The stations of the cross of the Saint-Médard church in Paris, winner of the Pilgrim Prize for the Creation and Renovation of Churches 2023

Saint John holds the Virgin by the hand and they both look at Jesus staggering under the weight of his cross. The scene is imbued with pain but also a certain sweetness, with its decor of golden walls and the countryside behind… Unfortunately, in the darkness of the picturesque Saint-Médard church, in the Latin Quarter, in Paris, the 14 stations of this modest-sized Stations of the Cross escape notice, because they are dirty and damaged by severe cracks. However, “the three women painters who created this rare masterpiece, in 1935-1936, were part of the movement of Sacred Art Workshops. These artists renewed the Christian art of the time while inspiring Italian artists of the early Renaissance and in particular Fra Angelico”, explains Caroline Morizot, responsible for furniture conservation at the diocese of Paris. The best known, Marthe Flandrin (1904-1987), worked here with her sister-in-law Simone Flandrin-Latron (1905-2000) and a friend from the Beaux-Arts, Simone Lorimy-Delarozière (1905-1987). If each has signed its own stations, the same feeling of intimacy and sobriety emerges from the work. We guess that they worked together, using the same palette of muted colors. But “we know nothing about the context of the order,” continues Caroline Morizot. By allowing the restoration of this Stations of the Cross, the Pilgrim Prize for the Creation and Renovation of Churches, presented in partnership with Chantiers du Cardinal, will do justice to these little-known artists.