The Museum of the Middle Ages returns to display its 24,000 pieces after the restoration of the four buildings and the rearrangement of the rooms
The Cluny Museum, the only national museum in France dedicated to the Middle Ages, reopens its doors in Paris after an extensive restoration of the buildings that compose it and a re-reading of its collection to show the public “a new generation of Middle Ages”, according to those responsible.
Located in the Latin Quarter, the Cluny Museum dusts off its collection of 24,000 works and, after two centuries of existence, enters the 21st century. It offers a new tour organized chronologically and thematically on medieval art and history, from the 5th century of the Christian era to the end of the 15th century. The museum, which contains one of the most important medieval collections in the world, was opened in 1843, when the private collector Alexandre du Sommerard (1779-1842) installed his collection of medieval art in the Cluny mansion.
It consists of four interlocking buildings: a Gallo-Roman bath, a 15th-century medieval Gothic-style mansion that was the former residence of the abbots of Cluny, a building built in the 19th century by Emile Boeswillwald, and a new contemporary reception building designed by the French architect Bernard Desmoulin. The renovation cost 23 million euros.
Through sculptures, goldwork, stained glass, paintings, enamels, reliquaries, ivory, pilgrimage badges, swords, helmets, artifacts from everyday life, battle tracts and religious furniture, the museum showcases the richness and complexity of the medieval world. During the tour you will see, among other things, the frigidarium (place where cold baths were taken) of the Lutetia baths, the chapel of the residence of the Abbots of Cluny, sculptures of the Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral and stained glass windows and statues of apostles who decorated the Saint Chapelle in Paris.
Medieval Spain is present on the route. For example, the visitor discovers the votive crowns of the Visigoth treasure of Guarrazar. These pieces of gold dating from the 7th century, a sign of the submission of the Visigothic kings to the church, were discovered by accident in the 19th century near Toledo. Another part of this Visigothic treasure can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid.
There are also eight cloister capitals of the Romanesque Monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes (Catalonia), decorated with scenes from the Bible. And a collection of precious Spanish-Moorish ceramics from Manises (Valencia), with iridescent metallic reflections.
The star of the Cluny Museum’s collection is the series of six tapestries ‘The Lady and the Unicorn’, a masterful example of the ‘milflores’ style, characterized by its red background with flowering plants. Five of the six tapestries represent the five senses (touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight), while the sixth, entitled ‘My Only Wish’, remains puzzling. Woven around 1500, these tapestries are considered masterpieces of Western art.
Source: La Verdad
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