Logo image
Back
Notre Dame Cathedral: Nine Centuries of History
Review   Open access

Notre Dame Cathedral: Nine Centuries of History

Robert Bork
CAA.Reviews
07/09/2020
DOI: 10.3202/caa.reviews.2020.60
url
https://doi.org/10.3202/caa.reviews.2020.60View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Paper $34.95 (9780271086224) Reading any book of art history inevitably involves looking back into at least two different periods of history: the one that produced the art discussed in the book and the one that produced the book itself. The images thus serve to reify a certain vision of how the construction of Notre-Dame unfolded. Since Sandron and Tallon understood the building as well as anyone, their vision certainly deserves to be enshrined in this way as much as any other. [...]because this short book does not incorporate a scholarly apparatus of footnotes or even detailed discussion of the evidence that led to hypothetical reconstructions of building components that have since been modified, many readers may be tempted to take these images on faith. The final chapters of the book go on to consider three phases in the postmedieval history of Notre-Dame: the period from the Renaissance to the dawn of the French Revolution, which witnessed mostly small-scale alterations to the fabric and its furnishings; the period around 1860 that witnessed the massive restoration campaigns led by Viollet-le-Duc and Jean-Baptiste Lassus; and the present day, now including reference to the 2019 fire.
 Architecture Bibliographic literature Centuries Choirs Church buildings Gothic period History Lasers Tallon, Andrew

Details

Metrics

62 Record Views
Logo image