Innovative Content and Exceptional Loans of exhibition "Antoine Caron (1521-1599). The Theatre of History"

Bringing together over 90 works at the Château d’Écouen in a building and setting that are contemporary with Antoine Caron’s work, the exhibition analyses the position of this artist inextricably linked with the French Renaissance as an inventor and provider of models, whose influence continued long after his death. The exhibition examines the artist’s profile in the context of his training around the works at the Château de Fontainebleau, in particular through his deep connection with Italian artists such as Primaticcio (1503-1570) and Niccolò dell’Abate (1509-1571). The exchanges between painting, drawing, sculpture, and tapestry will receive particular attention. In this context, the loan granted by the Galleria degli Uffizi Florence of the famous Valois Tapestries is emblematic. This series was woven in Brussels for Catherine de’ Medici and has never returned to France in its entirety in over four centuries. Implicitly, fascinating issues of Renaissance art are woven together: the role of drawing, relations between artist and patron, the traditional frontiers between major and minor arts, and between artist and artisan. The exhibition has benefited from the support of the most important French (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Musée du Louvre, Mobilier National, Musée d’Arts de Nantes, Mucem de Marseille…) and international (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Courtauld Gallery, London…) institutions.