Time to see the colour: Linea Light, Emmanuel Clair and Les Arts Decoratifs

With the collaboration of lighting designer Emmanuel Clair, we have had the pleasure of participating in the lighting system restoration of the museum Les Arts Decoratifs (Museum of Decorative Arts) in Paris, medieval and Renaissance wing. A challenge made particularly interesting by the type of works present and by a very specific goal: to increase the perception of colour in works of art.

The previous lighting system dates back to the 1970s and mainly comprised halogen sources Our intervention was based on replacing obsolete lamp bodies with new LED solutions, achieving a significant energy-saving benefit. Only in the Galerie des Retables, were 29 18W spotlights used versus the previous 60 100W spotlights.

All installed products are equipped with special ultra HD diodes, developed in partnership with Cree. These diodes are characterised by a high colour performance index, which is of crucial importance for ensuring the full colour range.

A visible and significant change, as can be seen in a quick comparison between the images of some works before and after our intervention.

In addition to enhancing the colours of some works, the lighting also had a spiritual implication. It suffices to look at “The Virgin and Child” polyptych in the Galerie des Retables: here, the light transforms into an aura that emphasises the golden finish, highlights the small objects in the hands of the characters and the weave of their clothes, aspects that, with the previous lighting, went unnoticed.

It is a lighting system that does not have the sole purpose of lighting the up a work of art, enabling visitors to look at it, but has an added value. The lighting becomes a spiritual vehicle and acts as a mediator for visitors, returning the original meaning to a work of art, namely, that which the artist had in mind for the piece.

Correct colour enhancement was, therefore, the heart of this project, which we were able to discuss during the event TIME TO SEE THE COLOUR, held in the evening of 3 November.

Our guests had the opportunities to go on an exclusive tour of the eight halls of the museum containing paintings, tapestries, porcelains and various types of furnishings, discovering in parallel with the history of the works and details of the products and details of the products used to best illuminate each of these.

After the visit, we asked some of our guests to talk about their idea of light and colour and how these two important elements can play a role in perceiving works of art. Here were their answers: