A Week in Paris– Part Five (more Cluny)

One of the things I like least about the middle ages era of church history is phony relics— a rib from Peter or a bone from his foot (when in fact if Peter is anywhere he is buried intact on Vatican Hill under St. Peters today.  All the earliest Christians were Jews, and they did not believe in magical relics. They did believe in miracles, which was a different matter.  But here are some of the so-called apostolic relics.  The foot of an otherwise unknown saint—

Or this supposed bone from Peter’s foot inserted into this created black and gold foot…

Or this supposed piece of Peter’s rib embedded in this golden object.

Much more commendable is this marble image of a university professor in Bologna, sitting at his pulpit about the lecture.

Just when you thought things were more normal, behold the head of John the Baptizer on a platter! Yikes. I don’t want that hanging in my church.

There are a variety of stone column heads, and other sorts of interesting columns as well complete with gargoyles, which were supposed to ward off evil spirits.  The second one is of Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac.

Or how about the heads of the Kings of Judah from the west facade of Notre Dame?

Or how about Noah’s ark….?

Personally, I love the miniatures in ivory and other media.

This is surely one of the Evangelists, touting his Gospel.  Cf. the similar style of these.

Adam and Eve with accommodating plants.

Check out these carved columns…

Here are several lovely altar pieces.

Bibles before the Reformation were either pulpit Bibles or they belonged to royalty or rich families, who would often have their Bible covers made into ornate works of art. Here are two examples.

There are several stained glass windows of the same ilk and color pattern as at St.-Chapelle, in fact they are from St.-Chapelle and came here after that chapel was restored.

The central image in the stone altar below is of Jesus being baptized by John.  We can debate what the other images depict.

Below is part of a pulpit…

There are a couple of oddities which don’t fit the pattern of the collection, for instance a beautiful granary chest from Poisy, where St. Louis came from.

A golden rose anyone? The rose was yet another symbol of Christ.

And finally, a casket with mythological images on it.

One could easily spend several days in this museum if one is interested in our Christian heritage, and Christian art and artifacts.  But we must move on to another museum— Orsay.