Charles-Gaffiot, Jacques; Patton, Francesco — Tresors Du Saint-Sepulcre

Paris, Les Editions du Cerf, 2020. Softcover. Quarto. Softcover. Illustrated wraps. 255 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), portraits ; 28 cm. French text. Goldsmithing, trimmings, statuary: nothing was ever too expensive or beautiful enough for the kings and queens who, following Emperor Constantine, wished to honor the tomb of Christ. It is this treasure, exhibited for the first time in Jerusalem, that is unveiled here. Like its subject, this is a pious and sumptuous album that recounts the entire history of the world. Here is the most marvelous of history and geography textbooks, summarizing the great artistic chronicle of the West while revealing for the first time Jerusalem's best-kept religious secret. The countless treasures brought from all over Europe throughout the ages to honor the Holy City truly constitute a universal chronicle of beauty. From Constantine in the 4th century to Napoleon III in the 19th century, by way of Saint Louis, Joanna of Provence, Charles V, Christina of Sweden, and Louis XIV, nothing was ever precious enough for kings and queens eager to glorify the memory of Christ. Competing across the centuries, they requisitioned the rarest materials—gold, silver, marble, rubies—and mobilized the most astonishing creators—painters, tapestry weavers, goldsmiths, sculptors—to place at the foot of the Cross the most extraordinary objects—altars, enamels, chalices, missals—which, impervious to the ravages of time and collected by the Franciscan friars, form an extraordinary ideal museum that this book finally opens to all. Bringing each of these works back to life, restoring the great events and the small anecdotes they recount in the alliance between mysticism and politics, art and finance, devotion and calculation, Jacques Charles-Gaffiot revives the great era when luxury was a divine affair. VG. Some light shelfwear, otherwise clean and unmarked.