MUSÉE DES BEAUX-ARTS DE DIJON

Dijon's Musée des Beaux-Arts is located in the city center, in the former ducal palace. It is one of the oldest museums in France. Founded in 1787, its initial ambition was to exhibit works of art for drawing school students to use as models. Over the course of its long history, the museum has undergone a number of changes, most recently undergoing a complete overhaul. The Mayor of Dijon, Culture Minister Franck Riester, and the President of the Regional Council, Marie-Guite Dufay, cut the ribbon on May 17, 2019, bringing a fifteen-year project to a close. François Hollande, Laurent Fabius and Frédéric Mitterrand were also present. A larger exhibition area is now available to the public, enabling the presentation of 1,500 works. The permanent exhibition has been completely redesigned. Chronological and thematic, it allows visitors to stroll through fifty rooms retracing eight periods of history from Antiquity to the ^20th century, with paintings, sculptures, objets d'art, furniture and more all in dialogue with each other. In addition, wherever possible, the epochs of the collections coincide with those of the buildings in which they are displayed. New tools have been added to assist visitors, such as room texts, labels, multimedia tables and Nomade (a multimedia guide provided by the museum). The building is now accessible to all. The renovation work took 15 years to complete, and was carried out by the City of Paris, and designed and implemented by the architectural tandem of Yves Lion (project manager) and Éric Pallot, chief architect of historic monuments. An agreement has also been signed with the Musée du Louvre, paving the way for future collaborations. The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon's collections are extremely rich. A total of 130,000 works are conserved, from Antiquity to the contemporary period. In terms of both quality and quantity, the medieval collections are the most important. Among the museum's treasures are the tombs of the Dukes of Burgundy. These are displayed in the main hall of the palace and are among the most impressive funerary monuments of the late Middle Ages. The tombs of Philip the Bold, John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria come from the Chartreuse de Champmol, a former monastery of the Carthusian order in Dijon. Exceptionally restored after the French Revolution, they were installed in the Grand Hall of the Ducal Palace in 1827. They are one of Dijon's must-sees. Impressive and majestic, the architecture of these tombs is marked by the statues of alabaster mourners that support them. Finely sculpted, these forty-one religious and secular figures illustrate every stage of mourning. While the legacy of the Dukes of Burgundy is an important part of the medieval exhibition, the importance of other works, such as those by Italians Taddeo Gaddi and Pietro Lorenzetti, or Flemish artists Le Maître de Flémalle and Albrecht Bouts, should not be underestimated. The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon also houses an important Egyptian collection of almost 1,000 pieces, of which around 100 are on display. These works come mainly from bequests made by Dijon archaeologist Albert Gayet, and include numerous examples of ancient Egyptian funerary rituals, such as the Ankfef sarcophagus and funerary masks. From one room to the next, the exhibition moves on to masterpieces of European painting, from the Renaissance to the ^19th century. The Italian Renaissance is particularly well represented at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, with paintings by Giorgio Vasari, Titian and Veronese. ^{Seventeenth-century} collections include works by Guido Reni and Pierre-Paul Rubens. The originality of the ^18th-century collections lies in the productions of the Dijon School of Drawing. Particularly active during this period, it was the only art school outside Paris to organize its own "Prix de Rome". This is followed by the ^19th-century collections, featuring works by renowned artists such as Rodin, Delacroix, Manet and Pissarro. The spaces reserved for the ^20th century are dedicated to Burgundian sculpture - François Pompon and Henri Bouchard - and to the major donations made by Kathleen and Pierre Granville. The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon is also open to contemporary production, organizing various exhibitions and artist residencies, including works by Yan Pei Ming. In addition to these chronologically arranged collections, the museum also boasts a graphic arts cabinet containing 12,500 drawings and 60,000 prints, produced from the late Middle Ages to the present day. In addition, following the renovation of the museum, part of the non-European collections is now on display. These include African ivories, Japanese porcelain and Indian sculptures. The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, with its extensive collection and recent restructuring, is a must-see in the city.