Renaissance Treasures.
The Al Thani Collection at the Hôtel de la Marine

This display of approximately 60 works of art from The Al Thani Collection celebrates the innovation, skill and craftsmanship of the Renaissance period, and explores its enduring appeal to collectors through the ages. On display in galleries 1, 2 and 4 of The Al Thani Collection at the Hôtel de la Marine, it follows on from A Taste for the Renaissance: a dialogue between collections (6 March to 30 June 2024) which showed these objects alongside works of art on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Presenting an extraordinary selection of objets d'art and rare jewels, this display showcases the virtuosity of Renaissance artists in a variety of techniques and materials, and includes examples in glass, enamel, ceramic, hardstone, metalwork, miniatures and exotica. Highlights include works of art created for noble and royal patrons by many of the most accomplished artists of the period, including the Arundel Zodiac, a carnelian intaglio likely created for the Duke of Mantua circa 1540; an extraordinary polychrome enamel plaque created in Limoges circa 1530 by the Master of the Aeneid; a rock crystal bowl by Giovanni Ambrogio Miseroni (1551-1616) engraved with scenes of the Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite and recorded in the collection of the papal Borghese family; and a miniature portrait of Charles IX (1550-1574) by François Clouet (c.1516-1572) painted on slate circa 1561, and likely commissioned by his mother, Catherine de Medici (1519-1589).