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I view Western artistic genius as search lights: concentrated beams of light shooting off into space, there to be seen from near and far. But Chinese and Japanese artistic genius is like a water well: a constant bubbling up from deep down, spreading wide, constantly feeding other wells.

 

VERY well said, MOS...an excellent image!

 

99% of Bruges is a recreation-there's only a few of the original wooden buildings left,understandable because pre-fire code & pre-fire departments.

 

How will Notre Dame be regarded once the restoration work is done?

 

I think most of the original stonework survives, and the spire that was lost was 19th C anyhow.

It's my understanding that in the early 19th C the cathedral was practically a ruin and there was talk of having it demolished and cleared away. Then, in 1831, Victor Hugo wrote the Hunchback of Notre Dame:

Victor Hugo initially agreed to write Notre-Dame de Paris in 1828. Due to Hugo's other literary projects, the novel fell by the wayside until 1830. A primary theme of the novel is that of the value of Gothic architecture, which was neglected and often destroyed to be replaced by new buildings or defaced by replacement of parts of buildings in a newer style. For instance, the medieval stained glass panels of Notre-Dame de Paris had been replaced by white glass to let more light into the church.[3] A few years earlier, Hugo had already published a paper entitled Guerre aux Démolisseurs (War [declared] on the Demolishers) specifically aimed at saving Paris' medieval architecture.[4] The agreement with his original publisher, Gosselin, was that the book would be finished that same year, but Hugo was constantly delayed due to the demands of other projects. In the summer of 1830, Gosselin demanded that Hugo complete the book by February 1831. Beginning in September 1830, Hugo worked nonstop on the project thereafter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunchback_of_Notre-Dame

 

It is fitting that this discussion has come around to Notre Dame. I believe much of the modern western approach to preservation and conservation has roots in the work of Prosper Mérimée, French author and Inspector-General of Historical Monuments (1833–1852).

"Mérimée warned his conservators to avoid the "false-ancient": he ordered them to carry out 'the reproduction of that which manifestly existed. Reproduce with prudence the parts destroyed, where there exist certain traces. Don't give yourself to inventions... When the traces of the ancient state are lost, the wisest is to copy the analog motifs in a building of the same type in the same province'."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosper_Mérimée

He is the one who hired Eugène Viollet-le-Duc to do the restoration work on Notre Dame in the mid 19th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugène_Viollet-le-Duc

 

What an interesting discussion. I'll read the linked pages today.