点评:The Picardy Museum in Amiens is housed in a stunning building whose construction took place in the fifties and sixties of the nineteenth century. The atmosphere which oozes out that building is unique. Its architecture constitutes a magnificent setting for the collections of works of art it harbours. The Museum building began being built under the architect Henry Parent's design. After resignation of Parent in 1855, Arthur Diet was appointed to complete the construction of the Museum. The main façade of the building is splendid. On each side of the entrance door there is a medallion depicting Hercules and Ceres to symbolise Strength and Abundance, respectively. The main window above the entrance is flanked on each side by the block letters “E” and “N” as calling up the Empress Eugénie and the Emperor Napoleon III, respectively. They are topped by medallions of Michelangelo and Raphael. The building is crowned by a beautiful dome, and at its foot, large statues by Lequesne represent architecture, painting, sculpture and natural history.
The building interior is grandiose as regards both the dimensions of the different galleries and the rich ornamentation of the walls and ceilings. As a curiosity, there are two rooms reserved for the use of the Society of Antiquaries of Picardy. These rooms look like an elegant library - which invites to research - and a meeting room. The latter, called session room, is topped with a ceiling on which a painting having as its central motif the Picardy escutcheon, by the painter Désiré Joseph François Letelier-Belladame, is outstanding. The library has a mezzanine which is reserved to librarians and can just be acceded through a concealed staircase.
Some of the ground-floor galleries are: the Column Gallery consisting of three areas, to wit two naves, the vaults which rest on four columns, and the central rotunda. The whole of that room is beautiful. Besides, the Campana Hall - with outstanding ceilings and capitals of striking Hellenistic style - is a wonderful segment of the Museum. The first floor galleries are also spectacular on account of its decoration and atmosphere. Among them, the Great Hall is fantastic. Once in it one feels enraptured. Only the ceiling of this painting gallery is decorated. It was an ingenious idea, something that together with the height and the space of that room makes it a perfect place for displaying artworks, specially sculptures. The medallions there depict the main artistic local achievements. On the other hand, in the Northern and Southern galleries (first floor inner galleries designed by Emile Riquier) the ornamentation is limited to the arches of the cornices so that the glass roofs let much light come through, and the walls are thus adequate for hanging paintings. The corners of the ceiling are precious. Their decoration consists in vegetal composition from which large palms emerge. The study and contemplation salons are also gorgeous. They are, by the way, the only ones which retained their fireplaces.
The artworks which can be admired in that Museum are excellent and varied. Down the basements there are the archaeological and Egyptian collections. They range from prehistory to Gallo-Roman Times. Among the items encompassed by the stated collections, the Goddesses-mothers breastfeeding children and the Triple Hécate are superb, as well as the mummy or the recently discovered Venus. Among the medieval collections, the Puys d'Amiens are priceless masterpieces. The fine art collections from the 16th to the 19th centuries include real jewels as regards both paintings and sculpture. Among the former, “The Miracle of St. Donat d'Arezozo” by José de Ribera, or the “Immaculate Conception” by Gianbattista Tiepolo, and among the latter, the “Venus” in the middle of the Great Hall can be outlined. Finally, there are also in the Museum some examples of modern and contemporary art, such as the painting “Painter and his Model” by Pablo Picasso, and the sculpture “Woman” by Joan Miró.
The Museum of the Picardy is therefore a great Museum, comparable to the Louvre in Paris as far as the building is concerned, housing stupendous masterpieces. The visit of that Museum shouldn't therefore be missed when in Amiens or in the region.