The Calvet Museum (, ) is the main museum in Avignon. Since the 1980s the collection has been split between two buildings, with the fine arts housed in an 18th-century hôtel particulier and a separate Lapidary Museum in the former chapel of the city's Jesuit college on rue de la République. It is one of the museums run by the Fondation Calvet.
Its collections also include goldwork, faience, porcelain, tapestries, ironwork and other examples of the decorative arts, along with archaeology and Asian, Oceanic and African ethnography.
History The hôtel de Villeneuve-Martignan The museum is housed in a building on the site of the Livrée de Cambrai, named after its last inhabitant, cardinal Pierre d'Ailly, bishop of Cambrai. In 1719, it was sold to François-René de Villeneuve, marquis d'Arzeliers and lord of Martignan, in the Principality of Orange.Joseph Girard, op cit, .
In 1734, de Villeneuve's son Jacques-Ignace de Villeneuve decided to extend the building to designs by , but later changed his mind and razed the whole building in 1741, replacing it with a completely new one to designs by Jean-Baptiste Franque.Joseph Girard, op cit, . Work on this new construction was only completed in 1749,Joseph Girard, op cit, . which was then bought in 1802 by the businessman Deleutre, who then rented it to the city authorities as a home for Esprit Calvet's collections. The authorities acquired it on 3 March 1833 to turn into a museum.Joseph Girard, op cit, . The hôtel de Villeneuve-Martignan was made a monument historique on 1 October 1963.
Museum A major collector and a physiocrat by training, Esprit Calvet devoted his life to medicine and arts. In 1810 his will left his library, natural history collection and cabinet of antiquities to his birthplace of Avignon,Known as the bibliothèque Calvet, then the Museum Calvet, now the Fondation Calvet (Séance du 8 avril 1826 and arrêt du Conseil d'État du 19 mai 1893 on the site of the fondation-calvet.org). along with the necessary funds to make them accessible as an independent institution. Napoleon I issued a decree on 9 April 1811 from the palais des Tuileries allowing Avignon's mayor to accept the legacy for and in the name of the city of Avignon. The resulting museum was named after him and housed his collection.
Collections Paintings French 16th and 17th centuries : The Holy Family; The Adoration of the Shepherds; The Resurrection; Lament over the Dead Christ. Nicolas Mignard : Saint Michel Defeating the Rebel Angels; Saint Bruno at Prayer; Vice-Legate Frédéric Sforza; The Virgin Mary Granting the Scapular to Saint Simon Stock; Pietà; Self-Portrait. : Laban Seeking His Idols; The Archangel Gabriel Appearing to Zacharias. Pierre Dupuis : Still Life with Vegetables and Apricots. Pierre Mignard : Portrait of Henri de Forbin Maynier, baron d'Oppède; Alexander Meets the Queen of the Amazons. Pierre II Mignard : Allegory of Spring; Allegory of Summer; Allegory of Autumn; Allegory of Winter; Apollo Flaying Marsyas; Noli me tangere.
18th century Nicolas de Largillierre : Portrait of Pierre Parrocel. Jean Raoux : Young Woman Reading a Letter; Silence, or Woman at a Window Drawing a Curtain. Pierre Parrocel : Resurrection. Étienne Parrocel : St John the Baptist Proclaiming the Messiah; Saint Camille de Lellis Presented to the Holy Trinity. Jean Valade : Marie-Anne de Montboissier-Beaufort-Canillac, marquise de Beaumont; Portrait of Joseph François Xavier de Seytres. Jacques de Lajoue : Seascape, Calm Weather. : Sovereignty; Portrait of Esprit Calvet; The City of Avignon Restored to the Holy See. Joseph Vernet : Entry into a Seaport in Calm Weather; The Italian Gondola; Fresh Morning, Pleasure Party; Sailing Ship Wrecked on the Rocks; A Shepherdess in the Alps; Morning on Land, the Fish in the River; Midday on Land, Gale; Morning at Sea, Fog; Sea, Sunrise, Port with a Temple. Joseph-Marie Vien : Jesus Presented in the Temple Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre : Beheading of St John the Baptist Louis-Michel van Loo : Portrait of Joseph Vernet. Hubert Robert : Spring; The Fontaine de Vaucluse; Landscape with Ruins and a Fountain; Herd in front of the Colisseum and the Arch of Constantine in Rome. Jean-Baptiste Regnault : The Centaur Chiron Educating Achilles. Pierre Peyron : Curius Dentatus Refusing Gifts from the Samnite Ambassadors. Jacques-Louis David : The Death of Joseph Bara. Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun : Portrait of Giuseppina Grassini.
