"OH NO, MY DEAR, IT'S NOT THAT BAD!"
In the background, the Church...
The Basilica of Saint-Denis, mausoleum of the kings, is surrounded by modern buildings, sign of the secular spirit that makes the traditionalist spirit so distant.
An abbey was once at its side...
© Département de la Seine-Saint-Denis/ zoom
The abbey of Saint-Denis, 1690
Five minutes away was a Carmelites' convent, now the musée d'Art et d'histoire de Saint-Denis
Plan at the museum entry (undated)
Entry to the cells, which now show the nuns' lives.
Paintings made toward 1770, exhibited in the cells:
Carmelites at the infirmary tending the poor
Activities in the grand chamber
An indelible apprenticeship...
Detail of the work above
The convent was linked to monarchy as were all aspects of the Church. A daughter of Louis XV retired there as a nun.
Most indicative is this embroidery.
Someone used innumerable hours to express a faith in kingship, that is, in a hierarchical conception of society. How reject a philosophy that was so deeply embedded and profoundly felt?
Especially when the alternative
was in practice just as hierarchical,
but based on money?
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