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Sábado 17 mayo, 19:00
Maiatza 2025
Larunbata 17
19:00 - 23:29
This event includes accessibility accommodations
Motor impairment

Musée des Beaux-Arts

18 place François Sicard 37000 Tours
  • Indre-et-Loire
  • Centre-Val de Loire

Rebirth of a work. The Virgin and Child by Michel Colombe

The Musée des Beaux-Arts is organizing an exhibition-dossier around an exceptional work of the Tourangelle production of the early sixteenth century: the Virgin of the Map by Michel Colombe. This scul
Sábado 17 mayo, 19:00
This event includes accessibility accommodations
Motor impairment
©2019 Musée du Louvre / Hervé Lewandowski

The Musée des Beaux-Arts is organizing an exhibition-dossier around an exceptional work of the production of Touraine from the early sixteenth century: the Virgin of the Map of Michel Colombe. This sculpture, which has long been kept in a private collection, was only seen once by the general public at the exhibition France 1500 (Paris, Grand-Palais, 2010-2011). In 2022, the Louvre acquired Virgin of the Map and restored it. The loan of the statue is an opportunity to present for the first time this unique work in its creative context.
The command of this Virgin with the Child was very likely passed by Jacques de Beaune to Michel Colombe for the chapel of the castle of the Card (present-day commune of Ballan-Miré). Mayor of Tours in 1498-1499, governor and bailiff of Touraine in 1516, the master of silverware quickly became an important figure at court. Great financier of the kingdom, he supported in particular the war effort in Italy, and had the confidence of Queen Anne of Brittany then of Francis I’s mother, Louise of Savoy, before being disgraced and hanged in 1527. His social success and ambition are reflected in particular in his properties and artistic commissions given to contemporary artists (castle, mansion, fountain, tapestries, stained glass windows, sculptures...), which will be discussed in the exhibition.
Few works have survived from Michel Colombe, the most famous sculptor in Tours during these years, who is notably the author of the commemorative medal of the entry of Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne to Tours in 1500, and to whom the Queen has entrusted the realization of the tombs of her parents (Nantes) and her children (Tours). The Virgin of the Map It has always been attributed to its style; it is a major work, which stands out in the production of its time, and must be particularly Virgin with the Child painted by Jean Fouquet, for one of the panels in the diptych of Melun.
The exhibition at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours aims to shed light on the unique character of this sculpture by placing it in the context of the artistic commissions of Jacques de Beaune, comparing it with statues of the Virgin and Child from the Loire Valley, and retracing its more recent material history thanks to the discoveries revealed during the investigation carried out by C2RMF on the occasion of its restoration.

Types of events
Exhibition
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Conditions for participation
Free entrance
Type de public
Anyone

About the location

Musée des Beaux-Arts
18 place François Sicard 37000 Tours
  • Indre-et-Loire
  • Centre-Val de Loire
The former palace of the Archbishops of Tours, now the Museum of Fine Arts, is one of the major sites of the Loire Valley. This architectural ensemble consists of buildings that have succeeded each other from antiquity until the 18th century: rampart and Gallo-Roman tower (4th century), remains of the church of Saint Gervais – Saint Protais (4th–12th centuries), rooms of the Estates General (12th–18th centuries).On the eve of the Revolution, the entrance courtyard is closed by a hemicycle preceded by a monumental door forming a triumphal arch, while the former General Hall is transformed into a chapel with ancient colonnade. The oldest collection consists of works seized in 1794 in the churches and convents of Tours and the surrounding area, in particular in the abbeys of Marmoutier, La Riche and Bourgueil, as well as in the castles of Chanteloup and Richelieu. Officially created in 1801, the museum benefits from the sending by the Central Museum, the future Louvre Museum, of thirty pa
Tags
Castle, palace, manor house, Museum of Arts, Contemporary Arts, Decorative Arts, Musée de France