The Advent of the Artist

Overview

For its fifth season, the Louvre’s Petite Galerie—a space dedicated to art and cultural education—will be holding an exhibition titled ‘The Advent of the Artist’. Opening on September 25, 2019, this year’s edition will coincide with a cycle of Louvre exhibitions devoted to the Renaissance geniuses Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello, Michelangelo and Albrecht Altdorfer in 2019-2020.

It was during the Renaissance that artists asserted their independence and demanded recognition as creators in their own right. Yet the advent of the artist had been long awaited. This exhibition will take a close look at the transition from the typically anonymous craftsman of the classical period to the artist of the Renaissance, at times famous to the extent of becoming the hero of novels and legends. It is this long-standing connection between the visual arts and the written word that inspired this edition’s focus on literature. Spread across four rooms, the exhibition will feature some forty artworks from the Louvre’s eight curatorial departments alongside extracts from literature, with the aim of tracing the emergence and recognition of the artist from Antiquity to the 19th century.

Organised by

Chantal Quillet, Associate Professor of Classical Studies, and Jean-Luc Martinez, President-Director of the Musée du Louvre.

Project manager

Florence Dinet, Musée du Louvre.

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