PARIS.- This exhibition explores a time of unprecedented
artistic contact and creative effervescence in France, which
many people know little about. It is the first major exhibition
devoted to a turning point in French history, in the reigns of
Charles VIII (1483-1498) and Louis XII (1498-1515), which was
dominated by the personality of Anne de Bretagne, successively
the wife of both kings. A period of economic recovery,
demographic growth, and territorial ambitions with the famous
Italian wars, as well as cultural development in the humanist
spirit. It was also a time of exceptional flowering and sharp
contrasts in art. Nonetheless, these movements are often skimmed
over to the extent that most books on Europe European art in the
period barely mention France at all. The exhibition draws on
recent research and presents 200 masterly works which give a
clearer view of France at a crucial intersection in history,
while questioning the ideas of tradition and movement,
continuity and breaks. It brings together exc