The birth of the Gothic style, the Architecture of Light

We already discussed Saint-Denis, the Saint, and the Kings of France buried at Saint-Denis Basilica.

Here, we will illustrate how Saint-Denis is a milestone that influenced the world as the birthplace of Gothic architecture.

Dear reader, to put it simply, the wonder of Saint-Denis Basilica is all about light.

You are already aware that precious medieval Bibles and prayer books were beautifully illuminated. The word means bringing light, and scribes and painters illuminated pages by adding colors and gold to Scripture.

That idea of illumination is more profound. In the Bible, Jesus said

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Before discussing how the architecture of Saint-Denis Basilica is about illumination, we need a little historical refresher on the meaning of the word Gothic.

Myth and fact about the label Gothic

The sack of Rome in 410 by the Goths of Alaric is widely perceived as the moment when the Roman world started to collapse. This barbarian sack brought the Dark Ages, the tragic loss of books and knowledge, leading to a Middle Age before civilization's rebirth during the Renaissance.

Let's see the testimony of Saint Augustine:

Contrary to the custom of war, these bloodthirsty barbarians spared them, and spared them for Christ's sake, whether this mercy was actually shown in promiscuous places, or in those places specially dedicated to Christ's name, and of which the very largest were selected as sanctuaries.

This refers to the fact that the Goths spared the Basilicas of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. A later testimony adds:

When they finally entered Rome, by Alaric’s express command they merely sacked it and did not set the city on fire, as wild peoples usually do, nor did they permit serious damage to be done to the holy places.

The Goths were Christians who used Bibles translated into the Gothic language by Bishop Wulfila. They were Arians, a branch of early Christianity that viewed God and Jesus as distinct entities. The Church of Rome deemed them heretics.

Important note: This does not attempt to diminish the destruction caused by the Goths, but rather to establish the historical facts.

The Renaissance used Gothic as an insult while burning books

Renaissance intellectuals dismissed medieval architecture as a "monstrous and barbarous" German style. That the Gothic style was:

The invention of the Goths, for, after they had ruined the ancient buildings, and killed the architects in the wars, those who were left constructed the buildings in this style.

Imagine that! The Goths destroyed Rome, killed architects, and built the cathedrals of the Middle Ages… Goth or Vandal, these barbarians were responsible for:

Beauty burnt and destroyed by the evil wrath and ruthless violence of wicked men, beasts indeed.

As to book burning, these intellectuals did not need to look at the past. The age of the printing machine was also the age of book burning. Here is the edict published in response to Martin Luther:

For this reason we want all of Luther's books to be universally prohibited and forbidden, and we also want them to be burned.

We execute the sentence of the Holy Apostolic See, and we follow the very praiseworthy ordinance and custom of the good Christians of old who had the books of heretics like the Arians, Priscillians, Nestorians, Eutychians, and others burned and annihilated, even everything that was contained in these books, whether good or bad.

The hypocrisy is that the very same Charles V, who promulgated this edict—mentioning the Arians, the Christian sect to which the Goths belonged—is responsible for the sack of Rome in 1527.

That was context to help you, dear reader, understand that history is more complicated than shown on TV. Let's now make sense of the so-called Gothic style, which is not about an age of darkness but its opposite, light.

Brighten the minds so that they travel through the lights to the true light

We have not yet entered the basilica, but please note the inscription on the door. Suger, the Abbott of Saint-Denis, is responsible for enlarging the upper Choir, where the so-called Gothic style was invented.

On the door, Suger states:

All you who seek to honor these doors,

Marvel not at the gold and expense

But at the craftsmanship of the work.

The noble work is bright, but, being nobly bright,

The work should brighten the minds,

Allowing them to travel through the lights

To the true light, where Christ is the true door.

The golden door defines how it is imminent in these things.

The dull mind rises to the truth through material things,

And is resurrected from its former submersion when the light is seen.

Suger and the Architecture of Light

Suger, an intellectual, argues that the dull mind rises to the truth through material things; by that, he means gold and gemstones.

Plain English translation: Most worshipers do not know how to read, do not understand Latin, and, anyway, have a 'dull mind'’ The peasant, the average person, does not have the education to understand Christ's message, "I am the light of the world."

To elevate simple minds to higher realms, Suger utilizes the multiplication of light in a gemstone, the shine of precious metal, and the wonder of sunlight as it becomes the divine word while passing through stained-glass windows.

The stained-glass window kaleidoscope of color has a deeper meaning: it previews Heavenly Jerusalem.

The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony...

It is unlikely Suger knew that, but the process for creating color in gemstones and glass is identical: the gems and glass are colorless.

When white sunlight enters a colorless material with metal impurities, the metal captures some of the rainbow colors that compose sunlight. What comes out is one color.

The birth of blue as the color of the Virgin Mary and France

One must remember that paintings mostly used a red, white, and black palette, and gold was used for the skies. Blue was almost non-existent.

You may have heard of the famous Chartres Blue. It was actually born in Saint-Denis, where it was discovered that cobalt could make glass light blue.

The Virgin Mary ascended to the sky, and Suger sought to convey religious ideas through the use of color and light. Cobalt, the metal that causes the light shade of blue, was also astonishingly expensive.

This is why, in 1140, at Saint-Denis, blue became the color of the Virgin Mary, the French Kings, and France itself.

Romanesque vs 'Gothic' architecture

To further explain the meaning of 'Gothic,' the previous style of architecture employed heavy vaults that required thick walls to support them. As a result, the windows were small.

Small windows meant darkness, precisely Suger's complaint. He explained that on the rare days his abbey opens to pilgrims, they get crushed and cannot properly see the relics.

So, Suger and his unnamed architect sought to fight darkness and open the building to the light, like an immense reliquary, as if the abbey were made of gold, gems, and color.

The new style aims to enlighten the church and reveal divine light through glass windows.

Opus Francigenum, 'French Work' copied from Saint-Denis Basilica to America

The new style, born in 1140 at Saint-Denis, had no particular name except that it was new. In about 1280, a monk in Germany described it as Opus Francigenum, meaning ‘French Work’.

It illustrates that the new architecture invented at Saint-Denis Basilica spread all over Europe, from England to Germany and Italy to Spain.

Opus Francigenum, like the Italian Renaissance—which tarred it as being made by Goths—is still an influential artistic movement.

Admire the sights of Manhattan, Washington, DC, or San Francisco, and you will see copies of Opus Francigenum architecture.

Furthermore, have you ever wondered why small wooden churches, with absolutely no structural need, have pointed windows? They do so to imitate the majesty of the Opus Francigenum cathedrals.

Dear reader, ask yourself: are thousands of churches and cathedrals across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia barbarian monuments?

The facts: no Goth, barbarian, or otherwise, has ever put his dirty, bloodied hands on the cathedrals built in the 1100s and afterward.

When Suger and his unnamed architect discussed how they could let divine light enter their basilica, the Gothic barbarian nation was already in history's dustbin.

Gothic is an insult that means monstrous architecture created by barbarians responsible for the Dark Ages. Why repeat the slander?

Looking at the pictures illustrating this story, would you not agree, dear reader, that it is absurd to call architecture that magnifies sunlight as being about darkness? We should call that style Medieval Architecture of Light instead.

Enter Saint-Denis Basilica or any church that copies the Medieval Architecture of Light style invented there.

Wait for the clouds to open. When the sunlight passes through the stained-glass windows and becomes color, you will have a Moment of Wonder.

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Sources

Saint Augustine, The City of God, Chapter 1.— Of the Adversaries of the Name of Christ, Whom the Barbarians for Christ's Sake Spared When They Stormed the City.

Jordanes, De origine actibusque Getarum.

Vasari on technique; Being the introduction to the three arts of design, architecture, sculpture, and painting. Prefixed to the lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors, and architects.

Raphael and Baldassare Castiglione, Letter to Pope Leo X.

The Edict of Worms (1521).

Abbot Suger and Saint-Denis

Private guided visit of Saint Denis Basilica, birthplace of Gothic architecture.

Meet French Kings and wonder at 1,400 years of history in Saint-Denis Basilica

In previous stories, we used a 'time machine' to travel into the past. There is no need this time, as we are visiting an actual monument where one can time-travel through almost 1,500 years of history and meet ancient Kings.

No, it is not the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, nor Westminster Abbey in London. We are going to the only place on earth where one rubs shoulders with 43 Kings.

That place, Saint-Denis Basilica, is so amazing that two stories are not enough to explain the monument. Nevertheless, we will try with this story, in which we meet the people, the Saint, and the Kings.

And second, we will discuss a jewel of architecture, where the so-called 'Gothic' was born.

Shining a light into the Dark Ages

Our story starts at the junction between Antiquity and the Middle Ages. History is, by definition, what is written.

The monument we are about to admire is named after a Saint called Denis, the bishop who converted the Parisians, which is why our story begins at the dawn of Christianity in France.

Before discussing the Saint's life, we need to shine a light on the catastrophic loss of knowledge that led to the Dark Ages.

