Nov 13 (continued)
We intended to skip Vienne's Musée des Beaux Arts, but after I so enjoyed the lapidary museum housed in Saint Pierre, we decided to make a quick visit. We knew we wouldn't do it justice--we had to get on the road--but I wanted to see it for myself.
Our original decision to skip was influenced by how the Musée des Beaux Arts was promoted by the worthies of Vienne: not at all. My map indicated that it was housed in the building pictured in the first photo, but the building itself had no signs advertising that, yes, this was the right place. In fact, the building looked abandoned. It was so devoid of signage and activity that I assumed the collections had been moved recently to some different location (something we have encountered before in France.)
But no...
Earlier in the day, before the musée opened, we went inside to scout around. We found a plain sign for the Musée des Beaux Arts--probably from 1895--on a door at the top of a dusty staircase. It didn't seem promising. But, after Saint Pierre, off we went to see what we would find there.
So what did we find?
The musée consists of a small collection of artifacts neatly arranged in three rooms, still in their 1895 display cases. The collection quickly chronicled the history of Vienne: pre-history, Gaul, Roman, a buried treasure trove of silver objects from the Gallo-Roman period, medieval tiles, a lovely collection of 18th century French ceramics...in the last room, we found mediocre art arranged in the 19th century manner. We were, of course, the only people there.
Nonetheless, it was worth the visit, brief though it was. The collection was a bit haphazard, but well-documented, and it included some pieces of genuine local interest. Had I had more time, I would have spent it there quite happily.
But we had to get on the road to reach our next destination: Valence and Maison Pic.
Image 1 & 2: The building housing the Musée des Beaux-arts et Archéologie today and 150 years ago. Originally build in 1823 as a grain market, it was converted to a covered market in the 1870s, and the museum and a library were installed on the upper floor. Later, the market was gone, and the library was moved to the ground floor. The museum was laid out as we now see it in 1895. The library moved into a new building in 2012; this--plus the neglected building--makes me suspect that something is also in the works for the Musée des Beaux-arts et Archéologie.
A couple things strike me about this chronology. First, the repurposing of buildings over time always interests me. Second, the museum was built from private collections donated to the city; the late 19th century was marked by a sense of civic pride (also reflected in nationalism) and an emerging consciousness of history. In addition, the prosperity of the Belle Epoque made these collections possible.
Image 3: The impressive bronze statue thought to be of Caius Julius Pacatianus, a Viennois noble who governed several provinces under the Roman emperor, Septimius Severus, c200 AD. Few ancient bronze statues survived the economic pressure to melt them down; Bronze is just too valuable. This one was found in 220 pieces in 1874 in a garden in Vienna, buried two meters deep. Mme Peletin, the owner of the garden, gave the fragments to the museum, and eighty years later, thanks to the efforts of the museum's director, the fragments were handed over to archeologists in Nancy to reassemble. As you can imagine, putting the pieces together presented a tough puzzle--the head was too small, the whole thing weighed over 200 kilo, and the fragments gave no indication of the size of the figure, but finally, 895 hours later and glued together with 50 kilos of resin and melted glass, the statue returned to take pride of place in the collection of Vienne's Musée des Beaux-arts et Archéologie.
Image 4: The Fine Arts room, still laid out as it was when installed in 1895
Image 5: An interesting artistic imaging of Roman Vienne by artist and amateur archeologist Etienne Rey, done around 1860.
Image 6: The tusk of a wooly Mammoth found near Vienne
Image 7: the fragments of the bronze statue before restoration (!)