Since the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris on December 8, 2024, the faithful and visitors to the cathedral can admire a set of contemporary tapestries in the chapels of the collateral north aisle.

The work launched after the violent fire of April 15, 2019 which destroyed the spire of Lassus and Viollet-le-Duc and consumed the wooden framework of the choir, the nave and the transept, allowed the restoration of the entire interior of the cathedral.

The diocese decided to dedicate these chapels to great male figures from the Old Testament. These narrow chapels contrast 17th century paintings, mainly the Mays de Notre Dame, and 20th century tapestries, mainly on loan from the Mobilier national in Paris. 

These tapestries will be loaned for several years, during the creation of the contemporary tapestries by the artists Miquel Barceló and Michael Armitage ordered in 2025.

The set of tapestries loaned by the Mobilier national and the Dom Robert museum in Sorèze thus revive the medieval tradition of interior wall decorations, including the famous Tapestry of the Life of the Virgin, fourteen tapestries woven in the 17th century after the cartoons by Philippe de Champaigne among others, now in the Strasbourg cathedral, after their sale in the 18th century.

Among the modern tapestries on display, which were not created for Notre-Dame, we can discover the two panels Polynesia, the Sky and Polynesia, the Sea, woven in 1972 after the cut papers by Henri Matisse (Noah Chapel), a set of tapestries by Pierre Buraglio (Abraham Chapel), the masterful Shroud No. 2 by Mario Prassinos (Isaiah Chapel), Bird Composition by Georges Braque (Solomon Chapel). All these tapestries are on loan from the Mobilier national. The Laudes tapestry by Dom Robert (weaving 1981) in the David Chapel is on loan from the Dom Robert Museum in Sorèze.

In the Moses Chapel (the third from the entrance), Saint Paul Blinds the false Prophet by Nicolas Loir (1650) faces Composition, a tapestry made by the Manufacture des Gobelins in 1982, after a cartoon by Zao Wou-Ki.

Zao Wou-Ki collaborated on several occasions with the French National Manufactures from the 1970s: with the Manufacture des Gobelins in 1970, 1976 and 1982 for three large tapestries and with the Manufacture de la Savonnerie in 1973 for a rug. 

This large tapestry in deep blues weaves a colourful parallel with the story of Moses, linked to water since he was entrusted to the Nile in his basket before being found by Pharaoh’s daughter and of course at the Passage of the Red Sea during the deliverance of the Hebrew people out of Egypt.

Coincidentally, the Pinton manufactory unveiled in Aubusson at the beginning of February a tapestry commissioned by the Villepin Gallery in Hong Kong.

This 1/8 copy, made after the work The Wind Pushes the Sea – Triptych, painted by Zao Wou-Ki in 2004, was created in the same dimensions as the painting – 194.5 x 390 cm.

This tapestry required 1,000 hours of weaving between September and December 2024 by three weavers from the manufactory – Julie Frémondière, Julie Barbaud and Sarah Chrétien – under the supervision of workshop manager Jocelyne Houlbrecque. 

The chromatic transcription to a cartoon by Daniela Da Silva required the use of a string of 120 colours to recreate the chromatic variations of the painting. 

As a final nod, the Pinton Manufactory will also work on the contemporary tapestries commissioned for the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.