We first travel to Rome at about the time of Constantine, when Rome had 28 public libraries. Around 100 years after Constantine, Pope Leo the Great decreed that:

The tenets of philosophy must be crushed, the follies of earthly wisdom must be dispelled, the cult of demons must be refuted.

Two hundred years or so after Constantine, one of the first libraries of the Middle Ages, in a monastery, contained 120 books.

At about the same time, the School of Athens, the last surviving school of philosophy, was closed on the orders of Byzantine Emperor Justinian:

The emperor issued a decree and sent it to Athens ordering that no one should teach philosophy.

It is said that the Library of Alexandria did contain 700,000 papyrus rolls. If that is true, we need to compare that with the total amount of ancient Greek knowledge that survived from Antiquity: around 300 papyrus rolls.

That would mean that 99% of Greek knowledge was lost during the transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages.

That is the context to understand the fogginess and confusion at the start of our story.

Who was Saint-Denis?

To illustrate the lack of written sources during the Dark Ages, we have the words of Bishop Gregory of Tours, who wrote in the 580s:

In the towns of Gaul the writing of literature has declined to the point where it has virtually disappeared altogether.

Yet he also said:

It is not proper either to recall deceitful myths or to follow the wisdom of philosophers that is hostile to God.

The same author wrote that Saint-Denis's death occurred during the reign of Decius, the Emperor between 249 and 251.

The blessed Denis, bishop of Paris, after suffering divers pains in Christ's name, ended the present life by the threatening sword.

The problem with that is that the first written mention of Denis states he was killed during the time of Pope Clement, while he was alive around 100—150 years previously.

If you think it makes little sense, be warned that it will become even more confusing.

Four different Denises become one Saint-Denis

The people who wrote Saint-Denis's life lived in an age when 100 books constituted a major library. We live in an age when the largest library contains 38 million books and 70 million manuscripts.

The reality is that the Saint-Denis story merges four different 'Denis': Dionysius the Areopagite, a Denis from the time of Pope Clement, another from the time of Emperor Decius, and a fourth Denis, known as Pseudo-Denys.

Four different people separated by four centuries.

The story of Denis was then modified, first with the addition of two companions and later with the miracle of walking four miles after being decapitated.

The spot where he fell and was buried is said to be the location of the Basilica. Saint-Denis's story was written in an age when the marvelous, legendary, and factual were intertwined.

Why did Saint-Denis Basilica become the resting place for most French kings?

Beyond the legends, it is certain that a basilica existed around 475, and a previous building likely existed from the time of the edict of Constantine in 313.

The oldest tombs discovered there also prove that the elite wanted to be buried near the Saint, so it is no exaggeration to say that Saint-Denis Basilica contains 1,500 years of history.

But how did it become a Royal necropolis, the resting place of 43 Kings? When King Dagobert was buried there in 639.

As the image above shows, Dagobert's soul was on its way to hell, but Saint-Denis saved the King from eternal damnation and raised him to Heaven.

If a King does things forbidden by Scripture but gets buried next to Saint-Denis while praying to the Saint for the salvation of his soul, he will get to Heaven.

That nice 'Get Out Of Hell' card was an enticing proposal to Kings.

And the more Kings were buried in Saint-Denis Basilica, the more prestigious the place became.

Usurped throne validated by submission to the Church

The first King buried in Saint-Denis, Dagobert, was Clovis' great-grandson, the first king of France.

Clovis was a Frankish King baptized around 500—the exact date is unknown. That baptism made him the first French King.

But the line of succession for the following 1,300 years was anything but smooth. Clovis and his descendants, the Merovingians, claimed legitimacy through bloodline. Being born was the only qualification needed to ascend to the throne.

But when the time came to push the Merovigians off the throne, the new dynasty that would spawn the great Charlemagne faced a complete lack of legitimacy.

As it happened, in Rome, the Pope needed help gaining the lands that would become the Papal States.

A quid pro quo meant that the Pope granted legitimacy to the illegitimate King and his sons in exchange for lands. Inside Saint-Denis Basilica, Pope Stephen II crowned Pepin King of France with his two sons, Charlemagne and Carloman.

That was the first time a Pope crowned a King.

Scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours

In exchange for submission to the Catholic Church in Rome, a French King was, like King David:

Appointed King in this realm which our Lord God has given you to rule and govern.

One of Europe's most significant historical events took place inside the Saint-Denis Basilica. Religion and politics were intertwined for the next 1,000 years until the French Revolution.

Game of musical chairs repeated with the Third Dynasty

The line of Charlemagne, the Carolingians, lasted barely 250 years until Hugues Capet was elected and crowned King in 987.

Eight hundred years later, Louis Capet, also known as Louis XVI, was sent to the guillotine and later buried at Saint-Denis Basilica.

Forged documents transformed Saint-Denis into a wealthy Royal abbey

Now that you appreciate the rarity of books during the Middle Ages, the next thing is to understand their value. Whoever possesses written documents recording the words of Saints and Kings owns the truth.

And whoever knew how to forge them had power and money.

Since the third dynasty lacked legitimacy, the monks of Saint-Denis created outright forgeries, stating that Charlemagne:

Gifted the entire France to Lord Saint-Denis.

And that Charlemagne owed his crown to

God and Saint-Denis.

Which, in effect, meant the King owed to Saint-Denis and that Charlemagne recognized the Abbey as:

The head of all the churches of the realm.

While at it, the document also stated that the King must give a quantity of gold to Saint-Denis every year, as an abbey is as big as a cathedral.

The abbey was not only the resting place of most French Kings but also held the royal insignia—crown, scepter, and throne. Saint-Denis was the Saint of the King, therefore, of France itself.

Saint-Denis' Abbey reached its peak of political power when Abbot Suger was Regent of France, ruling the country on behalf of the King during the Crusade.

The reciprocal relationship between politics and religion came crashing down with the French Revolution.

French Revolution destructions

The destruction of tombs and the desecration of royal corpses were not done by a furious mob. They were made by the decision of the Convention—the Parliament—to rid the world of the traces of the ancient Regime.

The Republic badly needed cannons, so the lead roof, which held many windows, and the lead coffins of royals were reused for war.

The corpses of around 170 people, Kings, Queens, Princes, and Abbots, were thrown in a common grave, an opportunity for souvenir hunters to take morbid mementos.

For over ten years, the basilica was roofless, having been used as a weapons factory, a theatre, and a wheat depot, and slowly deteriorated into a ruin.

Napoléon wished to be buried there, as the Fourth Dynasty, as did Napoléon III. Two hundred years later, the Basilica is still undergoing restoration.

Rubbing shoulders with French Kings

Hopefully, it starts to make sense that Saint-Denis Abbey is History made visible.

The building spans centuries, from the dawn of Christianity. It contains three dynasties of Kings, genuinely nearly 1,500 years of history under one roof. There is no equivalent anywhere.

Now, as promised, it is time to rub shoulders with Kings. Here is a small selection.

Louis XII and Anne of Brittany

Note that the King and Queen are drawing their last breath while praying, above, alive, for their eternal salvation.

Francis I and Claude of France

Henri II and Catherine of Medici

Louis XIV

Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette

There is much more to say about Saint-Denis, but hopefully, this little time spent traveling and encountering French Kings was a Moment of Wonder.

The next part of the story will be about illumination, explaining the birth of the so-called ‘Gothic’ style of architecture.

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Sources

Yves Sassier; Royauté et idéologie au Moyen Âge : Bas-Empire, monde franc, France IVe-XIIe siècle.

Gregory of Tours; History of the Franks.

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b105090110/f59.item

https://lost-treasures-intolerance-greed.com/about-lost-treasures-book-destruction-mankind-heritage-intolerance-greed.html

Private guided visit of the Royal necropolis of Saint Denis Basilica.

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When a fool became eternal by insulting Michelangelo

We've already discussed how being nice to a genius, Vincent Van Gogh, might grant you eternity.

Today, we explore the other side of the coin, insulting another genius, Michelangelo.

The history of Michelangelo Suffering Fools

#1 - David's big nose

The ruler of the Republic of Florence criticized Michelangelo:

While Michelangelo was giving it the finishing touches, he told Michelangelo that he thought the nose of the figure was too large.

Imagine telling Michelangelo that David's nose was too big!

Here is what Michelangelo did:

He quickly grabbed his chisel in his left hand along with a little marble dust that he found on the planks in the scaffolding.

Michelangelo began to tap lightly with the chisel, allowing the dust to fall little by little without retouching the nose from the way it was.

Then, looking down at the Gonfaloniere who stood there watching, he asked 'Look at it now.'

'I like it better, you've made it come alive.'

Michelangelo laughed to himself, feeling compassion for those who, in order to make it appear that they understand, do not realize what they are saying.

Plain English translation: stick to politics, and don't tell me how to carve statues.

#2 - Late payment from the Pope

Once, Michelangelo had to pay out of his pocket for Carrara marble on the Pope's behalf.

He expected to be swiftly reimbursed, but when he realized that would not happen, Michelangelo jumped on a horse and left Rome.

Plain English translation: the Pope needs to find someone else to paint and carve for him.

