In its desire to erase all traces of feudalism, the French Revolution systematically and seriously damaged the decor of the cathedral of Notre Dame of Paris. In 1793, the twenty eight statues of the kings of Judah on the main facade were taken down and then sold to a builder as scrap material. Considered as lost, they were reconstructed in their original positions by Viollet-le-Duc’s team in the middle of the 19th century. But in 1977, during the construction of Rue de la Chaussee-d’Antin, twenty one kings’ heads – and more than one hundred fragments of statues- luckily resurfaced. The heads had been bought in 1796, then buried with respect. It was one of the most important archeological discoveries of the last few hundred years, an important addition to our knowledge of Parisian sculpture of the first half of the 13th century.

The corbelled gallery of kings, which overhangs the level of the three portals of the western facade, was sculpted around 1225-1230. It is the oldest example of horizontal representation of the kings of Judah, ancestors of Christ through the Virgin whose statue overlooks the gallery. This monumental biblical genealogy was repeated in the 13th century on the facades of the cathedrals of Chartres, Amiens and Reims.

The 3.50m high statues were positioned under trilobed arches with architectural decorations. Although damaged by their fall, the heads themselves, which are of a tremendous size (60m to 70m high), have kept traces of polychromy (pink on the cheeks, red on the lips, yellow ochre enhanced with red or blue grey on the hair and the beard, black on the eyebrows, black or green on the pupils). Certain details appear to have been carefully executed, such as the gold plate decor on the crowns, the curls of the hair and of the beards, and the the slightly open mouths.