[Sculpture of Angel at Sainte-Chapelle, Paris]

Auguste Mestral French

Not on view

This rare early work by Mestral captures the period's simultaneous interest in history and its willingness to replace the weathered vestiges of the past with crisp re-creations. What we see here is not a Gothic sculpture but rather a work by Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy Dechaume (1816-1892), newly carved to adorn the chevet of the jewel-like Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, then being "restored" by Viollet-le-Duc. Dechaume's angel seems to have materialized like an apparition, for Marville arranged the picture and adjusted the lens so that only the sculpture itself is sharply focused.

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