Deel van een afscheidingswand voor het altaar in de Kathedraal Sainte-Cécile te Albi c. 1850

Pierre Joseph Hubert Cuypers made this design for part of a screen for the altar of the Sainte-Cécile cathedral in Albi. Cuypers was a towering figure in the Gothic Revival movement in the Netherlands. This architectural movement used earlier, medieval styles, to produce new buildings that would legitimize existing social hierarchies. This drawing is an interesting artifact because it shows us the intellectual labor of the artistic process. Cuypers's highly detailed, neo-Gothic design would not have been out of place in a medieval cathedral. The screen wall divides the space for the clergy from that of the laity, reflecting existing ideas about social rank and authority. Drawings like this are held in the archives of institutions like the Rijksmuseum. Art historians use them to understand the social and institutional context of art.