Medieval Liturgical Objects at the Musée de Cluny in Paris

Once again, I am very grateful to a friend for sharing with us photos taken during his travels, this time from the medieval collection at the Musée de Cluny in Paris. This museum, which is housed in a building that was once the Parisian residence of the abbot of Cluny, is best known as the home of a famous set of six tapestries called The Lady and the Unicorn, but also possesses a large number of very beautiful liturgical objects. In 2019, I visited the museum, and posted some of my own photos, but a large part of it was closed for renovations, and so there isn’t any overlap between these and my own set.

The museum is currently hosting an exhibition titled “The Middle Ages of the 19th Century - Creations and Fakes in the Fine Arts”, which displays medieval works next to modern ones inspired by them, and some forgeries as well. E.g., here we see a medieval thurible on the right, and a modern one which copies it on the left.

A reliquary in the form of an angel, made in France ca. 1470-80.

A modern reliquary inspired by it, made in 1913, containing a rib of the Dominican Saint Gerard of Brogne.

The smaller reliquary at the lower right of this photo was made towards the end of the 19th century to contain a small fragment of the True Cross; another container was added to it later to contain a relic of Julie Billiart, the founder of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, shortly after her beatification in 1906. (She has since been canonized.)

An embroidered panel inspired by the same type of design, made in England in the mid-19th century.

A medieval chalice and paten, and a modern copy (upper right.)

On the right, a ciborium made in France in about 1200, and on the left, a 19th-century copy.

On the left, a chalice and pattern set made in 1226-29, and on the right, two modern imitations, the one above made in 1899, and the one below in 1909.

An embroidered mitre (1880-1905 ca.), episcopal ring (1920-40) and morse for a cope (1879), all based on medieval objects.

A monstrance made in the second half of the 19th century; behind it, a candlestick made in the second half of the 12th century, and another based on its design, from 1860-65.

A reliquary with part of the arm bone of the Apostle St James the Less, made for the church dedicated to him in Liège, Belgium, in 1889.

A still-life by the French painter Blaise Alexandre Desgoffe (1830 – 1901), ca. 1890, titled “Still Life with a Reliquary of St Henry and various medieval artworks.” Desgoffes was a highly regarded specialist in the still-life genre, and very interested in medieval art: the objects represented here are all in the medieval collection of the Louvre.

From left to right: a statue reliquary of St Anne, holding both the Christ Child and Virgin Mary, made in Germany in 1472; a reliquary of an unidentified Saint, made possibly in the north of France, in the second half of the 15th century; a plague of the Crucifixion in champlevé, enamel, and gilded metal, made in Hildeshaim, Germany, ca. 1160-70; a reliquary made of a rock crystal vessel mounted on gilded silver, made in Venice in the second half of the 15th century.

At top, a reliquary of the Cross made somewhere in Low Countries ca. 1180-1200, mounted on a metal base made in Germany (?) in the 14th century, with a corpus added in the 16th.

A metal statue of St George killing the dragon, originally made in the 15th century, partially reworked in the 19th.

Two very oddly shaped reliquaries made in the upper Rhine region in the later 15th or early 16th century, partly reworked in the 19th.

Beneath the second one is displayed a belt which was part of a woman’s wedding dress, made in Lombardy ca. 1470-80.

The head of this reliquary was made in Spain ca. 1500-15, and mounted by its owner on a new bust in the second half of the 19th.

This lovely statue of the Virgin and Child was apparently a deliberate forgery, presented as an authentically medieval work at an exposition in Budapest in 1884, but later discovered to made with techniques unknown to the medieval period. 

At top, a ivory plaque of the Annunciation, made in the 19th century; middle, another of the Adoration of the Magi made in the 14th century, and a 19th century imitation...

and two of the Crucifixion, the one of the left made in the 9th century, and the one on the right in the 19th.