{"id":1853317,"date":"2026-03-28T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1853317"},"modified":"2026-03-28T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T06:00:00","slug":"claire-tabourets-stained-glass-windows-for-notre-dame-divide-french-society-with-a-legal-threat-looming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1853317","title":{"rendered":"Claire Tabouret\u2019s Stained-Glass Windows for Notre-Dame Divide French Society, with a Legal Threat Looming"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_9999_280.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tOn a recent visit to the Notre-Dame de Paris, the 12th-century cathedral was bustling with a steady flow of visitors who had come inside the Gothic monument from a wintery afternoon. It seemed more packed than it had been before its closure in 2019, after the collapse of its iconic spire and roof in a horrific blaze. But the line to get in moved quickly, and once under its vaulted ceiling, the sheer size of the structure left room to linger. I had gone to see the stained-glass windows designed by Eug\u00e8ne-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc in the 19th century, adorning six of the south-side chapels along the nave\u2014before they are replaced.<\/p>\n

\n\tViollet-le-Duc\u2019s windows, geometric and floral-patterned stained-glass grisailles<\/em>, or light gray-scale panes accented with colorful sections, were installed as part of his major restoration of Notre-Dame between 1844 and 1864. Meanwhile, earlier that week, I had gone to the Grand Palais, equally bustling, to see life-size models of the proposed substitutes, a figurative retelling of the Pentecost, by contemporary artist Claire Tabouret.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThese two sets of windows are at the center of a so-called \u201cstained-glass quarrel,\u201d as the French media regularly calls it, or the more poetic \u201cwindows of discord,\u201d as Le Monde<\/em> put it. In late 2023, following the 2019 blaze that nearly engulfed all of Notre-Dame, French president Emmanuel Macron, in agreement with Laurent Ulrich, the Archbishop of Paris, announced a project to commission a new set of stained-glass windows by a living artist for six of the seven stained-glass windows in the chapels along the southern side of the nave, as a \u201ccontemporary gesture\u201d to breathe new life into the centuries-old structure.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom eight finalists, Tabouret\u2019s six painted designs, which will be translated into stained glass with master artisans at the Atelier Simon-Marq, were ultimately selected in late 2024, for the commission of a lifetime\u2014but the trouble had already been brewing well before then. <\/p>\n

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Claire Tabouret, surrounded by the life-size maquettes created for the six stained-glass windows of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.<\/span>Photo Bebel Matsumiya, 2025\/\u00a9Claire Tabouret<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAt the crux of the controversy is the fact that Tabouret\u2019s new windows would push out Viollet-le-Duc\u2019s undamaged ones. Advocates for the project argue that since the windows date to the 19th century, instead of the Middle Ages, they are fair game to be replaced in a monument that has historically integrated new artistic elements to its walls over the centuries. The goal is to add \u201cmeaning\u201d and \u201cbeauty,\u201d through the story of the Pentecost, while maintaining \u201ccoherence\u201d in this part of Notre-Dame with a nearby figurative window depicting the Tree of Jesse, according to Philippe Jost, who has led the Notre Dame restoration since the fire. (The Tree of Jesse window is the only figurative stained-glass one on the same, ground-floor side of the nave as Viollet-le-Duc\u2019s geometric ones.) Another dismissal of the 19th-century windows has to do with them being grisailles<\/em> and therefore not as colorful as one might expect of a stained-glass window. Tabouret\u2019s design, by contrast, is a riot of explosive color. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut as a classified UNESCO heritage site, and per guidelines set by the 1964 Venice Charter, subtracting anything as major as these towering, ornate windows from the Notre-Dame isn\u2019t quite that simple.<\/p>\n

\n\tA petition against this \u201ccontemporary gesture\u201d has garnered over 335,000 signatures, and leading up to the announcement of Tabouret\u2019s winning designs, the CNPA, the nation\u2019s commission on architecture and heritage, voted against it in July 2024, while the Academie des Beaux-Arts issued a statement opposing it in December 2023. Many have also interpreted the project as Macron\u2019s attempt at leaving his cultural stamp on the cathedral and have called out his over-spending of public funds.<\/p>\n

