Bernard Palissy, a life devoted to his research
Born in Saint-Avit, Bernard Palissy is said to have spent his life trying to discover the secret of enamel, but to summarize Bernard Palissy only in this story would be reductive. At the same time potter, enameller, painter, glassmaker, writer and French scholar, he can be considered in this sense as a genius of the Renaissance and his life could be titled in this way: "a perpetual quest". The man will be adulated for his creations when he will not be imprisoned for his protestantism. What we remember about Palissy is his discovery of enamel after years of research. One of his most famous works is undoubtedly the basin with rustic decoration, which shows and "touches" a snake, fish, crayfish, amphibians, all completed by shells and foliage. We are here in the know-how of the master, in this case the art of fire. This work, exhibited at the Louvre Museum in Paris and at the Renaissance Museum in Ecouen, illustrates Bernard Palissy's plans for the artificial grottoes that Catherine de Medici commissioned for the Tuileries garden.
Palissy was an influencer of his time, a free spirit who contributes to the pride of the Lot-et-Garonne through his work embodying the iconic achievements of the Renaissance. The Saint-Avit museum and the Agen high school that bears his name show the imprint left by this inventor who succeeded in turning a "mad passion" into a major advance in the history of fine arts.
Louis Ducos Du Hauron and color photography: one invention among others
If television, photography and cinema are appreciated in color, it is primarily thanks to Louis Ducos du Hauron who was the inventor of colorized photography. In 1877, he managed to take a picture of the city of Agen from the heights of the Hermitage hillside with a view of the Saint-Caprais cathedral, which made him "simply" say: "The sun did not deceive my expectations. It makes judicious use of the palette reduced to three colors. Agen will be a city that will pose for his experiments, and seeing his pictures again makes it a special city for the world of photography.
Beyond this simple considerable feat, this son of a family from Agen has patenting as a regular activity and his process of trichromy announces in the 19th century the future of photography. Ducos du Hauron's "record of achievement" can be summarized in 4 major inventions: color photography, but also the 3D image, the slide and the moving image, whose patent was used by the Lumière brothers for their cinema. Today, he is honored and considered for the work he accomplished and the advances he generated. A college bears his name as if to highlight the local roots of this important figure.
The Fine Arts Museum: a close link to Goya
The Museum of Fine Arts in Agen is a formidable concentration of paintings, sculptures and other furniture from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. It also houses an archaeology section. Like a town house, it is housed in 4 private mansions forming a beautiful ensemble: the Estrades mansion, the Vaurs mansion, the Vergès mansion and the Monluc mansion.
The particularity that makes the charm of this museum comes from the legacy of five exceptional paintings by Francisco Goya. The Self-Portrait, as its name suggests, is a painting by Goya of himself, an approach that he adopted some thirty times, and it is partly this painting that will allow him to achieve the success he had hoped for. In The Balloon, Goya painted a hot-air balloon rising into the sky while a crowd of people is bustling in the middle of a mountainous landscape. This last painting is the emblem of the Museum of Fine Arts. The other paintings by Goya are a Mass of Reveille, a fantastic scene entitled Caprices and the sketch of the equestrian portrait of Ferdinand VII.
A true treasure trove of the master of contemporary painting, the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Agen is one of the richest cultural establishments in Aquitaine with these exceptional paintings.
Lamarque
The city of Castelculier could be considered as the oldest city in the history of the Lot-et-Garonne with the archaeological site of the villa of Lamarque. Indeed, this space is nothing else than a thermal city which was brought to light and which dates from 1800 years ago. The excavations have uncovered many art objects such as statues, ceramics, sculptures, coins or mosaics but also everyday utensils. For example, a statue of Marcus Aurelius was found in a Merovingian tomb. With these accumulated riches, we understand the luxurious and refined life enjoyed by the powerful of the time.
Le Mas-d'Agenais and its Rembrandt painting
Here is a charming village of 1,500 souls perched above the Garonne River! And to add to its attractiveness, it conceals a national artistic treasure: the painting Christ on the Cross painted in 1631 by Rembrandt, a major figure of the Dutch school. The painting was donated to the church in the early 19th century by a local family. The masterpiece was not attributed to Rembrandt until 1853 and it was not until 1960 that its authenticity was definitively established. Its departure for restoration in 2016, following a crack in the glass case that housed it, caused a great stir locally. Would the painting ever return to Mas-d'Agenais? Exhibited for a time in the cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux, its return was meticulously prepared in the magnificent Collegiate Church of Saint-Vincent, in the very heart of the town. A new armored display case equipped with humidity sensors was installed in early 2022. Its location has been changed so that reflections do not disturb its contemplation by visitors. The commune cherishes its priceless treasure.
