Baroque treasures. Painting in the Bourbonnais in the 17th century

What can you do this summer in France to escape the Olympic Games, whose deleterious effect is already being felt a month before the start of the competitions? Contrary to what you might think from the incessant propaganda spewed out by the media and the many museum exhibitions requisitioned for the occasion, some are still resisting the invaders. Genuine exhibitions, with their own themes and catalogues, and which involve fundamental restorations of our heritage, can be seen this summer just about everywhere in France.
Among them, we have already mentioned the Mobilier National exhibition on the works of Notre-Dame and Germanic paintings in Dijon, Besançon and Valenciennes.... We will soon be talking about Jean Daret in Aix-en-Provence and Nordic drawings in Orléans. Other exhibitions are also taking place, which may not be heritage exhibitions in the same sense as the previous ones, but are nonetheless art history exhibitions, such as Jean Hugo in Montpellier, Jean Lurçat in Perpignan, Berthe Morisot in Nice, Whistler in Rouen, Impressionist photography in Le Havre... We apologise for any omissions.
So it’s mainly in the provinces that we’ll be able to escape the obligatory festivities surrounding the ’great feast of sport’. Moulins is well worth a visit to see the exhibition devoted to painting in the Bourbonnais region in the 17th century. The exhibition will not end before 5 January 2025.

1. Giovanni Gherardini (1655-1723)
The Assumption of the Virgin, c. 1680-1684
Fresco
Moulins, Palais de Justice
Photo: Didier Rykner

See the image in its page

As explained in the catalogue (which is small but in which all the works on display are given full notes), the term "Baroque" is used here in the broad sense of 17th-century art, which formally can still be Mannerist, Classical or Baroque in the more commonly accepted sense. Most of the paintings, however, are closer to "Atticism" than to Baroque, with the notable exception of one work that is…