It is the eve of winter (it was when I began to prepare this post), the air is no longer empty but heavy with chill, and everything is hueless but the trees :
rue Monge
Musée Carnavalet, rue de Sévigné
More impressive than the colours of the sky are the colours of heaven. "Les couleurs du ciel" is an exhibition, presented by the marvellous Musée Carnavalet, (Madame de Sévigné's old house) of paintings made for Parisian churches in the seventeenth century. In the first half of the century, the expansion of Paris, the arrival in its outskirts of numerous religious orders, the piety of Louis XIII and particularly the influence of the Council of Trent and the Counter-Reformation yielded a great movement for the expansion or renewal of existing churches and for new ecclesiastical construction. The new churches needed new ornaments and paintings, of course, and artists newly returned from Italy began a great revival in French religious art. Although much of the construction and decoration had completed before too long into Louis XIV's reign (1643-1715), he did not neglect the construction of two enormous new Parisian churches (Val-de-Grâce and les Invalides), the designs of whose enormous dome frescoes were also included in the exhibition. There was also at this time a tradition of commissioning a new altar-piece every May for Notre-Dame de Paris; these were called mays and began the careers of many young artists. My favourite painting there was L'adoration des mages (The Adoration of the Magi) by Claude Vignon, who incidentally had thirty-four children by his two wives. From afar, the painting glitters, and at a close inspection (there was no glass and only a small barrier - much gratitude for the trust placed in the visitors) it is possible to see how brave Vignon was, applying slabs of paint to the canvas. Reproductions of the picture do not seem to be on the Internet, sadly, but the work itself is a marvel to behold.
Concert d'orgue à l'église de Meudon
That evening an organ concert was held in the church of Saint Martin in Meudon. The parish's organist collaborated with her counterpart from Meudon's Polish twin town to show off the instrument, which is soon to undergo further renovation by the council. The organists performed a grand tour of the centuries, with a particular emphasis on the music of Marcel Dupré, who lived and died in Meudon. I particularly enjoyed this little meditation on the plainsong melody of Te lucis ante terminum . A wonderful French sound- as French as the eagerness to commemorate local personages. Now that is the way to spend a winter evening!
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