#3 - No snooping, even from the Pope

Michelangelo did not suffer meddling visitors while he was painting the Sistine Chapel, even if it was the Pope:

He dropped some planks when the Pope entered the chapel, not thinking about who it was and forcing the pope to leave in anger.

Plain English translation: Michelangelo threw things at the Pope to get him out.

#4 - Two ill-tempered men, the Pope and Michelangelo

By the time Michelangelo had completed half of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the Pope was delighted but insistent that the artist should speed up.

Here is what happened:

Michelangelo sometimes complained that because of the Pope's haste he was not able to complete it in his own way as he would have wished, since the pope importunately demanded to know when he would finish;

Michelangelo replied that the work would be finished "when it satisfies me in its artistic details".

"And We", remarked the Pope, "want you to satisfy Us in Our desire to see it done quickly."

Finally, the Pope threatened that if Michelangelo did not finish quickly, he would have him thrown down from the scaffolding.

And on another occasion, the Pope asked:

'Well, what about this chapel? When will it be finished?'

'When I can, Holy Father,' replied Michelangelo.

The Pope, who had a staff in his hand, struck Michelangelo with it as he declared:

"When I can, when I can: I'll make you finish it myself!"

The painter wanted to achieve perfection, while the Pope wanted his ceiling as soon as possible.

Match result: Pope 1 - Michelangelo 0.

Now that you realize Michelangelo did not gladly tolerate fools, we need to discuss the change in attitude regarding nudity.

Religious and artistic winds turn in Rome

Twenty-five years after the ceiling, Michelangelo returned to the Sistine Chapel to paint the Last Judgment.

In the meantime, a few things happened, like some German nailing prints on doors, which ruffled fur caps and gold chains in Rome.

The Reform meant that nudity was becoming a growing concern. And who was the leading proponent of the nude human figure? Michelangelo.

A stew of nudes in the Sistine Chapel

One should not be surprised at the nudity visible on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Michelangelo was illustrating Scripture, starting with Genesis:

And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

The same goes for the Last Judgment.

Just look at the entrance of many medieval cathedrals and churches.

Hence, it was not particularly revolutionary for Michelangelo to paint nudes in the Sistine Chapel.

Fool insults Michelangelo to his face

Although you may already be familiar with the story, let's explore it and discuss what happened afterward.

The fool is Biagio da Cesena, and his mistake was to say out loud what many thought.

He declared that it was a most unseemly thing in such a venerable place to have painted so many nudes that so indecently display their shame and that it was not a work for a Pope's chapel but rather one for baths or taverns.

Understand bath to mean 'brothel'.

This comment displeased Michelangelo, and, wishing to avenge himself, as soon as Messer Biagio had left, he drew his actual portrait without his being present, placing him in Hell in the person of Minos with a large serpent wrapped around his legs in a heap of devils.

The problem became serious when the Pope's envoy explained that His Holiness wanted the painting "tidied up".

Michelangelo's response:

Tell the Pope this is a small thing and can be very easily tidied up; in the meantime, he should tidy up the world.

In plain English, a polite 'get lost'.

Attacks rain on Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel paintings

According to one critic, Michelangelo was an inventor of filth.

Another said the painting was:

A sight to which eyes would be shut tight even in a brothel.

What you have done would be appropriate in a voluptuous whorehouse, not in a supreme choir.

By then, Michelangelo was 88 years old. He carved marble for Popes, painted the Sistine Chapel, and designed the dome of the Vatican. And, for a lifetime of service, his reward was in this order:

The pictures in the Apostolic Chapel should be covered over, and those in other churches should be destroyed, if they display anything obscene or clearly false.

Having to choose between destruction and adding fig leaves, fortunately, it was decided to add fig leaves to the offensive areas of the Sistine Chapel.

Popes discuss destroying Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel paintings

But that was not enough:

Paul IV wished to throw it to the ground, saying it was not right that in St Peter’s there should be such wicked exhibition of nakedness and buffooneries.

A half-dozen popes discussed destroying an artistic marvel. The last serious threat was from Pope Clement VIII:

The Pope wished that Michelangelo’s painting be scrapped off, as it was dishonest.

He was put off by the director of the Arts Academy, who begged that Rome not be deprived of such a marvel.

Insult a genius and become a fool for eternity

Humanity's gain was one man's loss.

The painting of Biagio da Cesena in Hell sporting donkey's ears survived. The 1980s restoration campaign removed all the painted-over fig leaves.

This revealed Biagio's sensitive—but shameful—area to be bitten by a snake. Ouch.

There's no need to bring binoculars; the scene is right above the door that 6 million people walk through each year.

Biagio da Cesena's punishment for insulting a genius is repeated millions of times a year, forever. Making him eternal, just not the way he would have wanted.

The moral of the story: don’t mess with a genius who has a paintbrush in hand!

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Notes

Vasari, the Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/31938/31938-h/31938-h.htm#Page_197

Carlo Pietrangeli, The Sistine Chapel: The Art, the History, and the Restoration.

The Life of Michelangelo, Ascanio Condivi.

https://medium.com/@guillaume.deprez/attempts-at-demolishing-michelangelos-masterpiece-over-its-nudes-826dffdf19f3

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-sistine-chapel-vatican-city-rome/wwFbKdFx4QVpTg?hl=en

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/raphael-pope-julius-ii

https://www.flickr.com/photos/justaslice/49909089618

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1083_restauro-267.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Detalle_del_David_de_Miguel_%C3%81ngel,_Florencia,_Italia,_2019_04.jpg

https://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/cappella-sistina/tour-virtuale.html

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michelangelo-minos2.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bourges_(18)_Cath%C3%A9drale_Saint-%C3%89tienne_Portail_du_Jugement_Dernier_Tympan_129.jpg

The artistic competition between Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, the Anghiari and Cascina battles

The Renaissance was quite different from what is often depicted on TV shows. Only six years before our story starts, the people of Florence burned their 'Vanities'—their art masterpieces.

A preacher, Savonarola, convinced them that the Apocalypse was near:

[Savonarola] crying out every day from the pulpit that lascivious pictures, music, and amorous books often lead the mind to evil, became convinced that it was not right to keep in houses where there were young girls painted figures of naked men and women.

And on two occasions, they organized a Bonfire of Vanities:

The people were so inflamed by Fra Girolamo, that on that day they brought to the place a vast quantity of nude figures, both in painting and in sculpture, many by the hand of excellent masters, and likewise books, lutes, and volumes of songs, which was a most grievous loss, particularly for painting.

By 1504, Florence had been artistically wiped clean.

As it turned out, two of Florence's great sons had been spared the indignity of watching artistic wonders turn to ashes.

Now, they both returned to Florence, ready to work. One was in his early 50s, Leonardo. The other was in his late 20s, Michelangelo. And the Republic needed to decorate the Palazzo Vecchio, the city hall.

City Hall Seeks Painters

What better way to restore Florentine pride than commissioning frescoes of its military victories?

What is fresco painting?

It involves applying fresh plaster to a wall and painting it while the wall is still damp. That is why fresco means 'fresh,' freshly applied plaster.

When moist, it sucks up the color applied to it, and as soon as it dries up—a question of hours—it is impossible to keep on improving the painting.

Hence, al fresco implies 'painting fast.'

When he received the commission in Florence, Leonardo had some experience painting walls. You may have heard of it: the Last Supper in Milan.

While the monks were not impressed—they cut a door right through the middle for a shortcut to the kitchen, hoping to avoid eating cold soup—art lovers were.

The Last Supper In Milan

It was astounding in its photographic quality and three-dimensionality.

If you have never seen the real thing, the photos do not do it justice. The figures are much larger than life.

The room is a rectangular canteen, so imagine being a monk seated perpendicular to Leonardo's painting, praying for your soup to arrive warm—Milanese winters are biting.

The room's perspective aligns perfectly with the painted walls, making it 'pop'—almost like a children's pop-up book.

The effect is uncanny and can only be experienced in person.

Waiting for lunch in that canteen meant sitting with Christ at the table, sharing the shock and horror his companions felt when they heard that one among them would betray him.

Leonardo, the slow-tempo Painter

Leonardo was many things, but being fast was not one of them.

He also had a reputation for leaving his paintings unfinished.

His trademark technique, sfumato, involved creating shading with layer upon layer of transparent darkness, using oil, which often took years of work.

For the Last Supper, a priest badgered Leonardo for looking at the wall rather than painting it.

The genius was searching in his mind as fresco painting obliged him to work quickly, making it impossible to do his magic, relying on the slow addition of oil layers.

So, he experimented, creating an untested mix of egg-based tempera with oil on dry plaster.

When it was almost finished, the result took one's breath away. To contemporary eyes, it would have felt like being in front of a larger-than-life photograph.

But as soon as Leonardo left the room, it began to flake away and has faded ever since.

You can compare the two images above, Leonardo's fresco original and the oil painting copy made soon after by one of Leonardo's pupils, to get a sense of what it looked like.

Yet, even as a faint shadow of what it was five hundred years ago, it still dazzles.

About Leonardo's slowness, his biographer explained that the painter's:

Constant search to add excellence to excellence and perfection to perfection was the reason why his work was slowed.

