notre dame basilica and then there was light suspended

#Notre dame basilica and then there was light suspended series#

Then we’d head outside, towards the south transept. Recently they installed instructive panels based on the work of scholars Andrew Tallon and Dany Sandron, outlining all the major phases of the building of Notre Dame. Further along we’d study the two wooden maquettes of the building, and the hypothetical reconstruction of the original working site. We would proceed through the ambulatory, looking at the recently cleaned 14th-century choir enclosure relief sculptures, contrasting them to the 17th-century woodwork in the interior, and imagining the former choir screen. At the crossing we’d see one of my favorite statues, the elegant 14th-century ‘Vierge de Paris.’ Then we’d observe the Rayonnant rose windows in the transept from the inside. We’d go inside, admire the monocylindrical columns and the sexpartite vaults. I have taken students to Notre Dame every semester and led countless private tours there as well. I have lived in Paris for thirteen years. For the terrorist attacks, they were mostly ‘are you OK?’ and for the fire it was ‘I can’t believe what’s happening to Notre Dame you must be so upset.’ During the evening of April 15, before the fire was under control, I feared along with everyone else that the building was not going to survive the night.

#Notre dame basilica and then there was light suspended series#

Since I live in the suburbs of Paris and do not have a TV, I learned about the fire in much the same way that I found out about the 2015 terrorist attacks: I picked up my phone to discover a series of frantic text messages.

Department of Art History and Fine Arts, American University of Paris, Paris, France