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Charles Sterling, a Hunter in the Medieval Night
Louvre Interviews series
These films are designed as encounters—with people, ideas, methods. […] They use the means of cinema—its ability to evoke the past, and often even the invisible—to bring the viewer face to face with the art historian. (Michel Laclotte, former Director of the Musée du Louvre.)
Director(s): Richard Copans
Genre
Documentary
Copyright
1990
Length
45 minutes
Producer(s)
Les Films d’Ici ; Musée du Louvre
Co-producer(s)
La Sept/Arte
Charles Sterling (1901–1991) was a great specialist in medieval painting who recovered many medieval works from oblivion, and sometimes from anonymity. Together with Nicole Reynaud, he identified Jean Hey as the master of Moulins, and the famous Pietà of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon (Louvre) as a work by Enguerrand Quarton… In this film, made toward the end of his life and based on interviews with Michel Laclotte (the then Director of the Louvre), Charles Sterling speaks about the work of attribution—a highly specific skill which requires as much flair as erudition. He also describes some of the highlights in his long career as an art historian in France and the United States.