Leonardo’s commission for the Palazzo Vecchio

His reputation for not finishing what he was paid to do preceded him.

The contract giving him the job of painting one wall of the City Hall even had a clause for that:

And in the event that the said Leonardo shall not, in the stipulated time, have finished the said cartoon [we] can compel him by whatever means appropriate to repay all the money received in connection with this work.

That’s not even worrying about the painting, but the preparatory sketch—the cartoon—being completed.

So, the clever solution was to speed him up by introducing another rooster into the room—a younger one named Michelangelo.

Two Roosters In One Coop

Thus began the Artistic Fight of the Century, fought with brushes instead of boxing gloves.

A generation younger, Michelangelo's style contrasted sharply with that of Leonardo.

Michelangelo's figures were muscular, manly, dynamic, and often nude.

Leonardo's figures were graceful, androgynous, and svelte, usually smiling gently.

He worked slowly, whereas Michelangelo worked swiftly.

One striking example of this is the time it took Michelangelo to carve The Giant, also known as David.

For those who have never seen David, the marble is not life-size but three times taller, at 17 feet.

Marble is so heavy that life-size marbles need to have 'three legs' —a column or tree prevents the statue from collapsing under its weight.

David weighs 5 ½ tons but has only two legs, helped by a small tree up to the knee.

And Michelangelo only needed eighteen months of work to carve The Giant.

What a way to announce that a new rooster was in town!

History Of Bad Blood Between Two Geniuses

Leonardo da Vinci was also a sculptor.

While in Milan, he aimed to create the largest bronze equestrian statue of the Renaissance, with the horse alone standing 24 feet tall.

It took Leonardo fifteen years to reach the model stage, and when French troops invaded Italy, the bronze set aside for the statue was repurposed into cannons.

The invading soldiers used Leonardo's gigantic clay horse for target practice.

When you see Leonardo's sketch below, you might weep.

Please don't, but do erase from your mind the image of Leonardo as an old wise man with a bushy beard.

His biographer gave us some clues as to the man's character:

Leonardo was so pleasing in his conversation that he won everyone's heart.

And although we might say that he owned nothing and worked very little, he always kept servants and horses; he took special pleasure in horses as he did in all other animals, which he treated with the greatest love and patience.

We also learn that he was a practical joker:

To a very strange lizard, found by the gardener of the Belvedere, he fastened some wings with a mixture of quicksilver made from scales scraped from other lizards, which quivered as it moved by crawling about.

After he had fashioned eyes, a horn, and a beard for it, he tamed the lizard and kept it in a box, and all the friends to whom he showed it fled in terror.

To return to our story, we have the older artist who worked slowly and couldn't finish his statues.

And the younger one who worked fast and delivered.

Both were ambitious geniuses. There's no biscuit for guessing what happens next.

Leonardo and Michelangelo bump into each other

Here is a rare description of an actual encounter between the two geniuses to help you imagine the scene.

Leonardo walks the streets of Florence:

A group of gentlemen were disputing over a passage of Dante. They appealed to Leonardo to explain the lines to them.

Exactly at this moment Michelangelo passed by and Leonardo replied to the questioners, "Michelangelo will explain it to you".

Michelangelo responded with anger, since it seemed to him that Leonardo was making fun of him.

"You made a design for a horse to be cast in bronze, and, unable to cast it, have in your shame abandonned it".

Saying this, he turned his heels to them and left the street. Leonardo remained at these words and blushed.

And to annoy Leonardo, Michelangelo called after him "And those Milanese idiots did believe in you?"

It is easy to imagine that Leonardo, a man of science, successfully produced electricity with the sparks of thunder generated by his eyes.

Leonardo's chance for petty revenge

The marble David was never intended to be displayed at ground level but high up, adorning the dome of Florence Cathedral.

The prominent artists of the day were tasked with finding a more suitable location for the masterpiece. No one objected to seeing David's privates except for Leonardo.

He was not a prude but tried to deny his rival's masterpiece top billing.

Another way Leonardo could take revenge on Michelangelo was through his advice to artists. If you paint with overly strong muscles, he wrote, you become a "wooden painter"—a phrase that can be understood as a reference to Michelangelo.

The Ring: Florence's City Hall

Before painting a fresco, one sketches a preparatory drawing called a cartoon that is then transferred to the wall.

It means that a cartoon is as big as a wall painting.

Michelangelo drew the Battle of Cascina, in which Florentine warriors bathing naked in the river were stealthily attacked and scuttled for action.

Leonardo sketched the Battle of Anghiari, a swirling tumult of horse riders and swords. Even the horses get in the action, biting each other.

He invented an accordion-like scaffold system that went up and down the wall.

Of course, he once more experimented with the painting mix, again trying to apply oil to a wall.

Bad omens

The only direct testimony we have from Leonardo about the Battle of Anghiari is:

On the 6th June 1505, a Friday, on the stroke of the thirteenth hour, I began to paint in the palace.

At the very moment of laying down the brush, the weather broke and the bell started to toll, calling the men to the court, and the cartoon came loose, the water spilled, and the vessel which had been used for carrying it broke.

And suddenly the weather broke and the rain poured until evening and it was as dark as night.

Leonardo went on painting the wall, and the paint dripping replaced the rain pouring.

That forced him to light braziers at the base of the wall, trying to hasten the paint's drying.

To no avail, as the upper section liquified and ran down the wall.

Unwittingly, Leonardo tried drip painting centuries before Jackson Pollock.

Too much sparkle and thunder in one place?

Let us hear directly from Leonardo again, where he describes the Deluge:

Oh what fearful noises were heard throughout the dark air as it was pounded by the fury of the discharged bolts of thunder and lightning that violently shot through it to strike whatever opposed their course.

Of course, that is not about the atmosphere in the Palazzo Vecchio in that room, when Leonardo and Michelangelo looked over their shoulder to see what the other was up to.

Yet it helps to imagine the tension during that titanic clash of giants.

The Fight of the Century Ended In A Draw

Michelangelo soon set off to Rome, and Leonardo once more left an unfinished masterpiece.

For a while, artists admired both cartoons. One said they were "the school of the world."

Tragically, neither cartoon survived. The few original sketch studies that survive are fragile treasures.

Soderini, the leader of Florence who commissioned both paintings, was not too pleased with Leonardo.

He wrote:

Leonardo has not treated the Republic well.

He received a large sum of money, but has only made a start on the work entrusted to him.

In fact, he has acted like a traitor.

How much was "the large sum of money" given to Leonardo? Fifteen florins a month, which Leonardo offered to reimburse.

What do you get with 15 florins? It is not a small amount, as with 30 florins, one could buy a small house in the countryside.

But in Florence, the dowry for a girl from a good family was at least 500 florins.

When compared to the wars Leonardo and Michelangelo were asked to depict, which cost up to 2 million florins, it was chicken feed.

To finance war or art, that is the question

Seen from the present, what was the better investment: military adventures or artworks?

Is Florence renowned for its military might or as a cultural center?

And Leonardo, a traitor? Who did more for the eternal glory of Florence, the politician or the artist?

Today, the paintings exist only as secondhand memories, known from small-scale copies.

Art historians lie awake at night thinking about them, to the extent that some fantasize about Leonardo's mural somehow having survived behind its replacement.

That's where the Artistic Fight of the Century may not have ended in a tie—it never concluded.

Leonardo and Michelangelo are still influential five centuries later.

That's not just a Moment of Wonder, but a monumental one.

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Notes

Anonimo Gaddiano.

Paolo Giovio, the Life of Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo on Painting: An Anthology of Writings by Leonardo Da Vinci, with a Selection of Documents Relating to His Career as an Artist.

Léonard de Vinci, 2019, Musée du Louvre, Vincent Delieuvin et Louis Frank.

Vasari, the Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects

Vasari's comments on Savonarola are edited for clarity, from the Life of Fra Bartolomeo :

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/28420/28420-h/28420-h.htm

The Life of Michelangelo, Ascanio Condivi.

https://www.galleriaaccademiafirenze.it/en/artworks/david-michelangelo/

Photo of Firenze Palazzo Vecchio : https://www.flickr.com/photos/mustangjoe/5999631310

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Last_Supper_Leonardo_Da_Vinci_-_High_Resolution.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Da_Vinci_Last_Supper_Milan_04_2024_7035.jpg

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/study-of-two-warriors-heads-for-the-battle-of-anghiari-leonardo-da-vinci/PgEGla7mGPRP-w?hl=en

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0822-1757

https://www.albertina.at/en/exhibitions/michelangelo/

https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl020110446

https://www.rct.uk/collection/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-a-life-in-drawing/the-queens-gallery-buckingham-palace/recto-a-design-for-an-equestrian-monument-verso-studies-of-flowing-water-a-cross-bow-geometry-etc

https://www.rct.uk/collection/912321/studies-of-a-horse

https://books.google.fr/books?hl=fr&id=roHf588GZJYC&q=rain#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Masters_in_art._Leonardo_da_Vinci.djvu/29

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Leonardo da Vinci’s unsung masterpiece, La Scapigliata

After the tale of a Leonardo da Vinci painting used as a stool, the story of another wooden panel that somehow survived.

