Curatorial Narrative In 1640, an anonymous artist crafted “Le chevet de Notre-Dame, le pont de la Tournelle et l’le Saint-Louis, durant un incendie,” a painting that embodies the tumultuous spirit of Baroque Paris. The impasto technique employed by this masterful hand imbues the scene with a palpable sense of drama and tension, as if the very fabric of the city were being torn asunder by the conflagration unfolding before our eyes. The palette, characterized by an abundance of dark blues and blacks, serves to convey the ominous weight of the disaster, while splashes of red and yellow inject a sense of chaos into the spatial rhythm. The artist’s use of atmospheric perspective creates a convincing illusion of depth, drawing the viewer inexorably into the heart of the inferno. When enlarged to 57×44 inches, the painting’s visual mechanics are transformed: the chromatic structure takes on a heightened sense of intensity, with the dark