19th century Horace Vernet : Joseph Vernet Tied to a Mast During a Storm, oil on canvas, 1822; Mazepa and the Wolves, oil on canvas, 1826According to a tradition told by Voltaire in his History of Charles XII, Ivan Mazeppa was discovered in adultery and sentenced to be strapped to a savage horse completely naked and borne to the edge of the Ukrainian steppes. Jean-Joseph Lacroix : The Legend of Christ of the Black Penitents. Jean-Antoine Constantin : View of the Fontaine de Vaucluse. François Marius Granet : Jacques de Molay Received into the Templars. Claude Marie Paul Dubufe : Apollo and Cyparissa. Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot : Site in Italy. Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld : Francis I at the Fontaine de Vaucluse. Eugène Devéria : Portrait of Calvet. Auguste-Barthélemy Glaize : Luca Signorelli Preparing to Paint His Son, Killed in a Duel at Cortona. D'après Antoine-Jean Gros : The Battle of Nazareth. Isidore Dagnan : View of Avignon and the pont Saint-Bénézet. : Caravaggio in His Studio. Pierre Révoil : Charles-Quint at the abbaye de Saint-Just. Paul Huet : General view of Avignon and Villeneuve-lès-Avignon from inside the fort Saint-André; View of Avignon from the North Side. Théodore Chassériau : Sleeping Bather. Alfred Sisley : The Church at Moret. Armand Guillaumin : The Pointe de la Baumette. Paul Guigou : Selfportrait, or Man with a Pipe. Pierre Grivolas : Flagellants in the 14th Century; The Market in place Pie. Victor Leydet : Before Mass; Portrait of a Standing Young Man. : The Prodigal Son Guarding Pigs. Clément Brun : Street in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. : Burial of Saint Sebastian, 1827.
20th century Émile Bernard : Portrait of Paul Léautaud. Pierre Bonnard : Winter Day. Chaïm Soutine : The Idiot; Bad Luck; The Stripe; View of a Village, Céret in Roussillon Bernard Buffet : Holy Face. Auguste Chabaud : Big Blue Bathing Woman; Les Arènes. Maurice Denis : Motherhood in White. George Desvallières : Portrait of Madame Emile Desvallières. Albert Gleizes : Motherhood; Riverbank. Alfred Lesbros : Street in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon; Footing. : Portrait of Jules Belleudy in his Office. René Seyssaud : River in Autumn. Ibrahim Shahda : Woman in Black (La Femme en noir). : Portrait of Joseph Rignault Aged Twenty. Louis-Mathieu Verdilhan : View of the Vieux-Port in Marseille. Maurice de Vlaminck : On Zinc. Joe Downing : Painting.
Italian
16th and 17th centuries Filippo Abbiati : The Virgin Mary Appearing to the Bishops at the Council of Ephesus, sketch for a large painting for santa Maria del Carmine church in Milan. Paolo Biancucci : The Virgin Mary Presenting the Rosary to Saint Dominic, with Saints Catherine of Sienna, Antony of Padua and Francis of Assisi Adoring the Christ Child. Vincenzo Campi : Peasants' Meal Angelo Caroselli : Young Man with a Skull, Vanitas. : The Painter's Easel Luca Giordano : The Death of Lucretia. Rutilio Manetti; Saint Jerome Supported by Angels. Giovanni Maria Morandi : Portrait of cardinal Marcello Durazzo. Pietro Negri : Nero and Agrippina. Salvator Rosa : Landscape with Two Figures. Giorgio Vasari : Abraham Meets Melchizedec. Pietro della Vecchia : Christ and the Woman Caught in Adultery.
18th century Faustino Bocchi : Dwarf Playing the Violin. Domenico Brandi : A Deer Pursued by Dogs. : Saint Peter Freed from Prison by an Angel. Giovanni Paolo Panini : The Vow of Marcus Curtius , Belisarius Begging for Alms. Francesco Zuccarelli : Landscape with Peasants.
