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Programme

IMAGO

The IMAGO programme studies depictions of instruments, musicians, and musical and dance practices in the art of ancient peoples.

It brings together four missions, each built around the community of specialists who know how to study its works: GALATÉE for statuary and sculpture, IRIS for pictorial art, LUGOS for numismatics, KERAMOS for figurative ceramics.

Its teams digitise and survey these works and compare them with texts and archaeological finds, to distinguish the reality the artist draws on from the symbolic message the work carries.

The missions

The GALATÉE mission is devoted to the inventory, study and promotion of sculpted heritage depicting musical and dance practices, or sound devices, from Antiquity to the Renaissance. Statues, reliefs, capitals and figurines, in stone, bronze or wood: 3D digitisation brings them back to life, like Galatea under the chisel of Pygmalion.

GALATÉE 201The musicians of PuivertPuivertGALATÉE 202The lyre-playing bard of PaulePauleGALATÉE 203The bagpiper of MorlaixMorlaixGALATÉE 204The fiddle-playing angel-demon of ThinesThinesGALATÉE 205The rote-playing donkey of FleuryFleury Abbey, Saint-Benoît-sur-LoireGALATÉE 206The statuary of the Neuvy-en-Sullias hoardMusée d'Histoire et d'Archéologie d'Orléans, Hôtel CabuGALATÉE 209The shepherd with the syrinx of TasciacaThéséeGALATÉE 210The musician animals of BeauneBasilica of Notre-Dame, BeauneGALATÉE 211The statuary of Sceaux-du-GâtinaisSceaux-du-GâtinaisGALATÉE 213David with the harp and the rote-playing donkey of ChartresChartres CathedralGALATÉE 214The rote-playing monkey of SurgèresChurch of Notre-Dame, Surgères

The IRIS mission is devoted to the inventory, study and promotion of pictorial art depicting musical and dance practices, or sound devices, from Antiquity to the Renaissance: wall painting, fresco, panel painting, illumination, stained glass, mosaic, drawing and engraving.

IRIS 201The musician angels and the Elders of the Apocalypse in the chapel of Saint-AntoninCouvent des Jacobins, ToulouseIRIS 202Orpheus with the lyre, VienneVienne

The LUGOS mission is devoted to the inventory, study and promotion of coins depicting instruments, musicians or dancers, from Antiquity to the Renaissance.

LUGOS 201The coins of the Cabinet des médailles in LyonMusée des Beaux-Arts de LyonLUGOS 202The staters of the Trébry hoardMusée de Morlaix

The KERAMOS mission is devoted to the inventory, study and promotion of ceramics depicting musical and dance practices, from Antiquity to the Renaissance, whether moulded in relief like terra sigillata or painted like vases.

KERAMOS 201The Orpheus bowl of CologneCologne

They entrusted us with their collections