Capitals

I visited the Saint-Germain-des-Prés church again (see previous posts here and here). The restoration works are almost finished. 

For some reason, this time I was especially struck by the capitals of the pillars. The carved capitals are all different and many of them have very medieval types of decorations. I understand that most of these are not the original ones, but were later copied. Some of the original ones can be found at the Cluny Museum (see posts here and here). Now, almost all of the ones in the church have again been restored and have very bright colours.

I think it’s interesting to see how these sometimes grotesque and not always very respectful illustrations were allowed, even encouraged, during the medieval times - see also some of the above ones. One can compare also with what I showed from the walls of the northern transept of the Saint Denis Basilica (see here).

Finally, some sun and light reflecting on the walls and pillars.  

... and the cleaning progresses...

About a year ago I posted about the cleaning and restoration of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Church (see here). Then about half was done. Now the other “half” has just been finished. The colours are splendid, some may think almost “too much”… but soon time, dust, dirt, pollution… will do its “work” !

However, the aisles are still to be taken care of. The remarkable paintings which you normally find on the walls here are also taken away for restoration.

Clean...

I wrote about the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Church almost ten years ago (see here) and I will not repeat the story about the church and the abbey, but… a few words: The present church, which was part of the great abbey is basically from the 11^th and the 12^th centuries, but a number of modifications have of course taken place during the following centuries and the building suffered seriously from the Revolution. During the 19^th century, Victor Baltard (1805-74) – today especially remembered for the disappeared “Les Halles” (previous posts here) - was in charge of a restoration and he engaged Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-64), assisted by Alexandre Denuelle (1818-79) for the decoration of the walls – most of the walls were thus covered by paintings, but, lately, you could hardly see this paint work anymore under the dirt.  

Cleaning and restoration of the walls and ceilings of about half of the church have just been finished, partly thanks to sponsoring by some of today's artists. We will obviously have to wait for at least another three years, before the whole church will be neat. On some of the pictures below you can clearly see the difference between the renovated and the not cleaned and restored parts.

Also renovated, you can find the impressive tomb of John II Casimir Vasa (1609-72), a man with a surprising career. King of Poland 1648-68, he abdicated and became abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés during his last four years. (One could perhaps mention that his father was King Sigismund III, grandson of Gustav I of Sweden.) Only John Casimir’s heart remains here; he’s buried in Krakow, then the capital of Poland.