À en perdre la tête: Les statues-colonnes de Saint-Denis et le problème du vandalisme pré-révolutionnaire au XVIIIe siècle.

Of the many questions raised by the column-statues removed from the west facade of Saint-Denis, six heads of which are now in museums on both sides of the Atlantic, two have been less frequently addressed than the others: Why were the statues removed from the facade? and why were they beheaded? While acts of vandalism usually occurred during the Revolutionary period in France, the sculptures were actually removed from the facade earlier, in 1771. This paper argues that their removal was not an isolated act but part of a more general renovation of the western entrance to the church and that all the work carried out in 1771 should be considered as a whole, involving not only the statue-columns and the trumeau, but the bronze doors and the parvis as well (but not, as has sometimes been said, the tympanum of the northern portal). This renovation reflects the ambiguous attitude toward Gothic art held by many during the second half of the eighteenth century. That ambiguity resulted from interest in the architecture and disdain for its ornament. The attitude can be seen as the product of writings by architectural theoreticians like abbé Laugier. Yet while the statues were separated from their columns in 1771 for aesthetic reasons during the remodeling of the facade, it seems that they were kept within the abbey precincts and that this was the place where they were ultimately beheaded, presumably during the events of 1793. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]