It will run through the beginning of the Capetian dynasty to nowadays and will focus on everything related to France and its history.
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Pied de Croix de Saint-Bertin, vers 1180 ©Musées de Saint-Omer
Cuivre doré, fondu, ciselé, gravé, émaux champlevés
Hauteur en cm 31.5, Diamètre de la base en cm. 22.5, Diamètre maximal en cm 29.5
Objet d’art
This foot cross comes from the former abbey of Saint Bertin, and until recently it was considered as a smaller copy of the cross Saint Suger ordered for Saint Denis. The foot should have been used for a huge cross.
The base is round, ornated around a disk by vegetal patterns, upon which the four evangelists are sitting and who are used to support the cross. You can recognise the evangelists by their symbols, placed above them, between the base and the squared column. Saint Luke is under a winged bull, writing over his desk. Saint Matthew stops writing and turns to face the angel coming towards him. Saint John is turning as well.
Follow the restoration work live, discover the legend of Latona and the arts & crafts skills involved in this historic restoration on latone.chateauversailles.fr.
Château de Compiègne
The Castle of Compiègne is a French château, a royal residence built for Louis XV and restored by Napoleon. Compiègne was one of three seats of royal government, the others being Versailles and Fontainebleau. It is located in Compiègne in the Oise département, and open to the public.
Even before the château was constructed, Compiègne was the preferred summer residence for French monarchs, primarily for hunting given its proximity to Compiègne Forest. The first royal residence was built in 1374 for Charles V and a long procession of successors both visited it and modified it. Louis XIV resided in Compiègne some 75 times. Louis XV was perhaps even more favorably impressed; the Comte de Chevergny described his infatuation: “Hunting was his main passion… and Compiègne, with its immense forest, with its endless avenues amongst the trees, with its stretches down which you could ride all day and never come to the end, was the ideal place to indulge that passion.”
In 1750, prominent architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel proposed a thorough renovation of the château. Work began in 1751 and was finished in 1788 by Gabriel’s student Le Dreux de La Châtre. The ancient town ramparts dictated the château’s triangular plan; the resultant building covers about 5 acres (20,000 m2). It is Neoclassical in style, with simplicity and clarity governing both its external and interior features.
During the French Revolution, the château passed into the jurisdiction of the Minister for the Interior. In 1795 all furniture was sold and its works of art were sent to the Muséum Central; it was essentially gutted. Napoleon visited in 1799 and again in 1803. In 1804 the château became an imperial domain and in 1807 he ordered it be made habitable again. Architects Berthault, Percier and Fontaine, decorators Dubois and Redouté, and cabinetmakers Jacob-Desmalter and Marcion restored the château. Its layout was altered, a ballroom added, and the garden was replanted and linked directly to the forest.
The result is an example of First French Empire style (1808-1810), though some traces of the earlier décor survive. Auguste Luchet remarked that “Compiègne speaks of Napoleon as Versailles does of Louis XIV”. From 1856 on, Napoleon III and Eugénie made it their autumn residence, and redecorated some rooms in the Second Empire style.
Cover page of Le Petit Journal, 10 May 1897. “Incendie du Bazar de la Charité. Le sinistre.”
The Bazar de la Charité was an annual charity event organized by the French Catholic aristocracy in Paris from 1885 onwards. It is best known for the fire at the 1897 bazaar that claimed 126 lives, many of them aristocratic women, the most eminent of whom was Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Alençon, née Sophie Charlotte of Bavaria, sister of Empress Sisi.
The Bazar de la Charité was held annually in a variety of locations, by a consortium of charitable organizations that joined to share renting fees, reducing costs and grouping potential buyers.
In 1897 the Bazar was held in a large wooden shed, 80 by 13 metres, at Rue Jean-Goujon 17, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. Within this shed a fantasy medieval street was built with wood, cardboard, cloth and papier-mache. Exits were not properly marked. These incidences would contribute considerably to the disaster.A novel attraction at this Bazar was a room where the new spectacle of the time could be admired, moving images projected by the Lumière brothers’ technology.
On the afternoon of 4 May, the second of the planned four days of the bazaar, the projectionist’s equipment (using a system of ether and oxygen rather than electricity) caught fire. The resulting blaze, and the panic of the crowd, claimed the lives of 126 people, mostly aristocratic women. Over 200 people were additionally injured from the fire. The disaster was reported nationally and internationally.
