largely successful. Hours after the fire started, nosotros are only at present getting an idea of what has been saved and what hasn't. Things are looking slightly meliorate than initially idea for the cathedral, just the devastation was all the same profound. Start the cathedral's iconic spire fell, then a significant portion of the roof collapsed. ("Everything is burning, nothing will remain from the frame," a Notre Dame spokesman said at one signal in the twenty-four hour period.) The fire jumped to one of the cathedral's landmark rectangular towers in what seemed to exist an ominous sign, simply French regime later announced that both the iconic towers had been saved and that the burn had been mostly managed. Hither'southward what we know is saved and what has been lost from 1 of the world's greatest architectural treasures.
What'due south safe
Those looking for hope can take comfort in knowing the harm isn't quite as total equally authorities at one point feared. While the true extent of the burn down's damage can't yet be known (some photos from within the cathedral appear promising), French officials say it appears the facades and bong towers and flying buttresses and much of the rest of the building's full general structure have been saved. That'south great news for obvious reasons. Every bit Meredith Cohen, an art history professor at the University of California, Los Angeles explains, it is the building, rather than anything within it, that stands as a singular symbol of Paris' history. "The cathedral is the artwork," she said. "And all the other works of art fastened to church are dissimilar details of it."
According to Cohen, the edifice, which was built over nearly three centuries starting in 1160 (there have been later additions and renovations), symbolically transformed the city into the center of European culture during the medieval menstruation through its brandish of the new and innovative Gothic style of architecture and its atypical architectural and artistic ambition. "It's the origin of our concept of Paris every bit a center of fine art and culture," she said.
Statues and paintings
We know a set of important copper statues has been saved, as the Associated Printing reported that ones representing the 12 apostles and four evangelists that graced the pinnacle of the cathedral were removed last week every bit function of the $six.8 one thousand thousand renovation project (now believed to be in some way linked to the cause of the burn) to the at present-destroyed spire.
We besides know firefighters saved a number of valuable pieces of art from inside the cathedral, as confirmed by the cathedral's rector, simply nosotros don't know notwithstanding which of those pieces were saved. But Cohen said she was slightly less nervous about the contents of the church because so many historically pregnant artistic works had already been destroyed or removed during the French Revolution. "They beheaded sculptures, altars were removed, tombstones were removed," she said. She noted that a significant choir screen and baroque sculpture above an altar remained. "But compared to what was there, in that location is little left," she said.
The bell towers and the bells
It seems likely that well-nigh of the bells were saved, given that the 2 main bell towers were preserved, though that hasn't officially been confirmed. The cathedral's main bell, a 15th-century bell chosen the Emmanuel bell, survived. The Emmanuel bell has marked some of the country's and the globe'south most important moments, such as the end of World State of war 2 and the Sept. xi terror attacks.
Stained-glass windows
French media reported Tuesday that Notre Dame'south famous and awe-inspiring South Rose window, created in 1260, has survived. The cathedral has two other rose windows, also reported safe, and a large number of stained-drinking glass windows of which their status is unknown.
The organ
French media besides reported Tuesday that the church building's master organ, i of the largest in the globe, did non burn merely may have suffered some water impairment. The Great Organ, replaced and updated many times through the years, is operated by a head organist, a position recognized effectually the world as highly prestigious.
Christian relics
For the pious, it is likely the relics—items the faithful believe to exist physical remains or belongings of a saint or other holy figure—that are more than meaning in the tally of items saved. In detail many religious Catholics will likely be relieved to hear that the Crown of Thorns, Notre Dame's virtually valuable religious item and a relic said to be the braided thorns placed on Jesus' head before the crucifixion, is thought to exist prophylactic.
While NBC News has reported that the Crown of Thorns was housed in the now destroyed spire, a spokesman for the church building said the relic had been saved, according to French media. The status of the other prominent relics, which include a fragment of the "true cross" on which Jesus was crucified and a smash the Romans used in the crucifixion, is unknown. The crown is just brought out for worshipers on Fridays during Lent and on Good Friday—this upcoming Friday.
The cathedral'southward treasury was also saved, according to the cathedral'due south rector.
What's lost
The spire
The dramatic and iconic spire, one of the more modernistic aspects of the cathedral, was built in the 19th century during a wave of enthusiasm for the cathedral's restoration in the backwash of Victor Hugo's success with The Hunchback of Notre Dame. But Cohen says the public should not take whatever condolement in that modernity: fine art historians consider that another extremely valuable window into the techniques and styles of the time, and function of the layered history of the cathedral. "You can re-create that, but you lot're faking history," she said.
Joan Holladay, a professor of art history at the Academy of Texas, added that the many centuries of construction seen in the building are function of what makes it one-of-a-kind. "Using all these buildings together, you can put together a big picture of what gothic architecture was," she said. It's non just the individual periods seen in the architecture, but too how they fit together, that make the cathedral then valuable.
"The Forest"
The forest roof covering the stone vault, known as "the forest" because of the vast corporeality of wood needed to build it, was largely destroyed. Role of that roof structure dates to the 13th century, and it primarily was made from trees cutting betwixt 1160 and 1170, according to CNN—making it some of the oldest material in the building.
What's unknown
Nosotros all the same don't know how much damage has been done within the building. There are wooden pews and doorways, and plenty of other fine art that could be considered combustible. And we don't know how the building's exterior, with the famous Gothic sculpture work (notably, gargoyles), fared. We can presume that when the spire cruel and the ceiling collapsed, it did some damage to the vaults and the floor of the cathedral—again, damage to deeply historic masonry and pattern. Holladay noted that rock does not fire, only information technology does endure in the heat, crevice, and lose stability. So she worried most the sculptures on the due west facade, with its life-size figures of saints, and older carvings in areas around the left portal.
Sculptures and paintings
Some seem hopeful that much of the artwork inside the cathedral has been spared. There are more than 30 sculptures inside the cathedral, including one statue of Madonna and Kid that dates back to the 14thursday century. There'south a 1648 portrait of St. Thomas Aquinas and a 1716 painting called the Visitation—one of six in a serial depicting the life of Mary, the remaining of which were moved to the Louvre in the 1860s.
Whatever is ultimately establish as regime attempt to take account of the damage in the days to come up, it is already conspicuously devastating, as a building that has represented Paris—and the center of European art and culture—for 800 years has been hit with a well-nigh-fatal blow. But the structure remains. And French President Emmanuel Macron, in an address just before midnight in Paris, has vowed that the cathedral will once more be displayed as a symbol of Parisian civilisation and history. "I tell you solemnly tonight," he said. "We will rebuild this cathedral."
Update, April xvi, 2019, at 9:ten a.m.: This post has been updated to reverberate news about the cathedral'due south stained glass windows and organs.
Source: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/04/notre-dame-cathedral-fire-art-saved-destroyed.html
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