Created in 1846 by the Archaeological Society of Finistère, Brittany county museum of Quimper is housed in the former palace of the Bishops of Cornwall, near the Saint-Corentin cathedral . It presents the archeology and the arts (sculpture, costumes, furniture, pottery, stained glass, painting, etc. ..) of the department of Finistère .

It occupies the old palace of the Bishops of Cornwall , the building constructed XVI e the XIX th centuries next to the cathedral. The oldest part is the Tour de Rohan , built in 1507 for the Bishop Claude de Rohan, in the Renaissance style of Louis XII. It contains a spiral staircase that ends with a carved wooden ceiling in the shape of palm. The decoration of the periphery of this couvrement is entirely carved oak: foliage, leaves and real or imaginary animals (lion, pig, fox, etc..) And enigmatic characters (wild man, acrobat, etc.)..

Restored between 1990 and 2001, the rooms are ordered according to a distribution both chronologically and thematically divided into four sections: Archaeology and Ancient Arts (from prehistory to the eighteenth century), the costumes and performances by artists (nineteenth and twentieth centuries) wood carving and furniture (fifteenth-century) pottery Quimper (XVIII-XX centuries). It should be noted that the clarifications below 2 are subject to change and updating the presentations of collections that can be changed for reasons of conservation, new acquisitions 3 , loans, etc..

 Collections

The tour of the permanent collection begins with an evocation of Prehistory and Early History through some major pieces such as twist (belt) Gold Irvine (Bronze Age) and gold necklace Tréglonou ( Iron Age), which are among the most important examples of proto jewelry discovered in France. The following section is organized around the pavement monumental baths a Gallo-Roman villa, is dedicated to the lifestyle of the inhabitants of the Gallo-Roman tribe Osismes, Gauls, whose territory covered about one of the current Finistère: secular and religious monumental sculpture (stele "the four gods, Hercules, Neptune Douarnenez) or domestic protective deities of the hearth, ceramic Gallic and Gallo-Roman toilet accessories, gold coins Osismes , hoard Gallo-Roman, etc..

The following rooms on the ground floor is devoted to the arts of the Middle Ages (Romanesque, twelfth century tombstone of Grallon Kervastar, fourteenth-century bas-relief angels, fifteenth century, etc..), the Renaissance (mausoleum of lying knight Troilus Mondragon, 1550; Holy Trinity with angels musicians, early sixteenth century, etc..) and classical and baroque periods (whole sculpture church mausoleum Yves Le Parc by Bervet sculptor Roland Doré, seventeenth century, etc.).. Two large windows of the sixteenth century reflect the dual Italian influence (stained glass window in St. Exupère Dinéault) and German (the canopy Crucifixion Langolen) on the art of stained glass in the "Breton Renaissance" of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Showcase is dedicated to hoard Saint-Pol de Léon, all gold coins of the fourteenth century brought with terracotta piggy banks in which it has reached us. The art of jewelry pieces is represented by the fifteenth (book reliquary), sixteenth (Quimper cup and silver vermeil), seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (cuts wedding, etc.)..

At the second level , the four rooms of the former after the bishop ( XVIII th century) retained their paneling and original wood floors. They are dedicated to costumes Finistère in XIX th and XX th centuries.Thirty models present a selection of fashions (Bigouden, country of Quimper, Fouesnant, Douarnenez, etc..) And ornamentation (embroidery, lace, jewels ...). This section also contains a collection of works ofpainters and sculptors , observers costumes and traditions of Finistère in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (sculptures by René Quillivic, Armel Beaufils-Eloi-Robert, Louis-Henri Nicot, François Caujan, etc. .; paintings by Louis Caradec Darjou Alfred, Alfred Delobbe, Lucien Simon, Pierre de Belay, Henri Guinier, Bigoudène by Bernard Buffet, etc.)..

Two other rooms, one of which is located in the Tower of Rohan, is decorated with frescoes of the XVIII th century trace the evolution of furniture and wood carving from the XV th to XX th centuries  : sculptures facades medieval houses, Renaissance table, chests and chests fronts, linen press, wedding cabinets, dresser, bed-confined, etc.. The section also includes examples of furniture "modern Breton" developed in the interwar by artists such as Joan Malivel, René-Yves Creston (furniture Breton flag of the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts, Paris, 1925) or Paul Fouillen (removable room decor pyrographed, 1935).

At the third level , the section dedicated to the pottery Quimper offers a collection whose constitution began in the mid-nineteenth century and has since never interrupted: tiled luxury eighteenth century pottery and earthenware popular eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, scholars diversity of styles after 1870 (Tables on earthenware by Alfred Beau, rooms decorated by painter Yan 'Dargent, sets "botanical" and invention sets to Brittany characters). A set of window is dedicated to the revival of ceramic art in Quimper during the interwar period, driven, in particular, Mathurin Méheut ( Service de la Mer , 1925; service Galette , Ex- voto , etc..) and René Quillivic ( head bigoudène young , the old fisherman , etc.).. Many creations of René-Yves Creston, Robin and Georges Pierre Abadie-Landel, group membersSeiz-Breur ("Seven Brothers") Emile Just Bachelet, François Bazin, François Caujan, etc.. Sandstone Art Deco Series Odetta (1920-1930), colonial inspired pieces by Emile Monier, etc.. The collection also reflects the renewal of Quimper pottery in the second half of the twentieth century artists' creations workshop Keraluc (Toulhoat Pierre René Quéré, Paul Yvain, Xavier Krebs, Jos Le Corre, etc.).. The stairs leading to the rooms of the ceramic is exposed to a series of bas-reliefs (1952) in which Pierre spoke Toulhoat beliefs and traditions of Brittany. Contemporary art is present in the collection through the works of Guy Trévoux, Jean-Claude and Marjatta Taburet, Enrique Marin and Michel Costiou.

The rooms for earthenware overlook the space where temporary exhibitions are held regularly organized by the museum. Exposures are primarily devoted to the arts of Britain and the representations of the sites and people of the region by artists (painters, engravers, sculptors) between 1850 and 1950.

List of works presented 

The "base Mona Lisa" of the Ministry of Culture presents a selection of works from the museum's collection (painting of the nineteenth century, prior to the twentieth century ceramics, furniture) 4 .

Notes and references

1.       ↑ http://www.museedepartementalbreton.fr/presentation  [ archive ]

2.        These are excerpts from the departmental museum guide Breton Quimper Museum, 2007.

3.        Since 1997, annual acquisitions Breton County Museum are being presented in a special article in the Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Finistère .

4.       ↑ http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/joconde_fr  [ archive ]

Source: Wikipedia
Contributed by Anonymous
You are redirected to this page because your browser does not accept cookies and/or does not support Javascript. Please check your browser settings and try again.