Memory and modernity : Viollet-le-Duc at Vézelay /

This absorbing study of Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc's restoration of the Romanesque church of Sainte-Madeleine at Vezelay imbeds a narrative of the architect's efforts on site within a rich skein of contextual issues that includes the formation of the national Commission of Historic Monuments and Viollet's ascendency within it; the early development of his now widely discredited approach to restoration; the sources of tensions between the Commission, the clergy, and the people of Vezelay and Viollet's delicate management of those conditions; and contemporary critiques of the restoration, all of which is set against the overarching issues of memory and modernity. The text is illustrated with 53 black-and-white images, followed by extensive footnotes. From the study of a single building Murphy (CUNY Graduate Center; Brooklyn College) has provided an exceptional range of insights into 19th-century France. Suitable for upper-division undergraduates through faculty. J. Quinan; SUNY at Buffalo