Études sur la sculpture offertes à Geneviève Bresc-Bautier

Thanks to the participation of the Fondation La Marck, which is definitely pulling out all the stops, the publisher mare & martin has just released a remarkable volume of Festschrift dedicated to Geneviève Bresc-Bautier, former director of the Sculpture Department at the Louvre and a leading expert on 16th- and 17th-century French sculpture.
Sometimes, this type of work is prepared in the utmost secrecy to surprise the person to whom it is dedicated. Not so here: Geneviève Bresc-Bautier was in on the secret, which made it possible to ask her for a text about her career. It is fascinating, particularly in that it brings to life a Louvre that no longer exists, where art history and a love of collections prevailed over the "sprawling administration" she describes. It is worth noting that while the names of all the previous directors of the Louvre (Michel Laclotte, Pierre Rosenberg and Henri Loyrette) are mentioned, the name of the last one she knew in her position is carefully omitted. And we will do the same.

This autobiography, accompanied by a dialogue between Jean-René Gaborit, her predecessor and one of those who facilitated her entry into the Louvre, where she spent thirty-eight years, Sophie Jugie, who succeeded her, and Guilhem Scherf, recalls some of her many achievements.

We learn that at the beginning of her career, she specialised in Sicily (where she carried out archaeological excavations) and the Holy Sepulchre, which was the subject of her thesis.
We are then reminded that she created the Louvre’s history section, which has been severely undermined since the exhibition rooms dedicated to it were reduced to a shadow of their former selves. We should also highlight her work in the Sculpture Department at the time of the creation of the Grand Louvre, her numerous…