Museum of the Petit Palais - Avignon

Presentation

With its imposing crenellated façade, pierced by mullioned windows, the Petit Palais is one of the flagships of European museums in medieval Italian and Provencal art, and Italian Renaissance painting. The Petit Palais, which holds the Musée de France label, is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

History

From the inventory of the Campana collection, initiated in 1945 as part of the reorganization of museums, 350 Italian paintings were deposited in Avignon by the Louvre Museum. At the initiative of Gustave de Loye, the curator of the Calvet Museum, they were assembled at the Petit Palais, the former palace of the archbishopric of Avignon, rebuilt at the end of the 15th century by Julian de la Rovère, future Pope Julius II. The Campana collection has also been enriched with an important collection of the Calvet Museum (École d'Avignon, 13th-16th centuries) and a unique ensemble in Europe, of Italian primitives deposited by the Musée de Cluny.

Collections

Painting and sculpture of the Middle Ages and the Italian Renaissance (more than 300 Italian primitives) bringing together the Campana collection, a rich collection of the Calvet Museum, and a collection of 12th-16th century sculptures from Avignon and its surroundings.

A unique set of paintings from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and a reflection of a museum policy of exceptional magnitude.