The first of ten tapestries of the life of Saint Remi, a work from the beginning of the 16th century retracing the life of the bishop who baptized Clovis, left Reims on Wednesday August 3 to be restored in Belgium, announced the Saint -Remi.
The work will be entrusted to the royal De Wit factory in Mechelen, a world reference in the field.
The restoration of the entire tapestry, ten imposing wool and silk tapestries, should be spread over five years.
Listed as historical monuments since 1896, these tapestries are exceptional in several respects, according to Bénédicte Hernu, director of the historical museums of the City of Reims.
"By their size, 5 meters by 5, because they were choir hangings for an abbey, the current basilica, and not for a cathedral, and because they constitute a series which tells a story in its entirety,”
she explains.
250,000 euros for restoration
The tapestries, which had not been presented to the public since 2017, to protect them from the harmful effects of light, had been commissioned by the Archbishop of Reims, Robert de Lenoncourt, who admired his illustrious predecessor who, in the 5th century, baptized in Reims Clovis I, King of the Franks.
In Gothic style evolving towards Renaissance art, they were made in the first twenty years of the 16th century.
The scenes, the most famous of which is the baptism, are signed by the painter Gauthier de Campes, a cardboard maker in Paris.
In 1916, during the First World War, nine of these ten tapestries had been evacuated to Paris to escape the bombardments.
Remaining in Reims, the tenth would have been riddled with bullets, according to some accounts.
Its future restoration by the De Wit factory should make it possible to get to the bottom of it.
The amount of the restoration, which provides in particular for the installation of a new lining to lighten the weight of the tapestries, and the restoration of the colors, amounts to 250,000 euros.
The City of Reims has launched a sponsorship campaign, via the Heritage Foundation, which raised 30,000 of the 50,000 euros hoped for.
From 2023, the first three tapestries restored should return to the Saint-Remi museum in Reims in a completely redesigned scenography.
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