From the first masters to modern art · Solitude, trial and immensity

The desert changes face over the centuries: a place of penance for the saints, a test for Christ, a road for caravans and a luminous immensity for travelers.

In the history of art, the desert is almost never empty. Hermits face silence, prophets receive a mission and travelers measure distance. Renaissance painters often construct a meticulous rocky landscape around Saint Jerome or John the Baptist. Baroque brings bodies together and accentuates the spiritual ordeal with chiaroscuro. In the 19th century, orientalism, archeology and travel expanded the subject to caravans, Sinai, oases and animals. The collection thus brings Ruiz de la Iglesia, Luis Tristan, Ribera, Stanzione, Bellini, Leonardo, Kramskoy and many other artists into dialogue. Each reproduction allows choosing between human presence, religious meditation or almost abstract landscape. The "Desert Landscapes" selection notably compares La Madeleine in the desert and Saint John the Baptist in the desert. His reading favors light.

The painted desert is not the absence of the world: it is the place where a figure, a light or a trace finally becomes impossible to ignore.