Voir le Sacré : perception et visibilité du maître-autel au XVIIe siècle

Abstract

Seeing the Sacred : the perception and visibility of the high altar during the seventeenth century. Should the Sacred be visible ? An answer to this question is offered here through the study of the high altar of the Minim Convent of the Place Royale in Paris, now no longer in existence. The altar was built from 1630, and the altar painting was a copy of the famous Descent from the Cross by D. da Volterra. Jean-François Niceron, who was himself a monk in this convent in Paris, described this altar in his book « La Perspective curieuse » (published 1638 and re-edited in 1658). His description wells on a particular feature of the painting, the foot of Christ, which seems to attract the eyes of the spectator who moves in front of the painting. This description supposes then that the work is perfectly visible in a church without a rood screen and in which it is possible to move about freely. But the view of a monk who obeys the Minims’ ceremonial, regulating the different services, is only one of the senses called on, and probably not the main one. It is not so much a question of seeing or contemplating a work as « turning towards » this special pole of orientation which is the high altar. The author of the present article compares Niceron’s description with other treatises on the same subject which often mix up perspective with religious considerations that interfere with the scientific discourse. They are concerned, for example, with whether or not God is directly visible, discussions which refer in a more immediate sense to the vision of the altar and to the need to suppress rood screens.