Finding the Lost Colors of Notre-Dame

By Cierra Santay 

Crossing and south transept of Notre-Dame, Paris.  Jorge Láscar from Melbourne, Australia, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

There is a common misconception that gothic cathedrals like Notre-Dame were supposed to be dark and intimidating. The truth is actually the complete opposite. Their creators wanted them to be buildings filled with colored light from stained-glass windows and accented with colored paint covering the gray stone we see today. The main reason why only the colors from the windows remain while the walls have faded to gray is simple: time. Over time the pigments used to paint the sculptures on the exterior of Notre-Dame faded because of light exposure and weather elements. This fading process took so many centuries that it basically went unnoticed by the history books. Meanwhile, the interior walls were whitewashed during a renovation of the cathedral in the 1780’s, but that has been overshadowed by the massive changes brought by the Revolution in the the 1790’s. The colors on the both exterior and interior walls were almost completely forgotten, with the stained-glass windows being the only source of color that stood the test of time. The 2019 fire at Notre-Dame has given scientists and historians the opportunity to see what the colors of Notre-Dame would have really looked like including both the colored windows and the painted stonework.

During the fire of 2019, the fate of the beloved stained-glass windows was very uncertain. By sheer luck and skill from the firefighters they emerged mostly intact. The reason their color has remained intact since the 13th century has everything to do with how they are created. As documented in the medieval art-making text On Divers Arts, making a stained-glass window was a long process that involved building almost everything by hand. The glassmaking furnaces were built by hand, the sand that was used to make the molten glass was hand-sifted from the river, the pots used to hold the molten glass were hand-crafted from clay, and these are only just a few of the many steps. Every piece of colored glass was placed and then painted with the utmost care. The paint pigments for the windows were made using ground bits of colored glass, copper powder and wine. After the windows were painted and assembled, they had one last journey into the furnace to seal all the pigments in the glass. This last step of sealing the pigments with heat is the reason why they have retained their color over hundreds of years.

In the wake of the 2019 fire, all the stained-glass windows of Notre-Dame have been removed and the painstaking task of hand cleaning all of them can now begin. The fire was so hot that it caused the lead lining of the roof to melt and created a lead powder that stuck to absolutely everything. As lead is a highly toxic metal, it is very important to remove traces of it, so the building is safe for visitors. All the windows must be cleaned then tested again and again for lead traces until they are deemed safe. While the windows are away to be repaired, scientists have the chance to see the faded colors of paint on the surviving stone up close for the first time. 

Rose window with glass removed.  Notre-Dame, Paris, May 10 2019. Chabe01, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

It is very surprising that despite it being a world-renowned monument, there is not a lot of history known about Notre-Dame. You would assume that historians have done a deep dive into every aspect of the cathedral but there is little concrete evidence to support the history of the building. A major source of information comes from a 19th century man in charge of the restoration at the time, Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. As he was recording that process, he mentions seeing colorful painting on the front façade of Notre Dame. These exterior colors unfortunately never stood a chance against the weather and revolutions that would happen around the building. Taking all this into consideration it is not all that surprising that historians did not know about the colorful accents used throughout the front facade and all over the interior of the building. Most of our current information about the interior colors is based on studies of another cathedral, Notre-Dame at Chartres. There is a kind of domino effect with these magnificent buildings. Historians have enough evidence to conclude that if the interior of Chartres was painted then so was Paris. Given the fact that they were being built around the same time (the mid-1100s) and in the same country, it is not surprising that the cathedrals would share many characteristics.

Repainted interior of Chartres Cathedral.  Photo: Marian Bleeke

The colors in the Chartres cathedral were discovered as part of a massive, ongoing restoration project on the cathedral. This included cleaning and restoring all the masonry to what it would have looked like when it was originally built. To do this, scientists had to take a very close look at the residual pigment that was buried under centuries of dirt and grime. The process of restoration is painstaking and slow. Conservators first had to clean the masonry then layer over it with a yellow plaster that mimicked the original color. Finally, they had to individually drawn the white lines to mimic the masonry hidden under the plaster. The results of the Chartres restoration are truly remarkable. Conservators have given this beautiful cathedral a new lease on life for generations to come.

The restoration at Chartres has shown the grandeur of these buildings that has been living hidden behind layers of grime and dirt for centuries. The scientific breadcrumbs combined with the knowledge gained from the Chartres restoration, lead historians to believe that Notre-Dame would have had the same white accents all over the interior architecture. This means that today, the conservators have the opportunity to restore Notre-Dame with its original features. We do not know for certain what the results of the restoration will be, but Notre Dame is finally getting the tender love and care that it has needed for a very long time. Notre-Dame’s colors have indeed been found at last.

Sources:

Hawthorne, John G., and Cyril Stanley Smith. 1979. Theophilus: on Divers Arts: The Foremost Medieval Treatise on Painting, Glassmaking and Metalwork. New York, NY: Dover.