Blog | HPRG Paris, radiant city exhibition at the Cluny Museum from 10th February – 24th May 2010 – Hotels Paris Rive Gauche Blog

Paris, radiant city exhibition at the Cluny Museum from 10th February – 24th May 2010

What on earth is ‘radiant’ then? Well, it’s a style used in architecture, an extension of the Gothic style that characterises such Parisian masterpieces as Notre Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle. But what exactly is it, how did it come to be, and why? This exhibition will give you the low down on some of our city’s most impressive buildings…

Photo by cratzy utilisée used under cc licence

Rewind back to the 13th century. Paris already has some beautiful buildings, but technical advances were about to take things to the next level: more daring architecture, bigger buildings, higher roofs, larger spaces. Goodbye plain old Gothic, hello ‘rayonnant’ (radiant).

It was a movement that not only touched architecture but also sculpture and stained glass windows? and the exhibition will show you exactly how. With 200 objects on view, you’ll learn – for example – that even if Notre Dame dates from the 12th century, the arrival of the radiant sytle led to the place being revamped! The iconic round stained window there is one of the finest examples of the radiant style (even if it did sort of steal its design from the basilica at Saint-Denis).

And as it happens, many of the examples cited happen to be in the area, so you can go and see them yourself afterwards!

Clé de voûte : tête, collège de Cluny, Paris, XIIIe siècle, musée de Cluny - musée national du Moyen Âge, Paris © Rmn - Jean-Gilles Berizzi

There are also a couple of interesting find on show, such as the heads of the kings of Juda, previously part of Notre-Dame and thought lost for centuries before being discovered by accident in 1977 in the basement of a Parisian townhouse (on the other side of the city) that was once the French Bank of Exterior Trade. And there’s also the famous ‘broken virgin’ form the chapel of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, lost for years and found as recently as 1990 when work started on a new car park not far from the Cluny museum.

The exhibition also details other nearby buildings that merit your attention, such as the Collège des Bernardins and the Saint-Germain-des-Prés church, encouraging you to visit them and see how the radiant style fits into an architectural whole. Interesting stuff.

The exhibition Paris, ville rayonnante is at the Musée du Moyen Âge (here) from 10th February – 24th May 2010.

Open every day (except Tuesdays) from 9.15am – 5.45pm. Admission 8.50€ / 6.50€. Free for under 26 year-olds and free for all the 1st Sunday of each month.

More information (in French): ici