Notre-Dame de Paris: From Victor Hugo to Eugène Viollet-le-Duc

The archaeological crypt of the Île de la Cité is reopening for the first time since the fire at Notre-Dame with an exhibition on the history of the cathedral in the 19th century. It begins with the publication of Victor Hugo’s best-selling novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which raised public awareness of this masterpiece of Gothic architecture, then in a parlous state, and inspired a campaign for its restoration. With a number of early photographs of the cathedral, the exhibition looks at the renovations of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who added both the famous spire and a series of stone gargoyles on the upper gallery (partly inspired by illustrations found in an edition of Hugo’s Hunchback). The display also considers how the global success of the novel – not to mention its adaptation by Disney – has cemented a certain image of the cathedral in the public imagination, and includes a number of contemporary artists’ responses to Notre-Dame. Find out more from the Paris Musées website

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here

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