Remember that there are only about fifteen Leonardo paintings.

Even for another 'slow painter,' Vermeer, we have twice as many, as there are 34 known Vermeers—that will be another story.

For context, let us first discuss a famous masterpiece that no one sees.

An unseen masterpiece, the Mona Lisa

The number one complaint about the Mona Lisa is that it is small.

It is not; it is precisely what one should expect, a portrait, about lifesize, of a lady seated on a chair. She smiles, and that is it.

On average, 20,000 people queue up daily in front of the Mona Lisa to take a photo no one will look at.

Most visitors are disappointed by the experience of waiting to see a masterpiece from thirty feet away for a quick glance behind a small screen.

One of the most important paintings of the Renaissance failed to leave its mark. It is impossible to get up close due to the crowds, the distance, and the bulletproof glass.

Hence, seeing the Mona Lisa is no longer achievable.

Today, it has officially been announced that the Mona Lisa will be moved to her own room. It remains an astonishing portrait; so important that Vasari, who wrote a book about the Lives of Artists, dedicated an entire page to it.

Amazingly, he had never seen it! But he interviewed people who did, and they were so astonished by what they saw that he was able to write:

The mouth, with its opening joining the red of the lips to the flesh of the face, seemed to be real flesh rather than paint.

Anyone who looked very attentively at the hollow of her throat would see her pulse beating.

To tell the truth, it can be said that portrait was painted in a way that would cause every brave artist to tremble and fear, whoever he might be.

Here, we discuss a small portrait by Leonardo da Vinci.

An unsung Leonardo masterpiece

It was one of these lost wooden panels, unfinished—and always unsigned—that Leonardo left behind.

It only appeared in 1839, described as:

A little Leonardo da Vinci, an extremely rare thing to find in our day.

It owes its name, La Scapigliata, Italian for "disheveled lady," to a 1625 inventory that states:

A painting depicting the head of a woman with disheveled hair, a sketch framed in violin wood, the work of Leonardo da Vinci.

Seeing a Leonardo masterpiece for the first time

Before describing La Scapigliata further, confession time: even as an admirer of Leonardo, I had never seen it.

The Scapigliata is held in a museum in Parma, a city between Milan and Florence. Although I visited the other two, I never found the time to go there.

So, I had only seen it in book reproductions. In 2019, to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death, the Louvre organized an exhibition that was one of the best I have ever seen. Most of Leonardo's masterpieces, paintings, sketches, and notebooks were there.

I visited the exhibition as soon as it opened and was so overwhelmed that I went back immediately for a second visit.

First seeing Leonardo's sketches after years of wait

One of the reasons I was blown away is the drapery studies.

They are very rarely displayed because they are fragile and sensitive to light.

However, to art historians, they are as famous as the Mona Lisa is to the general public.

But I had never actually seen the real thing. And here were ten in one place. Apologies to the cleaning staff for the drool pools I left behind.

The sketches were at the beginning of the exhibition, when most visitors were paying close attention to every little detail.

But curators always keep the cherries of the cake at the end of the exhibition. By then, most visitors are exhausted, pay a cursory glance at the masterpieces in the last room, and leave—big mistake.

There was a small portrait—about the size of an A4 sheet—of La Scapigliata.

La Scapigliata

At first glance, it appears to be a strange, brown sketch. But it is not a sketch on paper; it is a painting.

Getting up close, one realizes that the face is softly built up using brown and white.

The next surprising thing is the contrast between how finished the face is and how unfinished the head and hair are, quickly done with a few brushstrokes.

If you ask, ‘What is this small painting?’ the answer is that we do not know. Why, whom, where, when, nothing.

Once said, here is an educated guess at what we are looking at now.

A painter's painting

Even the great Leonardo lived in an age when painters were craftsmen paid to create images for churches or palaces.

They were not supposed to paint for pleasure. Sketch studies were usually related to a work commissioned by a church or politician.

Yet this is not a study on paper but a painting—in other words, it is probably the finished result.

A painting meant for an audience of one, Leonardo himself.

Or, maybe, a conversation between two painters, Leonardo and Apelles, one of the greatest painters of Antiquity.

Leonardo's silent conversation with Apelles

Yes, you probably never heard of Apelles, and even less likely have seen one of his works.

It is not surprising, as the number of original masterpieces by the most influential Greek artists of Antiquity that exist today is somewhere between almost none and zero.

However, these artists were so influential that their memory endured.

The handwritten note above is important because it clearly states

The painter Apelles.

In this way Leonardo da Vinci makes it in all his paintings, for example the head of Lisa del Giocondo ...

It does prove that Mona Lisa is Lisa del Giocondo, but for us today, the critical part is the comparison with Apelles:

Apelles perfected the head and bust of his Venus with the most elaborate art, but left the rest of her body in the rough.

Understand 'rough' as unfinished.

Do you start to see the relation with the strong contrast between the finished and unfinished aspects of La Scapigliata?

It could be Leonardo's attempt to compete with a master from Antiquity.

Leonardo's gracefulness

Beyond educated guesses, let us read what the master himself wrote in his advice to artists about painting heads:

Therefore make the hair on the heads play in the wind around youthful faces and gracefully adorn them with many cascades of curls.

And look again at La Scapigliata's ‘cascade of curls’ and her graceful face.

The simple but powerful act of seeing a painting

Let us conclude with Leonardo's own words:

The eye, which is said to be the window of the soul, is the primary means by which the common sense of the brain may fully and magnificently contemplate the infinite works of nature.

By 'common sense,' one should understand the ‘five senses,’ all linked to the mind.

Now, do you not see that the eye embraces the beauty of all the world?

If you say that sciences are not mechanical but cerebral, I say to you that painting is cerebral.

Seeing a Leonardo painting is a chance to appreciate the beauty of the world within one's mind.

That was what happened with La Scapigliata, which I looked at intensely each time I had a chance. And that was a very big Moment of Wonder.

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Notes

https://artjourneyparis.com/blog/mona-lisa-story-behind-fame.html

https://complessopilotta.it/en/opera/testa-di-fanciulla-detta-la-scapiliata-en/

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/la-scapiliata-head-of-a-woman-palazzo-della-pilotta/OAWxtYwriA-hJQ?hl=en

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/head-of-a-woman-called-%E2%80%9Cla-scapiliata%E2%80%9D-0026/TgFaGTdfgW-vRA

https://books.google.fr/books?id=roHf588GZJYC&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://www.italianrenaissanceresources.com/units/unit-3/sub-page-03/leonardo-on-painting-versus-poetry/

https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/cicero1477/0023/image,info#col_thumbs

https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010062370

https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl020003018

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/arts/design/mona-lisa-louvre-macron.html

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/01/28/emmanuel-macron-musee-louvre-renovations-expansion

When the Hope Diamond was Louis XIV’s treasured Bleu de France diamond

For this story, we travel one billion years into the past. Hold on tight, this is going to be quite a ride. Be warned: it is very, very hot.

We are inside a lava ocean, our planet's heart. Hundreds of miles below our feet, it feels like the sun—the temperature and pressure there are beyond comprehension.

Humble carbon floats in that lava ocean, and heat and pressure force carbon to become diamonds. Most are imperfect; only a tiny percentage are colorless and flawless.

On rare occasions, carbon floating about the lava gets mixed with a mineral called boron. That turns them blue: only 0,1% of diamonds are blue.

Old on tight again: how do these diamonds, born about a billion years ago deep inside our planet, make it to us?

They travel by volcanic eruption.

The Hope Diamond was born one billion years ago

On a few happy occasions, diamonds get blasted into the sky, directly delivered to us from that lava ocean.

Hang on a minute. It is not advisable to be near a volcanic eruption. We need to wait—and wait more—for the rain and winds to obliterate the volcano and carry the shiny diamonds along the way.

Rivers carry them downstream, acting like natural tumble dryers. Poor-quality diamonds don't survive the experience intact; the good ones shrug it off.

That is why many Indian diamond mines are former riverbeds.

One diamond found in the Kollur mine in the Golconda region turned out to be not just blue but also exceptionally large, at 115 carats.

The adventurer, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier

Think of Tavernier as a French Marco Polo, who traveled several times to India, where he acquired large quantities of gemstones that would make his fortune.

His luck was that King Louis XIV was an avid collector of gemstones.

How much did it cost?

Louis XIV paid Tavernier 897,731 pounds for 44 large and 1,122 smaller diamonds.

The Blue was worth a quarter of the entire collection, at 220,000 pounds.

The theft of the crown jewels of France

The story is told in 'The French Crown Diamonds Theft.'’ Let's send a detective on the trail and see where the evidence leads.

The crime, cutting the Tavernier Blue

A blue diamond, the color of France, the sun—Louis XIV liked to present himself as the sun god Apollo—making this wonder one of the Sun King's most treasured possessions.

The crime is not the theft itself, but the destruction of a unique marvel: a blue diamond enhanced with gold leaf to resemble the sun's rays and the seven planets as they were known at the time.

