In this third and last part of the presentation of Notre-Dame de Paris' hermetic symbolism, Jean-François Blondel invites us to many reflections:
- Are the bestiaries representing fantastic animals such as centaurs, mermaids or winged-dragons coming from free imagination of Middle Ages drawers as assert current art historian or on the contrary, do these figures come within the framework of a coded language, which would be lost nowadays? For what reasons do we find these same representations in other French cathedrals?
- What vision did men have at the time of Philippe Auguste in the Middle Ages?
Did Viollet-le-Duc, when he began the saving of the cathedral in the 19th century, added these romantic borrowings, especially many chimeras who seem to scan us at 63 meters high?
- What is the meaning of The Silver Star (winged pentagram) which decorates the rooster which overhangs the building's arrow at 96 meters high and why did Viollet-le-Duc represent himself standing with his back to the apostles, a roller in his hand hiding his face from this light?
- Thomas Aquinas, to which we attribute many Alchemy treatises , is represented in the transept with a sun in chain, sitting on a cube of which water seems to go out: would it be this universal solvent, known by alchemists, and which corresponds to precise step of the Great work?
- "Sacrifice, is to create sacred" wrote Mircea Eliade: why is construction and renovation of the cathedral scattered with violent deaths? Are old operative traditions of builders who wanted blood to be spilled in order to assure the perenniality of a building still abiding?
So many interrogations and mysteries that Jean-François Blondel in this 30-minutes part.
