Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon

The expulsion of the nuns and the destruction of the église Saint-Saturnin date to the French Revolution, though the abbey's other church (the église Saint-Pierre) still exists and now houses 19th and 20th century sculptures. After the Revolution, the remaining buildings housed the Palais du Commerce et des Arts, at first made up of works confiscated from the clergy and nobility but later becoming more multi-disciplinary. For example, it gained archaeology and natural history collections and those of the Académie des Sciences et des Lettres. The imperial drawing school was created in 1805, in the Palais du Commerce et des Arts to provide Lyon's silk factories with designers, giving birth to the famous Lyon School. In 1860, the Chambre de Commerce left the Palais Saint-Pierre and the establishment became the Palais des Arts. From 1875, the museum's collections underwent a major expansion and had to be expanded — the staircase by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes dates to this era.

The Musée des Beaux-Arts

The collections were opened up considerably at the start of the 20th century, leading to the Palais des Arts becoming the Musée des Beaux-Arts. The building acquired its present layout in the mid-1990s, after the completion of several restoration projects.

Collections

Paintings

The paintings department has European 14th- to mid-20th-century paintings. They are arranged chronologically and by major schools in 35 rooms. The collection features :

• Ancient French painting (16th to 18th century) (
  Claude Joseph Vernet
  etc.).
• 19th-century French painting (
  Van Gogh
  etc.) ;
• 14th- to 18th-century Italian painting (
  Giandomenico Tiepolo
  etc.) ;
• Ancient Spanish painting (mainly 17th century) (El Greco, Jusepe de Ribera, Francisco de Zurbarán etc.) ;
• Ancient German, Flemish and Dutch painting (mainly 16th and 17th centuries) (
  Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens, Gerard David, Rembrandt
  etc.);
• 20th-century painting (including
  Paris School
  etc.);

Sculptures

Most of the collection is displayed in two sections: on the ground floor are Medieval and Renaissance sculptures and stuccos of the old baroque refectory; and in the abbey's church are sculptures from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

At the heart of the abbey, the former cloister is now a municipal garden, right in the centre of the town, on the peninsula. It is decorated with several 19th century statues:

• two sculptures by Auguste Rodin : The shadow, or Adam (1902) and The temptation of Saint Anthony (1900) ;
• a sculpture by
  Democrites meditating on the seat of the soul
  (1864) ;
• a sculpture by Emile Antoine Bourdelle representing Carpeaux at work (1909) ;
• a Venus (1918–1928) by Aristide Maillol ;
• an Odalisque (1841) by James Pradier,
• a group by
  Antoine Etex representing Cain and His Race Cursed By God

Antiquities

Egypt

• Room 2 : The divine and its rites
  Decorations from a temple are recreated along the length of this room, culminating with the gates of
  Ramses VI in pink granite and the outline of the statue of Commodus
  as pharaoh document this aspect of Egyptian art.

• Room 4 : Images and emblems of the divine
  This room's three cases contain a collection of bronze statuettes of Gods from the Egyptian pantheon, with a rare representation of
  30th Dynasty, attributed to Nectanebo II, a Middle Kingdom bust (characterised by its over-large ears), and a scarab with the name of Amenhotep II
  .

• 
  Bust of a pharaoh, Middle Kingdom
• 
  Statuette of the child Horus, Late Period
• 
  Statuette of the Nile God Hâpy, Late Period

• Room 5 : Pharaoh and his servants
  In one case are 18 wooden models obtained from tombs from the time of the
  Assiout. They represent scenes from everyday life such as grazing cattle, or beer-making. In the opposite case are two displays: one on writing, and the other on the pharaoh's servants. The latter has, among other objects, a limestone statue of an anonymous Old Kingdom
  couple, a Ptolemaic male bust, and a fragment of a statuette of a kneeling scribe.

• Room 8 : Egypt and the Greeks - Egypt and Rome
  This room explores Greek and Roman influences on Egyptian art. This is especially prevalent in private works of art such as a series of terracotta figurines of Egyptian Gods with Hellenistic traits, and five 2nd and 3rd century funerary stelae from Koptos showing Palmyrenean influence.

• Room 9 : Egypt and the Roman Empire - Coptic Christianity
  This room houses gold-plated funerary masks from the
  Coptic
  civilisation, including a fragment of the famous "shawl of Sabina".

Near East and Middle East

One room contains cylinder seals, clay tablets and bas-reliefs from the Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian civilisations, as well as Luristan bronzes, ceramics and statuettes from Cyprus and a fine collection of Syrian objects (including an anthropoid sarcophagus and a marble bas-relief).

Ancient Greece and Italy

A single room is devoted to the main work in this department, the 6th century BC marble

The Gallo-Roman collections of the city of Lyon, previously presented at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Antiquarium, were transferred in 1975 at the Lugdunum museum on the hill of Fourvière near the Roman theatre and Odeon.

Objets d’Art

This department's collection ranges from the Middle Ages to the 20th century and includes:

• Byzantine ivories
• Limoges enamels
• Renaissance faience and maiolica
• Art Nouveau room by Hector Guimard
• Islamic art
• Far East ceramics
• Chinese, Korean and Japanese stoneware (since 1917) - rare pieces illustrating the
  tea ceremony, displayed next to the Art Nouveau
  ceramics they inspired.
• The Death of Polydorus, tapestry
• Silk fabrics produced by Lyon's silk manufacturing trade, including works by Jean-François Bony.^[3]

Coins and medals

Lyon's "médaillier" is the second largest one in France after that in Paris, with nearly 50,000 coins, medals, seals and other objects. It is known at a European level and has held a prominent place in the numismatic world from its beginnings in the 19th century to recent discoveries of the treasuries of the Terreaux and the Célestins.^[4]

Graphic arts

This department was created at the start of the 19th century and includes works on paper - drawings, prints, engravings, watercolours etc. - based on line rather than colour. In all it more than 8,000 works, including ones by