Hope Diamond comes to light two days after the end of the statute of limitations

Twenty years and two days after the theft, a 'new' blue diamond, the Hope, turns up in London in the hands of a gemstone dealer.

Our detective took evening gemmology lessons, so he contemplates the rarity of blue diamonds.

Could a lost 69-carat blue diamond and a 45-carat diamond that appeared out of nowhere be the same thing?

It has long been known that the Hope and the French Blue were the same diamond

The Hope was twice exhibited in Paris in the 1850s. In 1858, we have a jeweler named Charles Bardot who wrote:

The Hope blue diamond, weighing 44 ⅛ carats join the most beautiful nuances of sapphire to the most vivid diamond sparkle.

We strongly suspect, considering its rare perfection, that it is the reduced blue diamond of France of 67 carats stolen in 1792.

In 1889, in the History of the Gems of the Crown of France, Germain Bapst explains:

The Golden Fleece was taken by a man named Cadet Guillot who took it to London, where he broke it.

The Blue Diamond was cut and sold in two pieces of unequal size.

This mutilation was evidently intended to prevent the recognition of the stone and to ward off any subsequent claim.

The most considerable fraction is still today in London, in the collection left by the late Mrs. Hope.

Definite proof comes with a cast of the Bleu de France

The lead cast of a gemstone was rediscovered in 2007 in French archives, most likely cast from the French Blue.

An 1850 inventory states:

Model of a diamond, remarkable for its clarity—belonging to Mr. Hoppe of London.

This linked the cast to Mr. Hope and implied that he might have owned the original diamond and had it recut.

While that point is uncertain, the lead cast was the last piece to the puzzle, proving beyond doubt that the Hope was the French Blue.

The Bleu de la Couronne de France, also known as the Hope

In 1909, it was offered for sale at a Paris auction as the Hope, without mentioning that it was the French Blue.

Pierre Cartier, of the Cartier dynasty, soon purchased and sold it to Mr. and Mrs. McLean.

If anyone wanted to play nationalist pride and claim that the gemstone returned to Paris, that was the opportunity.

But the theft occurred in 1792, and that ship had long sailed over the horizon.

The Louvre Museum Description of the Hope Diamond

In 1962, the Hope was loaned to the Louvre for the Ten Centuries of French Jewelry exhibition.

Here is, for the first time, translated into English, the Louvre museum description:

After repeating the inventories of the Crown Jewels, the catalog states:

26 - Hope Diamond

The diamond thus described in 1791 had been placed in Louis XV's Golden Fleece.

This blue diamond, the first known in Europe, had been purchased in India in 1642 by Tavernier, who sold it to Louis XIV in 1668.

Weighing 112 carats ⅛ cut soon after to a weight of 67 carats ⅛, which it kept until the Revolution.

Stolen in 1792 and taken out of France, it must have been recut.

The blue diamond first belonged to Mr. Daniel Eliason, then the financier Mr. Hope, then to various owners, including Mr. and Ms. Mc Lean, and then Harry Winston, who gave it to the Smithsonian Institution.

It weighs 44 carats, which is, it seems, the most significant part of Louis XIV's blue diamond.

Since everyone agrees that the Hope and the French Blue are the same thing, what would be nice would be:

- If the Smithsonian could rename the Hope the 'French Blue Diamond.’

A unique blue Royal diamond has a lot more historical value than a rare gemstone.

- To lend it again to the Louvre for an exhibition.

The Bleu de France, formerly known as the Hope, displayed at the Louvre for a temporary exhibition; that would be a nice Moment of Wonder.

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The Hope and the Mona Lisa are linked, as the 1962 loan of the Hope to the Louvre was part of a reciprocal loan negotiation: the Hope in Paris in exchange for the Mona Lisa in Washington.

https://artjourneyparis.com/blog/mona-lisa-story-behind-fame.html

Notes

Musée du Louvre, Dix siècles de joaillerie française - Exposition 3 mai - 3 juin 1962.

Charles Bardot, Traité complet des pierres précieuses:

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9611941w/f275.image.r=Hope

Germain Bapst, Histoire des joyaux de la couronne de France:

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9940516/f286.item

DIX SIÈCLES DE JOAILLERIE FRANÇAISE G. CHARENSOL; Revue des Deux Mondes, 1er JUIN 1962, pp. 444- 451.

1909 sale auction catalog:

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k12454406/f39.item

https://www.mnhn.fr/fr/le-spectre-du-diamant-bleu-de-louis-xiv

https://www.mnhn.fr/fr/grand-diamant-bleu-de-louis-xiv

https://naturalhistory.si.edu/explore/collections/hope-diamond-history

https://naturalhistory.si.edu/explore/collections/hope-diamond

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/hope-diamond-was-once-symbol-louis-xiv-sun-king-180949482/

https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/spring-2009-french-blue-hope-diamond-farges

https://www.si.edu/spotlight/hope-diamond

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesdigitalcovers/2019/12/06/secret-history-hope-diamond-the-cartiers-book-excerpt/

https://www.europhysicsnews.org/articles/epn/abs/2012/01/epn2012431p22/epn2012431p22.html

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274674367_The_French_Blue_and_the_Hope_New_Data_from_the_Discovery_of_A_Historical_Lead_Cast

https://www.goodfon.com/nature/wallpaper-vulkan-izverzhenie-lava-1032.html

https://www.hotel-de-la-marine.paris/decouvrir/ca-s-est-passe-a-l-hotel-de-la-marine/ils-ont-vole-les-joyaux-de-la-couronne

Truth is stranger than fiction: when a Pharaoh’s mummy was treated as salted meat

We are in Saqqara, near Cairo, in 1881. Archaeologists just discovered a mummy inside a pyramid.

There was no way to identify the body with certainty. Still, as it was found inside the pyramid of Pharaoh Merenre, it could be the oldest mummy of a Pharaoh ever discovered, at over 4,200 years old.

The archaeologists—two brothers—were eager to bring the Pharaoh straight away to Cairo's museum.

What happened is directly recounted here, edited for clarity:

"Beside the stone coffin, on the floor of the tomb chamber, lay the well-preserved mummy of Pharaoh Merenre".

But the body was in a sad state:

"Treasure-seekers had torn off the body, so that the shreds of the almost transparent and cobweblike linen material lay strewn about everywhere".

Imagine the Pharaoh's mummy as good as naked, put into a random wooden coffin for easy carrying, tied to a donkey, on the way to the railway station to catch the last train to Cairo.

The first hurdle was to get a Pharaoh’s mummy on a train:

"Great astonishment of the railroad officials concerning our dead companion, whom we designated as a very old embalmed magistrate (Schech-el-beled) of the village of Sakkarah.

Since we did not want to be separated from our fellow traveller, we did not travel first class, but boarded the baggage car with him".

But the train stopped far from its destination, forcing the brothers to walk while carrying the King by hand:

"The sun went down, the perspiration ran from our foreheads, the dead Pharaoh seemed to become heavier from minute to minute.

In order to lighten the load, we left the coffin behind and held His dead Majesty at the head end and at the feet.

Then the Pharaoh broke through in the middle and each of us took his half under his arm".

Now, holding half a King under their arm, the two archaeologists' next hurdle was the taxman—any goods entering Cairo had to be inspected and taxed accordingly.

"A new obstacle met us at the customs building directly in front of the great iron bridge of Kasr enj-Nil.

"Nothing taxable in the carriage?" asked the customs officer in the Arabic language. "No, nothing at all, nafisch!"

"But what is this here?" Di-e-di, and with these words he pointed to the two halves of the royal corpse.

"Salted meat," I answered, and secretly pressed a coin into his hand.

"Jallah, go on!" called the officer to the coachman, and our carriage with the three of us rolled across the bridge".

Since mummification involves drying corpses in a salt-like substance, labeling a Pharaoh as 'salted meat' isn't entirely far off.

Yet, going from King to luggage to a dry piece of meat within a few hours was a monumental loss of status.

Pharaoh Merenre I

Today, it remains uncertain whether this mummy is that of Pharaoh Merenre I, making it the oldest known Pharaoh’s mummy, or someone else buried there at a later date.

In any case, it shows that mummies were indeed discovered inside pyramids.

Discover more with

Moments of Wonder

Useless Aliens Built Pyramids And Forgot To Sign Them

Press release beamed from interstellar space…

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a year ago · 1 like · Moments of Wonder

And contemplate that reality is more interesting than fiction.

Moments of Wonder

Fascinating Stories Do Not Need To Be Based On Forgeries.

In an era when the internet is inundated with fabricated stories, it becomes increasingly challenging to distinguish between reality and fiction. An image, a meme, can appear on millions of screens within hours…

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a year ago · Moments of Wonder

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Sources

http://www.vlib.us/brugsch/chapter7.html

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371719346_The_Pyramids_of_Pepi_I_Pepi_II_Merenre

http://www.narmer.pl/pir/nemti1_en.htm

In an era when the internet is inundated with fabricated stories, it becomes increasingly challenging to distinguish between reality and fiction. An image, a meme, can appear on millions of screens within hours.

The situation will only become worse at a time when AI can make things up faster than a human brain can.

