Papers by Anne-Solène Bayan
Not published (Williams College M.A. Thesis), 2019
The restoration of the Notre-Dame cathedral in the mid-nineteenth century, spearheaded by the arc... more The restoration of the Notre-Dame cathedral in the mid-nineteenth century, spearheaded by the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, was motivated by the desire to rebuild France’s cultural heritage after decades of political instability sparked by the French Revolution. Driving this restoration project was the ambition to redefine France as a whole; this national refashioning hinged on positioning the French nation as the center of white civilization and in opposition to racialized others. The celebration of Gothic architecture as quintessentially French was realized through the creation of gargoyles and a new bestiary, known as the Galerie des Chimères. These creatures jut out from the edifice with arched backs, reifying the vertical façade. The restoration participated in the nineteenth-century desire to claim the straight line as racially white, Gothic, and French. In his architectural program, Viollet-le-Duc relied on physiognomy and on geometric models of classical aesthetics as paradigms of legibility and hierarchization.
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Papers by Anne-Solène Bayan