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A fire at Notre-Dame de Paris in 2019 caused the collapse of its iconic spire and roof. <\/span>Eric Bouvet\/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tBut amid the discord is also a good deal of confusion both in France and abroad. To date, it\u2019s unclear whether the commissioned windows designed by Tabouret, on view at the Grand Palais through Sunday, will ever make it into the Notre-Dame as planned.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHaven\u2019t you heard,\u201d one red-vested Norte-Dame worker asked me as they directed tourists. \u201cThey called it all off. It\u2019s not happening,\u201d the worker said, with a gleeful smile, when I asked where the new windows would be placed. Another worker concurred. Even well-informed visitors I overheard discussing modern stained-glass windows installed on the second floor of the cathedral a century after Viollet-le Duc\u2019s windows, didn\u2019t know about Tabouret\u2019s project.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut that isn\u2019t the full story. Sources tell ARTnews<\/em> that Tabouret\u2019s designs are in fact being interpreted into colorful glass panes. Bernard Blist\u00e8ne, former director of the Centre Pompidou, who presided over the selection committee for the window commission, said Tabouret and the Atelier Simon Marq are \u201cardently working in Reims to produce the windows,\u201d which should be done and installed, as scheduled, by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

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A detail of Tabouret\u2019s maquette for the Notre-Dame stained-glass window design, which is an interpretation of the Feast of Pentecost. <\/span>Photo Marten Elder, 2025\/\u00a9Claire Tabouret<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThat is, if a looming legal battle doesn\u2019t interfere. The Paris-based group Sites & Monuments says it plans to block in court any attempt to remove Viollet-le-Duc\u2019s windows. As soon as a construction permit to that end is officially delivered\u2014a step that is widely expected in the coming weeks or months, though it is not a guarantee\u2014the group will have their chance to legally contest it. (The regional prefect tasked with granting a construction permit, could also theoretically refuse it, though that is unlikely; his office did not respond to requests for comment.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe will urgently seize a judge to suspend the installation of the windows, to allow the judge to analyze the case,\u201d Julien Lacaze, president of Sites & Monuments, told ARTnews<\/em>. Lacaze\u2019s group is also appealing a November administrative court decision that shot down its argument claiming the body in charge of managing the Notre-Dame has no authority to commission a contemporary art installation.<\/p>\n

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Viollet-le-Duc\u2019s geometric designs, which were not damaged by the 2019, are currently installed at Notre-Dame. The stained-glass windows in the Saint Clotilde Chapel are one of six slated to be replaced by Tabouret\u2019s contemporary designs. <\/span>Photo Devorah Lauter for ARTnews<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tLacaze thinks his group has a case for a main trial they aim to bring over the legality of the project itself. \u201cIf we can prove that the work of Viollet-le-Duc is of public interest, from an artistic or historic point of view, along with the entire, classified historic cathedral, we could annul the [expected] administrative decision to grant a construction permit,\u201d said Lacaze. (The cathedral\u2019s current plan for the Viollet-le-Dec windows is to move them to a site near Notre-Dame where they could be publicly displayed.)<\/p>\n

\n\tLike many opponents to the project, Lacaze said he is not against contemporary art as it were. \u201cFor us, adding something is not a problem\u2014we could add windows in the cathedral belfries, for instance\u2014but to subtract is another issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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A detail of Tabouret\u2019s maquette for the Notre-Dame stained-glass window design, showing the artist\u2019s rendering of Viollet-le-Duc\u2019s geometric windows, which hers will replace, in the background. <\/span>Photo Claire Dorn, 2025\/\u00a9Claire Tabouret<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