The purpose of Moments of Wonder is to respect you, dear reader, with authentic, well-researched stories that are more fascinating than AI or human-made-up nonsense.

Two examples illustrate that truth is stranger than fiction, and often, more interesting:

Ramses II’s passport

All over social media, one finds the famous passport photo issued for Ramses II’s mummy when he came to Paris in 1976. Ramses indeed flew to Paris, but it takes about two minutes of research to find out that this image is complete nonsense.

A Pharaoh’s mummy does not even need a passport—there never was one to begin with.

The source of the fake picture is written within the image: Heritage Daily, a magazine that wrote an article on Ramses' visit to Paris.

It did not hide that the illustration was fake, stating, "this is an artist's recreation and is not the original passport."

The copy-and-paste brigade missed that part. Even a reputable magazine, National Geographic, repeats the story without having done a two-minute fact-check:

Mummy mugshot - There's no known record of anything like a passport existing in ancient Egypt.

But in 1974, when the mummy of Ramses II (died 1213 B.C.) had to be flown to Paris for restoration, it was issued a valid Egyptian passport, including a photo of the pharaoh's ancient face.

His occupation was listed as “King (deceased)”.

A two-minute fact-check would have turned up the answer:

There is no compulsory passport in French law for non-living human persons.

There’s more forgery about Ramses II repeated as fact:

Ramses II’s love letter to Nefertari

The second example that is repeated all over the internet is that Ramses wrote a famous love letter about Queen Nefertari:

My love is unique—no one can rival her, for she is the most beautiful woman alive.

Just by passing, she has stolen away my heart.

The problem is that this poem is fabricated, and retelling it while knowing it to be fake would imply that readers are unable to distinguish between fakery and reality.

Instead of repeating false stories, I travelled to Abu Simbel and Luxor, took photos myself, and described, over two stories, the fascinating truth:

Ramses’ love letter to Nefertari

When Ramses II became a living god

That story respects and captivates you by sharing the inscriptions on the walls of Abu Simbel and Nefertari’s tomb.

It’s not a human trying to keep up with AI in its speed of creating things; it’s an art historian sharing knowledge through stories that transport you to times past, as if you were in a time machine.

Repeating someone’s words on social media lazily takes one’s readers for idiots. Do you want a funny story about the mummies of Pharaohs? Here is a real one:

When A Pharaoh’s Mummy Was Taxed As Salted Meat

See? It’s possible to write a story that’s both truthful and funny. Who said that an entertaining read needs to cost readers their brain cells?

One can respect readers’ intelligence by providing them with a lighthearted article that is worth their time for being true.

You get entertained while discovering a fascinating fact: fragments of Royal mummies have indeed been found inside pyramids.

If necessary, it proves that ancient aliens did not build pyramids, as there is plenty of evidence that pyramids were royal tombs—the subject of a future article.

Learning something valuable while having a moment of wonder is perfectly feasible.

Moments of Wonder - Fascinating Facts

Moments of Wonder are immersive stories that transport readers to the past.

They respect readers by conducting thorough research before writing articles.

Enjoy regular moments of awe about art, civilization, and history by subscribing.

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Sources

https://factcheck.afp.com/image-was-digitally-created-representative-purposes

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/03/the-passport-of-ramesses-ii/126812

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/weird-passports-history

https://factcheck.afp.com/image-was-digitally-created-representative-purposes

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/01/30/fact-check-ramesses-ii-had-passport-but-viral-image-fake/4313165001/

https://www.boomlive.in/world/no-evidence-of-a-passport-being-issued-to-mummy-of-pharaoh-ramesses-ii-10274

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230406-1976-when-ramses-came-to-paris-for-a-mummy-makeover

Who Designed Notre Dame De Paris ?

Unfortunately, we do not know. In 1160, Bishop Maurice de Sully ordered a new cathedral for Paris. Who conceived such a colossal monument?

No trace of the architect's name exists, except perhaps in passing.

Soon after construction started, the Bishop's archives mentioned witnesses, one of whom was a certain Ricardus cementarius, 'Richard, mason.' Could 'Richard' be the genius who envisioned a medieval skyscraper?

A stonemason who defied physics by conceiving a stone monument as if it had no walls to allow for large stained-glass windows?

One must wonder at his powers of imagination as he drew Notre Dame with no guidelines—this was brand new architecture—and little mathematical and engineering knowledge.

He started with sketches on parchment and probably built a wooden model.

Imagine the awe and emotion of the Bishop and architect as they looked at Notre Dame’s design, knowing they would never see the cathedral completed.

How Long Did It Take To Build Notre Dame Cathedral ?

In the 1100s and 1200s, churches sprouted all over France as if there were competition for the highest and most beautiful cathedral.

While constructing a cathedral in 30 to 60 years was feasible, Notre Dame took around 80 years to build, as it was, at the time, the largest monument in France. It then took another 100 years to improve.

Notre Dame, A Work Of Genius, A Medieval Skyscraper Reinforced With Iron

This new style of architecture aimed to let light enter the church, erecting a monument with almost no walls using a heavy material: stone.

Like a card castle, there may be a moment when it tumbles to the ground, as happened when a cathedral reached 160 feet between the floor and ceiling.

Think of a human ribcage getting crushed. The flying buttresses report the weight away from the 'ribcage,' the church interior's space.

Another genius idea is using steel to contain the forces trying to topple the cathedral, 'stapling' each stone with metal cramps, effectively chaining the entire monument.

Notre Dame is the first medieval cathedral to use iron reinforcements. The restoration proved that the oldest pieces of metal date from the 1160s, the very start of construction.

The first Iron Lady of Paris was not the Eiffel Tower but Notre Dame.

Notre Dame is known worldwide, but her brilliant designer's name has been forgotten.

Recognition For Notre Dame’s Genius Architects

A century after construction began, two of the geniuses involved in Notre Dame architecture were recognized. Their names are Jean de Chelles and Pierre de Montreuil.

Pierre de Montreuil wanted to ensure that his predecessor was remembered, so he had an inscription carved on Notre Dame. It reads :

"The 12th of February 1258, this building was begun in honor of the mother of Christ; Jean de Chelles, then alive, was its master stonemason".

In turn, Pierre de Montreuil was buried in a chapel he designed, depicted in stone with an architect's tools. The inscription named him 'doctor stonemason,' or, as we would say today, PhD in architecture.

'Gothic' Is An Insulting Word Meaning Darkness That Cost Notre Dame Its Stained-Glass Windows

The word Gothic refers to the Goths, who were blamed for the destruction of Rome and the Dark Ages. ‘Gothic’ implies that ignorant Goths designed cathedrals.

Branding medieval monuments as barbarian was not without consequence; it is one of the reasons why most of Notre Dame's original stained-glass windows have been destroyed.

By Louis XIV’s time, the Gothic style was not just tasteless; it was “barbarous,” the “odious monster of ignorant centuries.”

Being labeled Gothic, meaning from the age of darkness—not helped by centuries of accumulated soot—sealed the fate of most of Notre Dame's original stained-glass windows.

In the 1750s, the clergy of Notre Dame thought the cathedral was too dark and ordered the medieval windows replaced with white glass.

Fortunately, the two immense rose windows were spared and survived the 2019 inferno a few meters above.

Notre Dame Is A Marvel Of Light And Color, Not Darkness

Enter Notre Dame on a sunny day and experience being bathed in a kaleidoscope of colors as light passes through the rose window.

The design means to raise one’s mind's eyes toward something higher, transforming sunlight into divine light.

In the words of a medieval visitor, being in such a place brings:

"such degree of beauty that entering it one feels like being taken to heaven and imagines being introduced into one of Paradise's most beautiful rooms."

The stained-glass windows are gem-set tapestries of color, a preview of Heavenly Jerusalem, described as:

"made of pure gold, as pure as glass.

The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone."

Rather than insulting talented architects by labeling them ignorant Goths, we should recognize them as inventors of a 'Medieval Architecture of Light.'

They created slender, illuminated jewelry boxes using stone, a heavy material.

If they had steel beams, cathedrals might have been as bright and translucent as railway stations and as tall as the Empire State Building.

Surviving The French Revolution

The Revolution was a power struggle between two factions: the nobility and the Church on one side and 'the people', 98% of the country, on the other.

At the 1789 tax reform meeting, the people had only one vote, while the nobility and clergy had two-thirds.

A violent reshuffle ensued, where many nobles and priests ended up on the scaffold. Castles and churches were sold off stone by stone.

A cathedral of a similar age to Notre Dame and one of the biggest churches ever built became a giant quarry.

Bronze statues and the lead of stained-glass windows were melted into cannons. Saint Germain des Prés church became a saltpeter factory; a spark turned it into a massive fireball.

The mob attacked Notre Dame and threw the large statues of Kings—Old Testament Kings—to the ground. The cathedral was used as a wine depot. Fortunately, even cheap wine doesn't quickly explode.

Yet, the disrepair was such that the spire, which was at risk of collapse, was removed.

Victor Hugo Saved Notre Dame

Victor Hugo single-handedly saved Notre Dame by writing a monumental love letter, a book titled “Notre Dame de Paris."

