“It is a moving testimony of the furnishings of the chapter house. In the Saint-Piat chapel of the Notre-Dame de Chartres cathedral, Irène Jourd’heuil, curator of historical monuments at the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (Drac) Center-Val de Loire, never tires of admiring the high restored walls.
The works carried out to guard the cathedral’s treasure have revealed, in this room on the ground floor, four pictorial decorations of the fourteenth century and above all, on the west wall, an unpublished representation of Notre-Dame de Chartres under construction. Hidden 70% under the lime, the original murals have never been covered by another decoration since their creation. This explains why they reappeared in the hands of restorers.
prize Construction site of the Saint-Piat chapel which will house the treasure of the cathedral of Chartres: the point in February 2022
“Once cleaned, these paintings were cleaned and we re-attached the polychrome ones,” explains Irène Jourd’heuil. But we didn’t go further in terms of retouching. “
What do these four original wall decorations represent?
If the decorations are worn by time, the scenes depicted remain legible for heritage professionals. In their upper part we can recognize an Annunciation to Mary, on the south wall of the chapter house, and a Coronation of the Virgin on the north wall.
The other two scenes, east and west, are more difficult to interpret. The first depicts three women, each holding a book and advancing towards a haloed figure lying in a bed on which a miter is placed; the second shows the Virgin in front of a haloed man carrying a palm leaf, surrounded by two women holding a book and an elderly couple.
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“On the three walls, the lower part evokes the local life linked to the cathedral, deciphering Irène Jourd’heuil. Without doubt to remember the close link between the mother of Jesus and the sanctuary of Chartrain since it was dedicated to her. The surprise came from the west wall: the Virgin witnesses the construction of the cathedral under the gaze of a haloed figure, a book in one hand and in the other showing the building.
Why is this an exceptional discovery?
“This is the oldest iconographic representation of Notre-Dame de Chartres and the only one of the original north Romanesque spire, which disappeared at the beginning of the 16th century”, enthuses Irène Jourd’heuil, who also points out that the representation of a construction site in a mural remains extremely rare in the Middle Ages.
prize The stained glass windows created by the artist Bang Hai Ja for Chartres Cathedral were installed
These four wall decorations will be highlighted by directional lighting. When the Saint-Piat chapel opens to the public – in the summer of 2023, Irène Jourd’heuil announces – visitors will have digital tablets at their disposal to help them read these paintings.
New stop for the construction site of the Saint-Piat Chapel.
The works for the chapel of Saint-Piat will take a new step this autumn: the structural works are expected to be delivered by the end of October and the scenography works for the future exhibition of the cathedral treasure will begin: set-up of the lighting, showcases, panels of presentation and the works themselves with a lot of manipulation work for the most impressive. Opening to the public is still scheduled for summer 2023.
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Lorenzo Francesca
[email protected]
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