What\u2019s in a Contemporary Gesture?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tHaving visited Tabouret\u2019s Grand Palais exhibition ahead of my visit to Notre-Dame, I was able to easily spot the designated windows awaiting replacement because the artist has painted parts of Viollet-le-Duc\u2019s nature-inspired windows into her own design as an homage to the artistic predecessor to whose legacy she will now be forever tied.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow 44, Tabouret has been a rising talent of the Parisian and international contemporary art scenes for about a decade. Known for her color-rich, expressive and haunting figurative works, the artist, who is also currently the subject of a retrospective at the Museum Voorlinden in the Netherlands, has been thrust into the global spotlight since being selected, somewhat unexpectedly, for the commission. At the opening of her Dutch exhibition, Tabouret told the Guardian<\/em>,<\/em> \u201cIt\u2019s not very French to change stuff,\u201d in reference to the Notre-Dame controversy. Regarding the commission\u2019s critics, she added, \u201cThese are people who hate the project, no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an in-depth 2025 profile with Le Monde<\/em>, Tabouret took a more conciliatory tone in describing her decision to take on the thorny Notre-Dame project. Because her mother is English, her father French, and they come from differing social classes, she explained that she has felt a desire since her youth \u201cto bring people together, to say: \u2018Wait, let me explain what the other side is like.\u2019 Finding myself today in a project that sparks controversy and trying to bring people together, without arrogance or certainty, I tell myself that perhaps this is my destiny. That this is why I am an artist: because I can embrace doubt, human ambiguity, the fact of not knowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTabouret declined to comment further for this story, referring back to her comments to the Guardian <\/em>and Le Monde<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut her comments to Le Monde<\/em>, also point to the heart of her approach to the commission.The works, which would reach high up into the cathedral\u2019s Gothic arches, depict individuals of varied backgrounds and ethnicities gathering together. One of the strongest of these is a frontal portrait of the Virgin Mary, who stands out as a moving symbol of female strength.<\/p>\n

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A detail of Tabouret\u2019s maquette for the Notre-Dame stained-glass window design, showing the Virgin Mary. <\/span>Photo Marten Elder, 2025\/\u00a9Claire Tabouret<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThey have also convinced some initial skeptics. \u201cI was swept away,\u201d said Louvre curator Nicolas Milovanovic, who admitted to having initially signed the petition against the contemporary window project. \u201cTo me, these stained-glass windows appear to be worthy of Notre-Dame,\u201d he said in a February YouTube video.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the Tabouret exhibition, my questions to visitors about the stained-glass debate again led to unexpected responses, but the tables had surprisingly turned. No one questioned whether the new windows would be installed in Notre-Dame, and several people said they had not known (until I asked about it) that any trade-off with existing windows was planned. While the Grand Palais show refers to Viollet-le-Duc\u2019s original designs, it does not highlight the fact that they are still hanging in the cathedral, or that they were recently restored.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDo you mean the original windows weren\u2019t damaged?\u201d asked an incredulous Vivianne Cousin. Her friend Evelyne Roussel sarcastically quipped, \u201cThey must have come up with this project because the French state has a lot of money.\u201d \u00a0(The entire project was given an initial budget of \u20ac4 million, or about $4.6 million.)<\/p>\n

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Eug\u00e8ne-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus, south elevation of Notre-Dame de Paris, competition drawing<\/em>, 1843.\u00a0<\/span>M\u00e9diath\u00e8que du patrimoine et de la photographie, Charenton-le-Pont, F\/1996\/83\/-1840<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018An Integral Part of the Vision\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThe 2019 fire at Notre-Dame inspired art historian Barry Bergdoll and architectural historian Martin Bressani to cocurate an exhibition at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery on Viollet-le-Duc. (The physical exhibition is on view in Manhattan until May 24; it also is accompanied by an online version.)<\/p>\n

