Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc was superintendent of all sacred buildings in France in the mid-19th century and involved in the preservation of other important medieval buildings. Thus, the architect, monument conservator, architectural theorist and art historian was responsible, among other things, for the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, which had to endure such a devastating fire in 2019, for the basilica in Saint-Denis, for the cathedral in Amiens, for the city fortifications and castle complexes of Carcassonne or the illustrious medieval castle of Pierrefonds, located north of Paris. The latter was to be developed by Viollet-le-Duc into a private residence for Napoleon III, but an early overthrow of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte put paid to this. At least the Bavarian King Ludwig II was able to inspect the reconstruction work in the castle during a stay in Paris and take away ideas for his planned new building in Neuschwanstein.
Viollet-le-Duc wanted to restore Notre-Dame to its original medieval state, just like, for example, the castle complex of Carcassonne, located on the border with Spain and within sight of the Pyrenees. Romanticism certainly influenced him in this respect, with its preference for stylized and picturesque ruins that served as places of longing. Viollet-le-Duc himself went so far as to claim that he was striving for a condition for the historical buildings that, in his eyes, not only took up the medieval ideal, but improved upon it. This he wanted to see enforced, regardless of whether the buildings told a different story, which they had accumulated over the centuries and which did not fit in with the ideal ideas of a 19th century master builder. This radical reduction of the surviving buildings to a medieval fictional ideal and an alleged stylistic "improvement" earned Viollet-le-Duc the disrespectful term "restoration vandal" from his opponents. This did not prevent the Royal Academy in London from accepting him into its ranks, even though it was contrary to John Ruskin's views, who in England was simultaneously striving for the preservation of the existing state of a monument, with all its losses and every stylistic faux pas. An approach, incidentally, that was also followed in the German monument conservation of the time.
For his ten-volume dictionary of 11th- to 16th-century French architecture, Viollet-le-Duc made high-quality drawings, probed floor plans, elevations, and drew details. He was deeply involved in the building techniques of the Middle Ages and was one of their best connoisseurs. One may be critical of the restoration work he did, but the photos of the famous gargoyles he created or had created in the Galerie des Chimères at lofty heights on Notre-Dame are now world famous. Already in Viollet-le-Duc's time, they were no longer the originals from the Middle Ages, but had already been replaced due to their poor condition.
Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc was superintendent of all sacred buildings in France in the mid-19th century and involved in the preservation of other important medieval buildings. Thus, the architect, monument conservator, architectural theorist and art historian was responsible, among other things, for the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, which had to endure such a devastating fire in 2019, for the basilica in Saint-Denis, for the cathedral in Amiens, for the city fortifications and castle complexes of Carcassonne or the illustrious medieval castle of Pierrefonds, located north of Paris. The latter was to be developed by Viollet-le-Duc into a private residence for Napoleon III, but an early overthrow of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte put paid to this. At least the Bavarian King Ludwig II was able to inspect the reconstruction work in the castle during a stay in Paris and take away ideas for his planned new building in Neuschwanstein.
Viollet-le-Duc wanted to restore Notre-Dame to its original medieval state, just like, for example, the castle complex of Carcassonne, located on the border with Spain and within sight of the Pyrenees. Romanticism certainly influenced him in this respect, with its preference for stylized and picturesque ruins that served as places of longing. Viollet-le-Duc himself went so far as to claim that he was striving for a condition for the historical buildings that, in his eyes, not only took up the medieval ideal, but improved upon it. This he wanted to see enforced, regardless of whether the buildings told a different story, which they had accumulated over the centuries and which did not fit in with the ideal ideas of a 19th century master builder. This radical reduction of the surviving buildings to a medieval fictional ideal and an alleged stylistic "improvement" earned Viollet-le-Duc the disrespectful term "restoration vandal" from his opponents. This did not prevent the Royal Academy in London from accepting him into its ranks, even though it was contrary to John Ruskin's views, who in England was simultaneously striving for the preservation of the existing state of a monument, with all its losses and every stylistic faux pas. An approach, incidentally, that was also followed in the German monument conservation of the time.
For his ten-volume dictionary of 11th- to 16th-century French architecture, Viollet-le-Duc made high-quality drawings, probed floor plans, elevations, and drew details. He was deeply involved in the building techniques of the Middle Ages and was one of their best connoisseurs. One may be critical of the restoration work he did, but the photos of the famous gargoyles he created or had created in the Galerie des Chimères at lofty heights on Notre-Dame are now world famous. Already in Viollet-le-Duc's time, they were no longer the originals from the Middle Ages, but had already been replaced due to their poor condition.
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