[HN Gopher] A sneak peek at Notre-Dame's new stained glass designs
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A sneak peek at Notre-Dame's new stained glass designs
Author : prismatic
Score : 37 points
Date : 2024-12-26 15:08 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.smithsonianmag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.smithsonianmag.com)
| gjsman-1000 wrote:
| Modernist tomfoolery; we'll break even international conventions
| on historical preservation for the sake of a moral anyone can
| learn by watching a Disney movie.
|
| If it even gets installed, watch in two decades as the old
| windows are returned once the banal novelty wears off.
| vidarh wrote:
| Modernism as an art-style is substantially closer in time, to
| the windows being replaced than to the present day.
|
| Modernist art started in the late 1800's century, and lasted
| into the early 1900's. Eugene Viollet-le-Duc's restoration of
| Notre-Dame started in 1844, and Viollet-le-Duc is often hailed
| as a prominent theoretician of modernism.
| troupo wrote:
| > Modernist tomfoolery; we'll break even international
| conventions on historical preservation for the sake of a moral
| anyone can learn by watching a Disney movie.
|
| What are you on?
|
| You could, I don't know, actually look at the use of stained
| glass in churches and seen that the new windows fit squarely in
| the tradition of Catholic Church:
| https://www.gettyimages.se/fotografier/catholic-church-stain...
|
| Not to mention that the current glass from the 19th century was
| literally put there by "the father of modern/modernist
| architecture"
| almostnormal wrote:
| Those windows are not just pieces of art to look at. They do also
| tint the sunlight, and with that the inside of the cathedral. The
| proposed new ones each use different colors, which is probably
| going to cause different parts to be tinted differently.
|
| Should they indeed be replaced, it's a hardeware problem. But by
| adding computer controled (depeding on sunlight conditions)
| tinted light bulbs it can be fixed in software.
| breckinloggins wrote:
| I don't like 'em. Bah.
|
| But then again I'm old now and have always been a bit too "trad"
| for even my own liking.
|
| If they prove popular, through, who am I to judge?
| uxhacker wrote:
| What is so sad about this is the windows don't need to be
| replaced. Original windows hold significant value. While modern
| replacements typically need replacement within 20-30 years,
| historic wooden windows can last centuries with proper
| maintenance. The craftsmanship in older windows often surpasses
| modern alternatives, making restoration a worthwhile investment
| for both historical accuracy and longevity.
|
| I restored 189 windows in my 200-year-old house in Poland
| rather than replacing them. The windows are fundamental to a
| building's character and historical authenticity. You can date
| a building by analyzing its window features. The older the
| house, the fewer and smaller the windows, often due to glass
| manufacturing limitations and structural needs. For instance, a
| 16th-century manor might have small, thick-glassed windows with
| irregular panes, while an 18th-century townhouse would show
| taller, multi-paned sash windows.
| vidarh wrote:
| The "original windows" in this context are windows 700 years
| newer than Notre Dame that were themselves part of a
| significant modernisation, and only a small part of the
| windows of Notre Dame (about 5% of the windows are being
| replaced).
|
| The replacement windows are also made by a studio that has a
| history going back way past the windows being replaced, and a
| history specifically of restoring historic glass - I very
| much doubt they'll need replacement within 20-30 years.
|
| The gradual renewal over centuries of renovations and
| restorations is itself part of the historic legacy of Notre
| Dame.
| thatfrenchguy wrote:
| > While modern replacements typically need replacement within
| 20-30 years
|
| This is complete bullshit you find on the internet though,
| there are "replacement windows" in my house that are 30 yold
| and nowhere near needing replacing.
| uxhacker wrote:
| You can sign a petition against the change here :
| https://www.change.org/p/let-s-preserve-viollet-le-duc-s-sta...
| _DeadFred_ wrote:
| Agreed 100%. I love your phrasing. My initial repose was
| surprisingly too "trad" for my own liking. Doesn't seem to
| matter age or supposed wisdom, we are always a work in progress
| aren't we?
