Alain Erlande-Brandenburg, an art historian born in 1937, left the École des chartes in 1964 and devoted his life to the Middle Ages: four hundred articles, some twenty books. As a curator at the Musée de Cluny, in 1977 he obtained that the museum take in the heads of the kings struck off the portal of Notre-Dame in 1793 and found again in the rue de la Chaussée-d'Antin after almost two centuries; he opened a room for them in 1982. Deputy to the director of the Musées de France, then director of the Archives de France, he died in 2020.
The story
In April 1977, stone heads were found in the rue de la Chaussée-d'Antin in Paris, in a bank courtyard. They were the heads of the kings from the portal of Notre-Dame, struck off in 1793 and lost for nearly two centuries. It was he who brought them into the Musée de Cluny, against the advice of his elders, and who opened a room for them in 1982. He was a curator there.
Born at Luxeuil-les-Bains on 2 August 1937 under the name Alain Brandenburg, he left the École des chartes an archivist-palaeographer in 1964. His thesis dealt with the funerals and tombs of the kings of France down to the end of the thirteenth century; it appeared in 1975 under a title that is a phrase in itself: Le roi est mort. A curator at the Musée de Cluny from 1967, and later its director, he would sign more than four hundred articles and some twenty books, almost all on the Middle Ages.
That same year, 1977, it was he who created the Musée national de la Renaissance at Écouen, inaugurated on 25 October — he would run it from 1999 to 2005. Deputy to the director of the Musées de France from 1987 to 1991, director of the Archives de France from 1994 to 1998, president of the Société française d'archéologie from 1985 to 1994, officer of the Legion of Honour.
He died in Paris on 6 June 2020. The plaque in Division 86 carries two lines. His work, for its part, can still be seen at Cluny — in a room where people look at the faces of kings he gave back their name.
The grave
A simple plaque: “Alain ERLANDE-BRANDENBURG, 1937-2020”. Nothing of the École des chartes, nothing of the Musée de Cluny, nothing of the heads of the kings of Notre-Dame that he authenticated in 1977 and that people go to see today in the museum where he was curator. His civil name was Alain Brandenburg.
On site, do not miss
A plaque of two lines: “Alain ERLANDE-BRANDENBURG, 1937-2020”. His civil name was Alain Brandenburg.
Visitors' questions
Where is Alain Erlande-Brandenburg's grave?
In Division 86, chemin Casariera, third row, beneath a simple plaque: “Alain ERLANDE-BRANDENBURG, 1937-2020”. The Division is also home to Guillaume Apollinaire, the theatre director Didier Bezace and the lion-tamer Pezon.
Guillaume ApollinaireWhat did he do with the heads from Notre-Dame?
He saved them for Cluny. In April 1977 the stone heads of the kings from the portal, struck off in 1793, were found again in the rue de la Chaussée-d'Antin; against the advice of his elders he obtained that they enter the museum, and opened a room for them in 1982.
Didier BezaceWhich museums did he run?
He was a curator at the Musée de Cluny from 1967, then its director; it was he who created the National Renaissance Museum at Écouen, inaugurated on 25 October 1977, and who would run it from 1999 to 2005. Deputy to the director of the Musées de France from 1987 to 1991, director of the Archives de France from 1994 to 1998, he chaired the Société française d'archéologie from 1985 to 1994.
Nicolas KerWhat is “Le roi est mort”?
His thesis, published in 1975: a study of the funerals and tombs of the kings of France down to the end of the thirteenth century. The title stuck, and so did the book — he signed more than four hundred articles and some twenty books, almost all of them on the Middle Ages.
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