Since March 15, 2019, the people of Troyes can once again bump into each other at the Museum of Fine Arts as they admire 300 works that contribute to the notoriety and the pride of the city. Among them, a jewel of the sixteenth century: a copy of Mona Lisa beckons to visitors.
No need to go to Paris to queue in front of the pyramid to admire the most beautiful of beautiful, Mona Lisa, the most popular work of the Louvre with its 20,000 visitors per day. Of course, this is not the original Florentine Leonardo da Vinci, but this Trojan copy is a local beauty and the centerpiece of the collections this museum spent three years putting into place.
The history of the first Trojan museum
Six centuries of French painting starting in the 17th and 18th century in a venue which has undergone its third moult. Created at the end of the French Revolution, it closed for ten years during the Second World War and then redeployed its collections evacuated in 1949 until the construction of a mezzanine in the 1980s. Today, the galleries are completely redesigned: 646 square meters (6953 sq. ft.) and a budget of 680,000 euros for a modernized layout. Two large spaces and the mezzanine make up the whole of the galleries.
Bringing painting to light
The LED lights refresh the colors and closely resemble the original light of the painter at work. Museography emphasizes clarity to enhance the works presented at eye level. The visit now follows a chronothematic route with alternating small cabinets and large galleries, miniatures and great achievements representing distinctive approaches. The major works are highlighted. Two large spaces and the mezzanine built in the 80s constitute the galleries where masterpieces and precious memories of the history of the Aube are exhibited.
A prestigious collection from the Middle Ages to the 19th century
70 restored works, 30 unpublished works, 250 paintings exhibited from among 1500 works in the collections, constantly enriched by donations since the French Revolution. From Giotto to Corot, the spectator goes through six centuries of the history of painting by encountering major and rare masterpieces: Giotto, Vasari, Rubens, Jordaens, Van Dyck, Le Brun, Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard, Greuze to Doré and Camille Corot with his Christ in the Garden of Olives freshly restored. Worship of the saints, historical paintings, portraits (painting and sculpture), mythology, religious painting, landscapes with placards and educational room sheets serving as guides accessible to all.
And the public will be dumbfounded by the smile of Mona Lisa whose reappearance is most timely given that this year the great Leonard will be celebrated all over the world. A copy to be sure, but bearing the same impenetrable smile that always troubles. The 500th anniversary of the death of the Renaissance genius is also celebrated at the Troyes Museum of Fine Arts.
Photo: The Mona Lisa. Anonymous, France, 16th century. Copy in the style of Leonard de Vinci Inv. 33.4.4
Troyes, Museum of Fine Arts. Photo Carole Bell, City of Troyes.
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