Some of the visitors fleeing through the courtyard were saved by the cook and manageress of the Hôtel du Palais, M. Gauméry and Mme Roche-Sautier (respectively), who helped them escape the fire through the kitchen windows to the adjoining building. The identification of charred remains by the use of dental records was a landmark in the early history of forensic dentistry.
Entrepôt en ligne de manuscrits du Moyen Âge numérisés en France. Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes - CNRS.
La Bibliothèque virtuelle des manuscrits médiévaux (BVMM), est élaborée par l’Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes (IRHT-CNRS). Elle permet de consulter la reproduction d’une large sélection de manuscrits, du Moyen Âge jusqu’au début de la Renaissance, conservés dans des fonds patrimoniaux dispersés sur tout le territoire français, hormis ceux de la Bibliothèque nationale de France. Elle est enrichie par des apports extérieurs, comme les reproductions d’une centaine de manuscrits de la Staatsbibliothek de Berlin.
The Biblothèque virtuelle des manuscrits médiévaux was created by the Institut de recherche et d’histoires des textes (IRHT-CNRS). It enables people to consult the reproduction of a large selection of manuscript, from Middle Ages to the early Renaissance period, kept in the different French archives outside of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It is extended by foreign contributions, such as the reproduction of hundreds of manuscript from the Staatbibliothek of Berlin
CLEARLY THE HEADLINE OF THE DAY
A giant blue French coq standing 4.2m high is causing a stir in the heart of London, amid accusations it represents an insult to one of Britain’s greatest war heroes.
The fiberglass statue of the classic symbol of France is set to be installed on the famous fourth plinth underneath Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, London.
But some on the British side of the Channel have suggested the audacious piece of art would have the war hero Nelson - who defeated the French fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar during the Napoleonic Wars - turning in his grave.
Among the opponents of the giant coq, which is reminiscent of Footix - the 1998 World Cup mascot - is the Thorney Island Society, a charity set up to defend Britain’s heritage
They have described the work of art as “completely inappropriate”.
Artist Katharina Fritsch, however, has dismissed the criticism, insisting the rooster “is a symbol of renewal, revival and strength”.
Despite the criticism, the artwork should be given approval at a council meeting next week and take its place on the fourth plinth in July, where it will rest until February 2015.
I can’t stop laughing.
The Monuments Men of World War II
The Monuments Men were a group of men and women from thirteen nations, most of whom volunteered had expertise as museum directors, curators, art scholars and educators, artists, architects, and archivists. The Monuments Men job description was simple: to save as much of the culture of Europe as they could during combat.
Powder flask
- Place of origin:
France (made)
- Date:
1574 (dated)
This powder flask is of carved staghorn and is made by an unknown artist in France in 1574.
The flask is decorated with a scene depicting Samson killing the lion.
Powder flasks are portable containers of wood, horn, metal, leather or ceramic used to hold the priming powder or gunpowder for firearms. They normally terminated in a metal nozzle which also served as a powder measure, closed by a plug or spring cap, and are often highly decorated.
1) “Retour à la normale”
1) Affiche, 64 x 88 cm - Sans tampon [Beaux-arts]BnF, Département des Estampes et de la photographie, ENT QB-(1968) /W36582) “Mai 68, début d’une lutte prolongée”Affiche, 49,5 x 76,5 cm - Atelier populaire de l’ex-École des beaux-artsBnF, Département des Estampes et de la photographie, QB-1 (1968-05)- BOITE FOL3) “CRS SS”Affiche, 43 x 55 cm - Atelier populaire de l’ex-École des beaux-artsBnF, Département des Estampes et de la photographie, ENT QB-(1968) /W3692
The beginning of Mai 68
Following months of conflicts between students and authorities at the University of Paris at Nanterre, the administration shut down the university on 2 May 1968. Students at the Sorbonne University in Paris met on 3 May to protest against the closure and the threatened expulsion of several students at Nanterre. On Monday, 6 May, the national student union, the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France (UNEF) — still the largest student union in France today — and the union of university teachers called a march to protest against the police invasion of Sorbonne. More than 20,000 students, teachers and supporters marched towards the Sorbonne, still sealed off by the police, who charged, wielding their batons, as soon as the marchers approached. While the crowd dispersed, some began to create barricades out of whatever was at hand, while others threw paving stones, forcing the police to retreat for a time. The police then responded with tear gas and charged the crowd again. Hundreds more students were arrested.