\n\tBergdoll said the \u201caftermath of the fire in Notre Dame seemed like a moment to understand the diversity and complexity of Viollet-le-Duc\u2019s creation. It\u2019s not put together with polemical intent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe exhibition explores Viollet-le-Duc\u2019s architectural theory and how it was informed by his many drawings, which provided the basis for his restoration of many of France\u2019s medieval monuments, which also included the Basilica of Saint Denis, Mont Saint-Michel, Sainte-Chapelle, and the medieval fortress-walls of Carcassonne.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo Bergdoll, Viollet-le-Duc\u2019s Norte-Dame windows, \u201care an integral part of the vision, the decoration, and particularly of the lighting and luminosity of the cathedral. The argument that they\u2019re grisailles<\/em> and that they don\u2019t represent subjects and therefore are expendable is completely absurd,\u201d he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe windows\u2019 light gray, non-figurative glass allows more light to enter the cathedral, achieved via its contrast between light grays and colorful accents. The goal was also to \u201ccreate a homogeneous system that governs the entire cathedral,\u201d Bressani said. \u201cThat\u2019s what Viollet-le-Duc was concerned about: bringing an overall coherence in the color and lighting system of the cathedral.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added that the bright contemporary imagery of Tabouret\u2019s designs would \u201cdestroy the overall experience of the Gothic cathedral.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBlist\u00e8ne, the head of the jury that selected Tabouret, bristled at this accusation. Indeed, the artist chose her colors so that when combined together, they would form a white light, he said. (The cathedral also asked her to maintain the interior\u2019s overall, existing lighting.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSaying that Claire Tabouret\u2019s proposal destroys the harmony of the existing windows,\u201d Blist\u00e8ne said in an email, \u201cis truly a case of not wanting to recognize that, on the contrary, her proposal is extremely respectful of the theme and its iconography, of the colors and the light emanating from the building.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A detail of Viollet-le-Duc\u2019s geometric designs for the Saint Denis Chapel at Notre-Dame. <\/span>Photo Devorah Lauter for ARTnews<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tMarc Chauveau, a Dominican friar who also sat on the selection committee that chose Tabouret, pointed out that the walls of the chapels in Notre-Dame were stripped bare of the murals designed by Viollet-le-Duc\u2019s restoration and that since that destructive event in the 1960s, they have not necessarily cohered to his overall vision. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTabouret agreed, saying in her Le Monde<\/em> interview that there is a lack of coherence to the southern chapel decor, pointing to the figurative Tree of Jesse window. \u201c[Y]ou can clearly see that the argument of a Viollet-le-Duc vision doesn\u2019t hold water,\u201d she said, \u201cthat it wasn\u2019t his choice, but rather a decision made by default\u2014a question of budget?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is also the view that the cathedral is an unfinished, work-in-progress, which benefited from centuries of what was then contemporary art over its 863-year history. \u201cThroughout the centuries, the church always trusted the artists of the time,\u201d said Chauveau, noting that the approach also had the liturgical purpose of reaching new generations via contemporary forms of expression.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe desire for an education adapted to the minds, sensibilities and constraints of each era \u2013 has allowed Notre-Dame to be, over the years, a place for expression of contemporary art,\u201d wrote Archbishop Laurent Ulrich in the catalog for the Grand Palais exhibition. \u201cWe wanted [the cathedral] to remain faithful to her vocation, by adorning her with new works of art that speak to our time, that speak for our time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBressani, the art historian, countered that such additions, particularly under the direction of Viollet-le-Duc, were \u201cset within a shared, Gothic architectural language\u201d that used changing artistic trends in service of \u201crestoring the cathedral to its proper form,\u201d as best and as creatively, as possible. Tabouret\u2019s proposed windows certainly steps away from any form of neo-Gothic interpretation, but whether or not they cohere to the centuries-old elegance of Notre-Dame will likely only be determined if they are ever installed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_9999_280.jpg?w=1024″] On a recent visit to the Notre-Dame de Paris, the 12th-century cathedral was bustling with a steady flow of visitors who had come inside the Gothic monument from a wintery afternoon. It seemed more packed than it had been before its closure in 2019, after the collapse of its iconic spire and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1853317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1853317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1853317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1853317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1853317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}