“Saint-Denis is the mother of Notre-Dame! », smiles, very seriously, Frédéric Thibault of the company H Chevalier (1). While the renovation of the Parisian cathedral is scrutinized step by step before its reopening announced next year, the Gothic basilica built a little earlier and a little further north by Abbé Suger also remembers our attention.
After the restoration, completed in 2020, of its south rose window, the work campaign on the choir and its 12th century stained glass windows is coming to an end.e century. To which, for a total budget of 2.2 million euros of public funds, are added the cleaning of the stone facings and the restoration of the painting of the tabernacles.
“Suger intends to bring the whole church to light”
A bit of history is necessary, as the necropolis of the kings of France that we know today has been transformed since the 1140s. It is on an old Merovingian building in memory of Saint Denis, bishop martyred around 250, that Abbé Suger, adviser to the kings, redesigned the basilica. Between 1140 and 1144, he had the apse modified, created a large ambulatory to accommodate pilgrims in their thousands, flanked by radiant chapels lit by stained glass windows and two canopies in counterpoint.
“Suger intends to put the whole church in light, the divine light”, insists Colette Aymard, curator of Historic Monuments at the Drac Île-de-France. “Colored glass was very rare and expensive in the Middle Agescontinues Thomas Clouet, chief architect of Historic Monuments. The stained glass windows thus cost more than the entire building. Suger presumably brought in the best glassmakers from various parts of Europe. If the iconographic program is coherent, we detect different invoices. »
The most fragile glasses “put in conservation”
Spared by the Revolution, they were deposited in the 19the century, put back in place and modified, in particular by Viollet-le-Duc, until, in 1997, the most fragile of them were definitively “put into conservation” at the research laboratory for Historic Monuments (LRMH), in Champs-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne). These are therefore copies that the company Vitrail France has reconstructed and installed in the five central chapels.
“We thus produced 22 panels like those of the 12the century that survive in their entiretyexplains Emmanuel Putanier, director of Vitrail France. All the preparatory work was done at the LRMH, the originals cannot be moved. We have reproduced them strictly identically, including alterations, and each has been validated by a scientific committee before being implemented. »
Predating those of Chartres, the stained glass windows of Saint-Denis strike with this same intense and mystical blue – which Suger called “sapphire” –, «actually obtained from cobalt and sodium fluxes”, details Thomas Clouet. The life of Christ occupies the central chapels, of which two missing windows have been the subject of a creation faithful to the style and technique of the 12th century.e century : «We have chosen to evoke the lives of Saint Vincent and Saint Stephen, whose relics were venerated in the basilica. says the architect.
The vaults take on colors
If the glass throne in majesty in this campaign of restoration, the stone is not left out. Entrusted to the company H Chevalier, the cleaning (with latex) of the dirty facings and the recolouring of the tabernacles radically modify the atmosphere of the choir. As if the sun had suddenly risen after years of stubborn fog: from greyish, the limestone of the vaults has become light ochre.
«There are no medieval decorations on the tabernaclessays Frédéric Thibault. It is therefore the freshness of XIX paintingse, where red, gold and blue dominate, which we revive, with a few additions when the material has been lost. We favor watercolors and acrylics whereas, in the 19e, the artists worked in oil. »
Such a renovation makes it possible to become aware of the evolution, in a few years, of Gothic art and of the effervescent architectural innovation in the 12th century.e century. «See how, with regard to the western massif rebuilt by Suger a few years earlier, the choir appears more airy, lightened, elegant”, enthuses Thomas Clouet. The walls seem to undulate in the joy of the rediscovered light.
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A plural project
Started a little over a year ago the renovation project required the skills of around forty people. In addition to the scientific and administrative teams, scaffolders, masons, painters, ironworkers and, of course, glassmakers were mobilized. The public will discover these restorations in phases between March and June 2023.
Like the 87 cathedrals of France, the monument belongs to the State which financed, via the Drac Île-de-France, the budget of 2.2 million euros. The operation is part of the France plan to relaunch the “cathedral plan”.
According to the Center for National Monuments, the basilica attracts 130,000 to 140,000 visitors each year.