Musée des beaux-arts de Tours / Museum of Fine Arts of Tours (France) - Art Museums on Waymarking.com

The Musée des beaux-arts de Tours (Museum of Fine Arts of Tours) is located in the former Archbishop's Palace, near the cathedral St. Gatien, where it has been since 1910. Museum displays rich and varied collections, including that of painting which is one of the first in France both in quality and the diversity of the works presented.

The core of the former Archbishop's Palace, built in 1767, is a monumental Classicist structure with pediment and attic. This simple piece of Classist architecture retains traces of buildings that have followed from antiquity until the 18th century - e.g. Gallo-Roman wall and tower (4th century) or ruins of the church of Ss. Gervais ad Protais (4-12th centuries)... On the eve of the French Revolution, the entrance courtyard was enclosed by a semicircle preceded by a monumental gate forming a triumphal arch, while the old Salle des Etats was transformed into a chapel with ancient colonnade.

After 1789, the palace became theater, Central School, Library and deposits of confiscated artworks Under the Empire and throughout the 19th century, the buildings were again assigned to the Archdiocese of Tours. The city became the owner of the palace nd Museum was subsequently estabilished here in 1910.

The museum has over 12 000 works but only 1 000 are displayed. On the ground floor, the museum has a room especially dedicated to Tours art of the 14th and 16th centuries. The museum was classified as a monument historique on 27 June 1983.

The museum has a large and fairly homogeneous collection of paintings, which includes several masterpieces such as two paintings by Andrea Mantegna, from the predella of the San Zeno Altarpiece:

• Collection of Italian Primitives shows works by Mantegna, Antonio Vivarini, Giovanni di Paolo, Lippo d'Andrea and Lorenzo Veneziano. Italian painting of the following centuries is represented by works of Giovanni Battista Moroni, Mattia Preti, Sebastiano Conca, Francesco Cairo and Giuseppe Bazzani.
• The French painting until the nineteenth is displayed by artists such as Claude Vignon, Philippe de Champaigne, Jacques Blanchard, Noël Coypel, Eustache Le Sueur, Jean Jouvenet, Charles de La Fosse, Hyacinthe Rigaud, Nicolas de Largillière, Pierre Subleyras, François Lemoyne, Jean-Marc Nattier, François Boucher, Carle Van Loo, Nicolas Lancret, Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, Joseph Vernet, Hubert Robert, Ingres, Théodore Chassériau, Eugène Delacroix, Edgar Degas and Claude Monet.
• The collection of Flemish and Dutch painting presents works by artists such as Rubens (Virgin and Child), Rembrandt, Frans II Francken, Gerard ter Borch, Bartholomeus van der Helst, David Teniers the Younger.
• Modern painting is represented with artworks by Maurice Denis or Maria Elena Vieira da Silva.
• There are sculptures by Jean-Antoine Houdon, Auguste Rodin, Antoine Bourdelle, Alberto Giacometti and Olivier Debré.

[excerpted and adapted from Wikipedia]

Name: Musée des beaux-arts de Tours Location: Musée des Beaux-Arts 18 Place François Sicard 37000 Tours France Phone Number: 02 47 05 68 73 Web Site: [Web Link] Agency/Ownership: Public Hours of operation: 9:00 - 12:45 / 14:00 - 18:00 daily except Tuesday. Admission Fee: 6 Gift Shop: yes Cafe/Restaurant: no

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