Its first words mourn the fact that the cathedral's existence was under threat:

"For it is thus people have been in the habit of proceeding with the marvellous churches of the Middle Ages for the last two hundred years.

Mutilations come to them from every quarter, from within as well as from without.

The priest whitewashes them, the archdeacon scrapes them down; then the populace arrives and demolishes them".

And if that was not clear enough, Hugo added that "the church will, perhaps, itself soon disappear from the face of the earth."

That wasn't poetic license. By the 1830s, when Hugo wrote, it had dangerously become cheaper to tear down a dark ‘gothic' vestige than maintain it.

Hugo's skill at weaving fiction and history reminded the French people that their ancestors built Notre Dame, not Kings or priests.

One book helped them accept that their taxes should go toward repairing it.

In 1918, German planes dropped incendiary bombs on Notre Dame

Then came the First World War and the German bombing campaign. In 1914, the invading army relentlessly shelled the city of Reims, aiming almost 300 bombs at the cathedral, which was seriously damaged.

In 1918, colossal German cannons mercilessly bombarded Paris. Barely a mile away from Notre Dame, they shelled a church, killing 92 worshipers during mass.

Bombs got closer to Notre Dame, falling around the cathedral. A German plane flew above Notre Dame and dropped three bombs. One fell through the roof and started to burn one beam.

Fortunately, the fire was quickly extinguished.

In 1944, Hitler ordered that “Paris must not fall into the hands of the enemy, or if it does, he must find there nothing but a field of ruins.”

The Nazis didn't manage to ignite the explosives, but they did bomb Paris, and Notre Dame bears the bullet marks of the Liberation.

Overcoming The 2019 Fire

It was a quiet spring day until the piercing sound of multiple fire engine sirens resonated over Paris. Seeing dark smoke over the city's center, Parisians knew something terrible was happening.

Dumbstruck onlookers pondered whether they could believe their eyes.

By nightfall, the wind pushed the flames toward the towers.

This was the most critical moment, as inside wooden structures held bells weighing several tons.

If the bells fell, the towers would collapse, and the entire cathedral would tumble, like a domino effect.

An empty building is not worth risking firefighters' lives. But this was Notre Dame, and the General commanding the firefighters explained:

"The stakes are very simple. Tomorrow morning, at dawn, will there still be Notre Dame​ towers, or will there be nothing left but a pile of smoking ruins?

Between these two visions, a cathedral still standing or a pile of ruins, there is this operation that risks costing the lives of several dozen firefighters".

A commando of twenty firefighters rushed up wearing breathing equipment. Inside the North tower, flames ten meters high burned the wood structure holding hefty bells.

It was impossible to extinguish the fire from the outside. The only way to fight it was to enter the inferno.

In the firefighters' words, they were like matches in front of a dragon—an 800°C (1470°F) monster. One man fell through the wooden floor, saved by the stuck air bottle.

Had they reached the towers fifteen minutes later, the rubble would have become their memorial.

They, along with 600 men and women firefighters, saved Notre Dame.

The cathedral was still vulnerable, as the accumulated effects of fire, water, and structural losses meant it could still disintegrate.

Only when wooden reinforcements to the flying buttresses and columns were added could the architect in charge get some sleep.

Notre Dame De Paris, A Living Wonder

You may ask, where’s the promised moment of wonder? Start by appreciating that English uses "it" for a living animal but "she" for a boat.

Notre Dame is French for Our Lady. Ladies aren’t things, are they?

You may say that a stone is not a living thing. The founder of the Catholic Church may have something to tell you about "living stones being built into a spiritual house."

And the firefighter General would add:

"It's very curious. I participated in rescuing dozens of buildings, but it is the first time I feel this: I almost feel that Notre Dame is alive."

Hence, there are many reasons why Notre Dame isn't a thing. She witnessed centuries of genius, tragedy, and wonder.

She has been part of the life stories of Parisians who worshipped there for over 800 years. Today, millions worldwide go to Paris on holiday or on a honeymoon.

When reminiscing about these happy times, they visualize Notre Dame.

Even Parisians who have never set foot inside see her as part of the city's fabric, hence the shock when a black cloud hovered over Paris.

Notre Dame makes a deep impression on children. She is in the center of one of the world's most visited cities, attracting 14 million visitors annually.

Many kids are dragged there against their will, fearing it will be a bore.

Once inside, they see the cathedral's scale and the immense rose windows, from which spots of multi-colored light sprinkle.

Children's jaws drop; then they smile, trying to catch the drops of color.

Being in awe at a monument for the first time means Notre Dame left an imprint that they will never forget.

English speakers should affectionately talk of Notre Dame as a "she" instead of an "it."

She is neither a mere pile of stone nor a barbarian-made monument. Notre Dame is a living wonder.

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Moments of Wonder

Amiens, the Largest Cathedral of France, twice as big as Notre-Dame de Paris.

When you hear of Notre Dame, you probably think of Paris and maybe Quasimodo…

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Birth of 'Gothic', the Architecture of Light

We already discussed Saint-Denis, the Saint, and the Kings of France buried at Saint-Denis Basilica…

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Sources:

Please consider making a donation to Paris' firefighters’ official charitable fund, to help them and their families :

https://don-oeuvresocialepompiersparis.fr/

Note that the website is only in French.

https://www.tf1info.fr/societe/la-bataille-de-notre-dame-de-paris-ces-minutes-ou-emmanuel-macron-a-valide-le-plan-de-sauvetage-de-la-cathedrale-2139132.html

https://allo18.fr/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ADH-Hors-se%CC%81rie-doublepage-JMR.pdf

https://allo18.fr/notre-dame-dans-la-peau-du-dessinateur-operationnel/

La nuit de Notre-Dame, Par ceux qui l'ont sauvée, Brigade de Sapeurs-pompiers de Paris.

https://www.grasset.fr/livre/la-nuit-de-notre-dame-9782246822752/

https://www.cnrs.fr/fr/presse/notre-dame-premiere-cathedrale-gothique-avoir-utilise-massivement-le-fer

https://www.icmpe.cnrs.fr/notre-dame-de-paris-la-premiere-dame-de-fer-etude-archeometallurgique-et-datation-des-armatures-en-fer-de-la-cathedrale-parisienne/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1296207423000614?via%3Dihub

https://sculpturesmedievales-cluny.fr/collection/bras-sud-du-transept-notre-dame.php

Eloge de Paris composé en 1323 par un habitant de Senlis, Jean de Jandun

https://books.google.bj/books?id=0QppZ1VeplAC

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k56288200/f39.item

https://notre-dame-de-paris.culture.gouv.fr/fr/les-vitraux-du-moyen-age

https://www.parismusees.paris.fr/en/expositions-virtuelles/notre-dame-de-paris-in-more-than-100-works

https://francearchives.gouv.fr/fr/article/163529389

https://notre-dame-de-paris.culture.gouv.fr/fr/le-monument

https://www.bnf.fr/fr/la-cathedrale-notre-dame-de-paris-la-bnf

Il Filarete, Book 8, treatise on architecture

Giorgio Vasari The Lives of the Artists - Gothic as "barbarous German style"

Peter Paul Rubens, in Palazzi di Genova, 1622, "the architecture that is called barbaric or Gothic".

Molière; La Gloire du Val-de-Grâce https://moliere21.cnrs.fr/ornements-gothiques/

Charles Alphonse Dufresnoy, L’Art de peinture traduit en français avec des remarques nécessaires et très amples, Paris, Nicolas L’Anglois, 1668,

Jean-François Félibien, Vie et Ouvrages Célebres Architectes, "the Gothic manner, which one assumes to have been introduced by the Goths."

Christopher Wren "This we now call the Gothic manner of architecture (so the Italians called what was not after the Roman style) though the Goths were rather destroyers than builders". In Bolton, A. T., ed. (1925). "St Paul's Cathedral". The Wren Society. II. Oxford University Press.

J. C. Plumpe Traditio, Volume 1 , 1943 , pp. 1 - 14 VIVUM SAXUM, VIVI LAPIDES: The Concept of "Living Stone" in Classical and Christian Antiquity

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/traditio/article/abs/vivum-saxum-vivi-lapides-the-concept-of-living-stone-in-classical-and-christian-antiquity/62B3DD6F0C36DC989821B463AEE0C2FC

https://biblehub.com/niv/1_peter/2.htm

Jules POIRIER, Les bombardements de Paris (1914-1918). Avions, Gothas, Zeppelins, Berthas, Paris, Payot, 1930.

https://www.paris.fr/pages/images-d-archives-paris-bombardee-pendant-la-premiere-guerre-mondiale-6112

https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/oeuvres/eglise-saint-gervais-apres-le-bombardement-du-vendredi-saint-le-29-mars#infos-principales

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b53004579d.r=Eglise%20St%20Gervais%2C%20bombardement%20de%20Paris%20%C3%A0%20longue%20port%C3%A9e?rk=107296;4

https://histoire-image.org/etudes/destructions-guerre-14-18

Private guided visits of Notre Dame Cathedral, the Sainte Chapelle and the Conciergerie.