Spanish Luis de Morales : Ecce Homo.
Northern Europe
Johann Koerbecke : Resurrection, 1457, a rare panel from a broken-up retable originally in Marienfeld Abbey. Germany (15th century) : Crucified Martyrs; Martyrs Whipped and Wearing Crowns of Thorns. Jan Frans van Bloemen : Landscape with Bathers; Landscape with Goatherds. Pieter Bout : Busy River Landscape. Salomon de Bray : Saint Peter Delivered from Prison. Joos van Craesbeeck : The Smoker and Death. After Albrecht Dürer : Christ Bearing the Cross. Cornelis Dusart : Seated Pipe-Smoker. After Jan Brueghel the Elder : Procession at a Peasant Wedding. Pieter Brueghel the Younger (studio) : Village Festival or Kermesse with a Play and a Procession Pieter Brueghel the Younger, The Parable of the Misers. Attributed to Jacob van Oost the Elder : Portrait of a Young Man. Attributed to Lucas Franchoys the Younger : Portrait of a Churchman. Pieter Hardimé : Flower Bouquet in a Vase on a Stone Ledge. Gerard Hoet : Armida Preparing to Pursue Rinaldo. Abraham Hondius : Dogs Attacking a Heron. Gérard de Lairesse : Jaël and Sisera. Anthonie de Lorme (architecture) and Anthonie Palamedesz. (figures) : Protestant Church Interior with Figures. Jan Miel : Shepherds and Their Flock in a Mountainous Landscape Jan Miense Molenaer : The Foot Operation. Michiel van Musscher : A Lute Lesson Interrupted. Eglon van der Neer : Portrait of a Man in Louis XIV Costume. Aernout van der Neer : View of a Village by Moonlight. Cornelis van Poelenburgh : Landscape with Mercury Sending Argus to Sleep with his Flute. Chistiaan van Pol; Study of a Lilac Branch; Study of a Variegated Rose Stalk. Hendrik van Steenwijk II : Church Interior with Figures, oil on copper Dominicus van Tol : Monk Reading with a Pen in his Hand. Jan van de Venne : Two Fantasy Heads, Profile. Jan Peeter Verdussen : The Blacksmith's Home. Jan Weenix : Child and Dog at a Window, Trompe-l’œil. Matthijs Wulfraet : Two Smokers.
Sculpture French
15th to 18th century
Virgin of Pity, stone with traces of paint. Child with a Dog, white marble with traces of paint Tomb of La Palice : alabaster representations of Wisdom, Justice and Strength from the tomb of Jacques II de Chabannes de La Palice, recovered from his castle chapel after the tomb's destruction in the French Revolution; the representation of the fourth cardinal virtue, Temperance, is lost Jean-Baptiste Guillermin : Christ on the Cross with a Skull, elephant ivory crucifix from the chapel of the black penitents in Avignon.
19th century Francisque Joseph Duret : Orestes, carrara marble bust Victor-Étienne Simyan : Etruscan Art, marble with traces of bronzing. Camille Claudel : Paul Claudel as a Young Roman, bronze. : Joseph Bara and Augustin-Agricol Viala, two marble replicas of the busts at the La Flèche military academy. : The Death of Cato Utica, plaster. : Sleeping Harvester, marble. James Pradier : Cassandra Taking Refuge at the Foot of the Altar, marble. Jean-Joseph Espercieux : Greek Woman Preparing to get into a Bath, marble. Jules Cavelier : The Novice, marble. Jean-Louis Brian : Mercury, plaster; Faun, marble
Northern Europe
Anonymous, Officer and Roman soldier, early 16th century, high-relief in painted and gilded black walnut, probably from an altarpiece of the crucifixion Anonymous, Saint Michael Killing a Dragon, gilded and painted limewood
Italian Francesco Laurana, Bust of a Child, marble with traces of paint and gilding. Pietro Torrigiano : Head of Christ as Saviour of the World, bronze. Anonymous, Ambling Horse, bronze with brown patina
Prints and Drawings It includes leaves by artists from most of the French and Italian schools as well as a smaller number of Spanish and North European works. Northern artists in the collection include Hendrik Goltzius, Jan van Goyen and Raphael Mengs, whilst Spanish ones include Vincenzo Carducci and Juan de Valdés Leal.