A new exhibition at the Mobilier National in Paris will showcase masterpieces that have been restored since the devastating fire at the Notre Dame cathedral in 2019.
The national furniture collection’s exhibition, opening on April 24, includes paintings, tapestries, liturgical furniture, and a 82-foot-long rug commissioned by the 19th century French monarch Charles X.
Of the 22 paintings set for the show the Mobilier National exhibition, 13 works are from the series titled “the Mays”, which will be on display for the first time in two centuries.
The private collection of 76 religious paintings were made by the Paris goldsmiths’ guild and donated to the cathedral between 1630 and 1707. The artists include Charles Le Brun, Laurent de La Hyre and Charles Poerson.
Emmanuel Pénicaut, director of Mobilier National collections, told the Observer: “We were lucky to get them out quite quickly with just a little water damage and dust. It was rather miraculous.”
He added: “We began removing them the day after the fire and decided they would all be restored. The exhibition is a chance to see them all in one place, in the order they were painted, which is how they would have been originally displayed. What you see now is how they would have looked the day they were completed.”
The restoration of the paintings was conducted by experts from Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’Île-de-France, or DRAC Île-de-France, a decentralized department of the French Ministry of Culture responsible for restoration and excavation work on the church, in partnership with the Mobilier National and the Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France.
Other restored items that will be shown in the exhibition are nine religious paintings, an elaborate chancel rug used only a few times for major occasions such as the marriage of Napoleon III, as well as 14 tapestries depicting the Virgin Mary. New contemporary church furniture designed by Paris-based design Guillaume Bardet will also be on display.
Notre Dame cathedral is scheduled to reopen in December.
