Architecture The future of Notre-Dame: projections, open spaces and background music
Analysis The fire of Notre Dame, emblem of Paris
French and German craftsmen carry out the process of
cleaning and restoring
the
stained glass windows of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame
de Paris, which survived the fire in April 2019.
This is one of the first
restoration operations inside the cathedral,
with an eye on its reopening in 2024.
"An ambitious goal,"
Jean-Louis Georgelin, a general in the French army, who is overseeing the restoration of the building, acknowledged on Friday.
On April 15, 2019, a gigantic fire devastated
this masterpiece of Gothic art
, causing the collapse of its frame, its famous needle, its clock and part of its vault, before the astonished gaze of millions of people around the world.
Eight French workshops and stained glass painters of the Cologne Cathedral
(western Germany) are working on the recovery of the stained glass windows of the nave, the choir, the transept and the sacristy, said the public institution that manages the conservation and restoration of Cathedral.
The
stained glass windows of the chapels and the tribunes
are being cleaned directly at Notre-Dame.
Glass master Flavie Vincent-Petit takes care of
several of the 39 "windows"
of the church, "3 meters wide and between 8 and 9 meters high", he explains to AFP.
"The stained glass windows of the choir are from the 19th century and biblical and religious figures are represented. At that time, the architect Viollet Le Duc sought to
recover the sifted light of the Middle Ages
", explains Vincent-Petit.
"The ones on the ship are from the
1960s
and are abstractly inspired," he adds.
Only the rose windows of the church date from
medieval times, and "they were not affected
by the fire, so they are not included in the restoration program," says this craftswoman.
The cleaning process, in which some
fifteen French master
glaziers work , begins with the disassembly of the stained glass windows, assembled with lead on a support called "locksmith", documenting their state and numbering them.
Next,
they vacuum up the dust particles
, rub the dirt with cotton pads dipped in a mixture of water and alcohol, and repair the cracks.
These stained glass windows have never been cleaned since they were installed
more than 150 years ago
, but underneath the dirt there is a color that has not changed since then, Vincent-Petit points out.
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