The Bibliothèque nationale de France presents the exhibition The Invention of the Renaissance: The Humanist, the Prince, and the Artist from February 20 to June 16, 2024, in the Mansart Gallery – Pigott Gallery at the Richelieu site in Paris.
The Etrillard Foundation is delighted to partner with the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) for the first time to support this exhibition dedicated to this cultural epic and decisive moment in the advent of our modernity, where literature and art hold a central place. It was an era marked by a new relationship with knowledge and books, a rediscovery of ancient culture, and a new vision of humanity and the library.
From the 14th to the 16th century, Europe was the stage for a new intellectual, artistic, and scientific effervescence, which posterity has enshrined under the name of the Renaissance. Humanism is at its heart: born in 14th-century Italy and characterized by a return to ancient texts and the restoration of the civilizational values they conveyed, the humanist movement produced a new cultural model in the West, profoundly modifying the forms of both thought and art. Princes and the powerful soon embraced it to forge a renewed image of themselves, as particularly evidenced by the great and magnificent libraries they amassed.
The presentation of over 200 works—including manuscripts, printed books, prints, drawings, paintings, sculptures, art objects, coins, and medals from the BnF’s collections and external loans from major Parisian collections (Louvre Museum, Jacquemart-André Museum)—plunges the visitor into the intellectual universe and world of Renaissance humanists.
The exhibition path leads from the private study of the scholar surrounded by his books in his studiolo to the public spaces of great princely libraries. Between these two moments that illustrate the crucial importance of books and their collection, the visitor is invited to explore the major aspects of Renaissance humanist culture: the founding role played by Petrarch and his library in the 14th century; the rediscovery of ancient texts and the task of disseminating them through manuscript copying, editing, and translation; the evolution of taste and artistic forms driven by an ever-expanding knowledge of antiquity’s legacy; and the new promotion of the dignity of the human being and the values inherent to their power of action and creation, as exalted by the humanist program celebrating illustrious figures.
The exhibition is curated by Jean-Marc Chatelain, Director of the Rare Books Reserve, and Gennaro Toscano, Scientific Advisor for the BnF Museum within the Collections Directorate.
The Etrillard Foundation is thus contributing to the financing of the exhibition catalog.
Claudius Ptolemaeus, Cosmographia; Jacobus Angelus, interpres, 1451-1500, BnF, Department of Manuscripts © BnF
This BnF project corresponds perfectly to a fundamental pillar of the Foundation: the transmission of ancient art and culture as a source of inspiration for our time. The Foundation provides support in both Switzerland and France for concerts, musical training, and early music symposia (University of Geneva, Royaumont Abbey and Foundation), for the restoration of manuscripts and treasures from prestigious collections (Saint-Maurice Abbey, Solesmes Abbey, Château de Chantilly), and for exhibitions of ancient art (Museum of Art and History in Geneva, Louvre Museum, Cluny Museum).
Andrea Mantegna (after), « Triumph of Caesar: The Corselet Bearers », Mantua, circa 1500-1504, BnF, Department of Prints and Photography © BnF