Monday, July 11, 2016

Hôtel de Cluny (7/11/2016)

Monday, July 11, 2016 (continued)
In the Latin Quarter, we made our way to Hôtel de Cluny (rebuilt 1485-1500, by Jacques d'Amboise) as a town house for abbots. In 1883, Alexandre du Sommerard bought the place to house his art collection. It became a museum in 1843, and was named Musée de Cluny, now officially the Musée National du Moyen-Âge/National Museum of the Middle Ages.
Hôtel de Cluny
Well (early 16C)
Tower used as an observatory (18C)
Altarpiece (early 16C) (KSS)
Stained glass from Ste-Chapelle (13C) showing a horned
demon and henchman carrying off a girl in red (KSS)
Carved altarpiece panels (15C English)
Original statues of the Kings of Judah from Notre Dame Cathedral
(1220-1230); the heads were cut off by French revolutionaries
who mistook them for French kings (KSS)
The heads had been collected and buried, and not found until 1977 (KSS)
Adam (c. 1260) from Notre Dame Cathedral
One of twelve capitals (c. 1030-1040) from
the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés,
depicting Daniel in the lion's den (KSS)
Carved ivory box with prophets and saints (c. 1200, Cologne) (KSS) 
Went down into the ruins of the Thermes Gallo-Romains de Lutèce/Gallo-Roman Baths of Paris.
The frigidarium/cold bath (200 CE) with the highest
Roman vault in France, which used criss cross arch
or groin vault technology (KSS)
Mosaic remnant of Cupid riding a dolphin
(late 2 to early 3C) (KSS)
Column fragment inscribed TIB.CAESARE, indicating it was
built in the time of Emperor Tiberius (14-37 CE), the
oldest man-made object in Paris (KSS)
Tapestry La Dame à la Licorne/The Lady and the Unicorn Tapestry
(c. 1500 CE); this is the final of six panels, titled A Mon Seul Désir/
My Only Desire, made at a time when the Renaissance is emerging
The horn of the unicorn (narwhal!) (KSS)
St Stephen Tapestry (c. 1500)
Oh, dear, St John the Baptist (c. 1370-1390)
is picking his nose... (KSS)
Vendage/Grape Harvest (early 16C)
After the museum, we stopped at a café
for drinks; a Kronenbourg 1664 beer and Orangina
Window of the Southern Tunisian pastry shop
A Wallace fountain (1872), one of about 80 in Paris,
designed and financed by philanthropist
Sir Richard Wallace, as public drinking
fountains for all (KSS)
Fontaine du Palmier/Palm Fountain (1806-1808)
designed by the engineer François-Jean Bralle (KSS)
Palm Fountain statue of Victory by
Louis-Simon Boizot, with the palm leaves
commemorating Napoléon's
Egyptian Campaign (KSS)
Spitting sphinxes by Henri Alfred Jacquemart (KSS)
The whole of the Palais de Justice complex (KSS)
Tour St-Jacques/St James Tower (1509-1525),
all that remains of a church destroyed during
the French Revolution
Probably St Mark, at Église Saint-Merri (1515-1612);
note the wiring: is he secured by an alarm system? (KSS)
Chuuuttt!/Shhh! (2011) by Jean-Francois Perroy aka Jef Aérosol (KSS)
Refueling jet and two fighter planes (KSS)
French Air Force Rafale jets, perhaps practicing
for a Bastille Day flyover (KSS)
Place Igor Stravinsky fountain (1983) by Jean Tinguely (kinetic ones) and
Niki de Saint Phalle (colorful ones) inspired by Stravinsky's Rites of Spring (KSS)
Chalk artist (everyone is looking at the jets passing overhead)
Jewelry vendors at Place Georges Pompidou
Next: Centre Georges Pompidou.

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