By Luca Matteucci
SAINT-MAUR-DES-FOSSÉS, France, Oct 23 (Sciences Po) – The restoration of Notre Dame de Paris’s stained glass windows, which began after the fire in 2019, is nearing completion as Europe's most visited heritage site prepares for reopening.
Master restorer Isabelle Baudoin shows visitors a restored Notre-Dame stained glass with Luke the Evangelist on it. September 17, 2023. Sciences Po/Luca Matteucci
At Atelier Baudoin, one of eight French specialised workshops entrusted with the delicate task of cleaning the 2,500 m2 of soot-stained windows, master stained glass restorer Isabelle Baudoin is putting the final touches on a 19th century piece featuring Luke the Evangelist. Baudoin, established since 1992 in her spacious workshop in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, a quiet Paris suburb, said stain glass restoration always requires patience, precision and care with centuries-old glass. But for this job the pressure is on like never before. “It’s Notre-Dame de Paris, and that’s quite something!” said the conservation professional, who has restored other major holy sites in the past, including UNESCO-listed Chartres Cathedral and Nantes Cathedral, whose stained glass artworks were shattered by a fire in 2020.
None of Notre-Dame's stained glass windows were destroyed or damaged by the fire on 15 April 2019. But many, already dusty, were exposed to the smoke and covered in soot. This is why eight workshops of master glassmakers and art metalworkers were appointed in France – and an additional one in Cologne, Germany – following a call for tenders issued by the public body responsible for the conservation and restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, the contracting authority for the project.
Restoration work on French monuments is governed by public procurement law, which sets a threshold of €15,000 above which the State or local authority are required to organise a competitive tendering procedure. The selection was done on several criteria, including references for work of a similar nature, and a technical brief outlining the chosen restoration method. “People tend to picture our job as very manual, when there is actually a lot of admin and writing involved,” said Julie Monique, Isabelle Baudoin’s former student at Sorbonne University and now associate at the workshop.
The restorers have kept a written record of every change they have made to the four Notre-Dame skylights – comprising 217 panes in total – they worked on. “We try to keep the marks of time’s passing,” said Julie Monique, who happened to be an intern at Atelier Baudoin when Notre-Dame took fire.
The young conservationist said the paradigm has evolved since the 19th century. Back then, restorers painted fake craters on Notre-Dame’s stained glass to mimic corrosion, or whitened some areas on pristine pieces to make them look more medieval.
Today, the restoration must be visible so that people appreciate and distinguish the original from successive restorations, according to the European Confederation of Conservator-Restorers Organisations. “[Earlier restorers] had fun, it was like an imitation game. But we do not have the right to stick a glass of our manufacture on the original pieces,” said Isabelle Baudoin. “We work in the shadow of the artists we restore, that’s why we should avoid revisiting and abusively transforming their creations.”
Comments