Graphic virtuosity andflamboyant devotion under Louis XII: a project for a eucharistic turret in the Musee des Arts decoratifs

On the occasion of an exhibition mounted in 2020, the Musee des Arts decoratifs in Paris exhumed from its collections the drawing of the project for a flamboyant eucharistic tower, which had been given to the museum in 1902 by Jules Maciet. Unpublished and unique in France for its program, the virtuoso drawing is enhanced with colors and includes annotations that establish the scale (1/4), the function (a "sacraire"), and the destination (Saint-Bartelemy). The project appears to be motivated by the need to exhibit the Holy Sacrament permanently at a time when the dogma of the Real Presence was being questioned in Paris, and to attribute it to the Church of Saint-Barthelemy on the De de la Cite, a parish of the royal palace that disappeared at the Revolution and which underwent important work in the early sixteenth century. The fleurs de lys and ermines that accompany the complex drawing, the twisted columns and stripped branches indicate a dating of around 1510 and suggest an attribution of the conception to a draftsman, architect or specialist in the graphic arts who was familiar with contemporary monumental innovations in Paris.