Musée Tessé Steph GB
Tessé museum :
I)building :
It’s an old episcopal palace from the middle of the 19th ,transformed in museum in 1927 to shelter the fine arts collections.(you can see “museum” written on the main wall)
Architecture:
- Left part: Maybe the old chapel from the palace time because of the windows (stained-glass window/ twin windows + pillar/ oculus)
- Neo-classical style from 19th: - symmetry
-horizontally: levels of floor/ semi-circular arch of the pediment of the dormer-windows/attic/slate
-vertically: 3 bay(symmetry of 2 of them/ and in the middle importance of the portal with 3 round arch + it’s an overhanging bay/ chimney)
- no superficial ornament: no exposed stones
So shelter fine arts collections of Tessé family, who where the owner of this land and who had a dwelling here destroyed under the French revolution (famous because of Marshal Tessé which is the highest military grade in army)/ and other collection from clergy and private collections impound at that time.
II) North schools painting:
2 rooms: one with mostly Dutch painters/ one with mostly Flemish painters from 17th
Subject:
- Room N°7:portrait, still life, landscapes, music, genre work
- Room N°8: genre work: such as still life, market, cabaret, musicians/ this kind of painting put always a lot of details which are realistic(because not fantastic or fantasist) in relation with the painting but not necessary/ it can also be imagined sometimes or romanticized(example: musicians concert: perfect harmony between the characters)
Few religious subjects because we are after the Reformation (North: protestants/ South countries: Catholics) and change of mind/ so mostly private owner such as Tessé family
Room N°7: Willem Kalf “still life”, Dutch and famous for his still life paintings
- Foreground: Glassware, lemon peel, table, drapery( really important in this king of painting specially the drapery and glassware cause the Dutch were particularly good for that)
- Background: “empty”: no objects, can be everywhere
- Colors: dark/cool in opposition with French paintings from 17th / colors are only on the important objects/ light and shade
III) 19th century:
12 paintings, mostly by French painters (J.B Camille Corot/ Constant Troyon)
Subjects: everyday life, working class, ploughman, countryman, farmer, rural scenes, landscapes, inside of houses, domestic setting…
Realism movement: (Around 1830)first industrial revolution created a new class of worker: lower/working class which give them inspiration, they didn’t want anymore elegance subjects but authenticity/verity, offer an image access to everybody/ with no superficial details
Example: “The wheatsheaf linkers” by Julien Dupré
- Main subject are the characters/ in the middle plan/ we can see their hard work
- Background: empty/ landscapes without any detail we don’t know where we are
- Realistic/ no invention/ as a photo
- Colors: light effect/ but no lively colors only “real colors” (in opposition with baroque style)/ authenticity
Example: “Antic bath ruins” by Jean Baptiste Berlot
- Different from the other painting because of the subject
- Context: discovery of Pompeii and rediscovery of Antiquity/ taste of antiquity which spreads across all the arts (architecture, painting)
- Ideal ethic and esthetic
- Clear lines / order from architecture/ symmetry /elegance/ sober
IV) Egyptian tombs:
a)Nefertari/Nofretari tomb:
- found in the Queen Valley
- queen that Ramesses II prefers
- reconstitution only of the paintings/walls
- technique: paste photo full size on an aluminum plate directly on the flat wall/ but build this area in the museum: the composition and the size of each room
The aim of an tomb is to welcome the dead person in the “dead” world and help her to progress in the underground levels where she will face to several test and at the end access to Osiris kingdom to reborn/after life.
Composition: 2 parts:
- 3 rooms: waiting room/vestibule/ room where she meets gods
- 2 rooms: mediate room to go down/ mortuary room
Waiting room: the entrance of Nerfertari in the first step of the dead world
Entrance at the east part of the tomb/ cause the sun rise/ importance of the sun in their religion (Râ/Ré)
Right wall: N.(=nerfertari) adores Osiris( god of dead world) an Anubis (with jackal head/ assist Osiris in his work/ weight soul / god of embalmers)
Cararcteristics of Egiptian paintings:
- Symmetry
- Flat silhouette
- Black outline
- “Frontal”: for the body and eyes but never the face
- No perspective: first plan: foreground/ last plan: background
- Size of characters depends (Gods>men>women)
- Colors: women (skin yellow or light brown) not here: pink cause she is special
Men (skin red or dark brown) not here cause they are gods (green face= dead)
- Clothes: white: joy, elegant
Left part: she plays a game called “sonet” between chess and goose game
She plays against an unknown player/ play her soul (represented by the bird with human face)
South wall: text from the book of the dead or “Forth by Day” or spell of coming
Read from left to right/ top to bottom
West wall/lintel: Horus(son of Osiris) + his 4 sons which represent the ‘
4 canopies jars from the mummification (jackal:stomac/ baboon: lung/ falcon: intestine/ human: liver)
Midiate room/go down: offering from N. (clothes/food)
Mortuary room: entrance in Osiris world
- Sarcophagus in the middle/ in the gap
- Above/ceiling: stars: universe/ celestial sphere or vault
- 4 pillars and on each pillar is drawing a pillar call “djed pillar” symbol of stability
- Pillar support universe/ N. who is now in the dead world can access to the universe a bit like a spirit/ she is free
b) Sennefer tomb:
Technique different: wall with relief
Only the mortuary room
Sennefer: mayor of Thèbes
Lexique:
Fine art museum: musée des Beaux-arts
Marshal: Maréchal
Exposed stone: pierres apparentes
Liver: foie
Lung: poumon
Canopies jar: vases canopes
Jackal: chacal
Mummification: momification
Genre work: peinture ou scènes de genre
Ploughtman: laboureur
Still life: nature morte
Glassware: verrerie