Organized into five main thematic chapters based on iconographical criteria, the book places each of the works in its social, cultural, and religious context. From a Bavarian wax relief depicting the Bronze Age to a set of tapestries from the Manufacture des Gobelins illustrating the love life of Daphnis and Chloe, from an Original Sin in boxwood to an allegory of the Church Triumphant on the sides of an ivory tankard, from a monumental Neapolitan Madonna or a Limoges enamel Nativity to a Descent from the Cross from Augsburg in embossed silver, the reader is taken on a multifaceted tour through these mementos of the history of beliefs and sensibilities, from the Middle Ages to the Age of Enlightenment.

Edited by Fabienne Fravalo, curator of the decorative arts collection at the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, this catalogue opens with an essay by Marion Boudon-Machuel, who is a professor at the University of Tours specializing in the history of modern sculpture. The book presents the major works in the collection alongside studies and analyses by German, French, and Swiss curators and academic researchers.

Available in french and in english