| troupo wrote:
| The new designs are really close to "trad" designs of stained
| glass which often depicted scenes from the bible, saints etc.
|
| How is this concept:
| https://media.beauxarts.com/uploads/2024/12/web000_36qn6km.j...
| worse than the existing windows:
| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Notre_Da...
| ?
|
| For reference: https://www.gettyimages.se/fotografier/catholic-
| church-stain...
| _DeadFred_ wrote:
| Not really a fan, I think that Notre Dame's appeal is it's age
| but holly heck the comments here (and in fact, my grose personal
| initial response internally of 'there they go forcing...')
| convinced me these are probably a good and needed change. Though
| I hope they match the original colors let in.
|
| WTF people? This is a building dedicated to a dude who said 'love
| everyone' and 'forgive everyone so you can see past judgement and
| instead see who they truly are and their worth'. Built to be a
| physical representation of the power/holiness of that ideal. It's
| easy to love the in-crowd. It's easy to love/understand those we
| know. But old boy's message was about more than that.
| moralestapia wrote:
| Bad bot. You should've posted that when the negative comments
| are _actually posted in the thread_.
| highcountess wrote:
| [flagged]
| khazhoux wrote:
| Are you reviewing some higher-res images of these new windows?
| Because I couldn't hardly see anything in the small images in
| the article.
| vidarh wrote:
| Modernism was contemporary with Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, the
| creator of the windows _being replaced_ , and he is in fact
| often described as a theoretician of modernism, and an
| inspiration for people like Le Corbusier - who specifically
| described Viollet-le-Duc as at the root of the movement - and
| Frank Lloyd Wright.
|
| You go on to call it "typically contemporarily narcissistic",
| but the architectural style of Modernism is not contemporary to
| us.
| Reasoning wrote:
| It seems bad faith to assume the OP is using the term
| modernism specifically to refer to the Modernism movement
| rather than the other use of the word "a practice, usage, or
| expression peculiar to modern times", per Merriam-Webster.
|
| Also, drawing the connection between Eugene Viollet-le-Duc
| and Modernism architecture to argue for removing Eugene's
| glass with a more modern style ignores his own motivation for
| his restoration which was to restore Notre-Dame to it's
| original gothic style. The reason Eugene's stained glass is
| there is because past canons had "modernized" it by replacing
| the original medieval stained glass with plain white panes.
| dang wrote:
| Could you please stop posting ideological battle comments and
| flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it a lot. It's
| tedious, and it's not what this site is for.
|
| If you wouldn't mind reviewing
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the
| intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
| mrmincent wrote:
| Lots of complaints about the new windows, but just wait 100-200
| years and they'll be seen as historical items that shouldn't be
| replaced as well.
| cjs_ac wrote:
| As the article notes, the old windows only date back to the
| nineteenth century.
| lelandbatey wrote:
| Those designs seem... fine? The imagery seems quite traditional,
| the largest deviation seems to be the choice of strong unifying
| colors across whole windows, while having colors that aren't
| traditional to the rest of Notre-Dame, such as pinks and yellows.
|
| The windows they're replacing seem pretty boring and
| uninteresting, I can see why they're taking advantage of these
| renovations to _also_ spruce up these windows with new designs
| (itself a many centuries long tradition).
|
| For reference, here's the windows that are being replaced:
|
| https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Notre_Dame_Cathedr...
| troupo wrote:
| I will add another reference: Photos of stained windows across
| churches https://www.gettyimages.se/fotografier/catholic-
| church-stain... The new designs keep the tradition of depicting
| people in stained glass
| tptacek wrote:
| This is a fake controversy. There has always been contemporary
| art in Notre-Dame. The decision about the windows was made all
| the way back in 2021.
| Reasoning wrote:
| "In such a project, one cannot act with too much prudence or
| discretion...A restoration may be more disastrous for a monument
| than the ravages of centuries." - Eugene Viollet-le-Duc
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