Our Ambrosian Rite expert Nicola de’ Grandi recently visited the Musée de Cluny in Paris, so called because it is housed in a building that was once the Parisian residence of the abbot of Cluny. This museum has an extremely important collection of medieval art, and probably is best known as the home of a famous set of six tapestries called The Lady and the Unicorn; there are, of course, a huge number of very beautiful liturgical objects in the collection as well. The museum recently hosted an exhibition titled “The Middle Ages of the 19th Century - Creations and Fakes in the Fine Arts”, a display of medieval works next to modern ones inspired by them, and some forgeries as well. I previously posted some pictures of this exhibition taken by another friend, but Nicola managed to photograph pretty much the entire thing, so this will extend over several posts.
We begin with a 19th-century reproduction of the one of the most famous objects in the Louvre’s medieval collection. The nucleus of the original is a vase made in the 2nd century of a kind of stone called porphyry, from the Greek word for “purple.” This material was high prized by the ancient Romans, partly because purple was the color of royalty, partly because it is very rare, found in only one place in Egypt; it is also extremely hard and heavy, making it difficult and expensive to work with and transport. The vessel had been at the abbey of St Denis outside Paris for many years, lying disused in a chest, when it was discovered by the abbot Suger (1080 ca. - 1151), better known to the world as the inventor of Gothic architecture. The abbot had the vessel mounted with metal pieces, made partly of silver and gold, in the form of an eagle, so it could be used as a vessel for the washing of hands during solemn Mass.
A clock made in 1835, modelled on the façade of Notre-Dame de Paris as it was before the restorations of Eugène Viollet le Duc began in 1844.
A pyx for the Blessed Sacrament made in 1887...
modelled on this original made in Limoges ca. 1200.
A jeweled chalice and paten set made between 1868 and 1890...
copied from this set made before the year 962 at the abbey of St Maximin in Trier, commissioned by a bishop of Toul named Gauzelin, for the abbey of Bouxières-aux-Dames.
Here we have two examples of chalice and paten sets made in the Belgian city of Liège by the same firm, Joseph Wilmotte and Sons, the first in 1909...
and the second in 1899...
both modelled from this set made in 1226-29 at the priory of St Nicholas in Oignies, Belgium, by a goldsmith named Hugh, as recorded in an inscription on the chalice.
A bust reliquary of a Saint called Gratus, a 5th century bishop of the northern Italian city of Aosta, made by the Piedmontese sculptor Giovanni Comoletti in 1865...
copying a reliquary of the same Saint made in Geneva in 1431-32, commissioned by Amadeus VIII, duke of Savoy. In both versions, the crest of the Savoy family is mounted on the morse of the saint’s cope.
Two thuribles from the museum’s own collection; it is uncertain whether either one of them was made in the middle ages (12th or 13th century) or in the 19th.
A reliquary made in 1913, containing a rib of the Dominican Saint Gerard of Brogne.
A reliquary 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 hold 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.)
A reliquary in the form of an angel, made in France ca. 1470-80, the inspiration for the two preceding items.
An embroidered panel inspired by the same type of design, made in England in the mid-19th century.
A set of appliqués made of gilded bronze, produced in Limoges during the first half of the 13th century. The one at top which looks rather like a large moth is actually the dove of the Holy Spirit, coming down from heaven; the other four are the symbols of the evangelists.
