A Collection of the Musées de France - Italian Drawings from the Renaissance and the Baroque Period

The 112 Italian drawings from the Renaissance and early Baroque periods featured in this exhibition are part of a collection of 130 sheets acquired in 2004 by the French government thanks to the patronage of the Carrefour Group. They come from a prominent Parisian collector who had assembled them over a period of some thirty years on the French and international art markets. This exceptional collection offers a magnificently evocative overview of 16th- and 17th-century Italian art and its various centers: Venice and the Venetian hinterland, Tuscany with Florence and Siena, Emilia with Bologna, Ferrara, Reggio Emilia, Parma, and its influence in France on the Fontainebleau School; Northern Italy, including Milan, Cremona, and Genoa; and finally Rome.

It is a veritable “drawing collection,” guided by impeccable taste and brimming with masterpieces and rarities that would be the pride of any major museum. Indeed, it features works by the greatest masters, as well as pieces by lesser-known artists whose works—now virtually impossible to find—appear in only a handful of collections worldwide. Twenty-five of these drawings are destined for the Louvre, while the remaining 105 are headed for five major French museums, all of which house significant collections of old drawings: the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille, the Museums of Fine Arts in Marseille, Orléans, and Rennes, and the Museums of the City of Toulouse. Thus, this acquisition serves as a particularly exemplary illustration of the efforts currently being undertaken by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication to enrich public collections throughout France.

Purchased for 11.33 million euros, this collection—acquired thanks to the sponsorship of the Carrefour Group—benefited from new tax provisions that offer significant incentives to companies that help preserve two categories of cultural property in France: “national treasures”—that is, assets that have been preserved in France for at least 50 years, are of major significance to the national heritage, and are subject to a temporary ban on removal from the country—and “works of heritage interest,” that is, items available on the market in France or abroad that are recognized as being of major importance to French cultural heritage. This exhibition, held under the patronage of Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, Minister of Culture and Communication, was organized by the French Academy in Rome and the French Museums Directorate in collaboration with the Carrefour Group. It was implemented by the Réunion des Musées Nationaux and received support from Air France and Axa Art.