Visit Beauvais

Renaissance. Gates of modernity
March 21 to November 30, 2025

With the 16th-century palace once again open to the public, the MUDO-Musée de l’Oise is celebrating the Renaissance with an exhibition devoted to this historic period, during which a powerful burst of creativity swept across the whole of Europe, helping to shape the modern world.
The Renaissance refers to a particularly innovative trend that shaped the challenges of Europe?s changing societies for over two centuries, to an awareness of renewal driven by reflection on Man and the world, reflected in an unprecedented scientific and intellectual boom, and to a return to our roots.
Beginning in Italy, the Renaissance saw an irrepressible surge in creativity that spread to France and its various provinces from the 15th century onwards, followed by Spain and Northern Europe, with Flanders and Germany. Common trends emerged in these different creative centers, such as the emergence of new subjects, some borrowed from the rediscovery of Antiquity and its myths, and the development of genres with a promising future, such as landscape and portraiture.
A new artistic, philosophical and scientific sensibility was emerging: it was the era of scientific discoveries and revolutions, such as the printing press, that encouraged the spread of these new trends and anchored European societies in an unprecedented modernity.
The exhibition brings together paintings, sculptures, prints, ceramics and objets d?art to rediscover the key features of this period of profound historical, intellectual and artistic upheaval. This journey between Flanders, Italy and France, in the company of such prestigious artists as Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Paolo Veronese and Antoine Caron, gives the MUDO-Musée de l?Oise the opportunity to bring to light works that have not been exhibited for many years, while celebrating its own renaissance

Curator: Alexandre Estaquet-Legrand, heritage curator and director of the MUDO-Musée de l’Oise

The 9 panels created by Beauvais?s Municipal Archaeology Department reveal the richness of the Maladrerie Saint-Lazare, and provide an insight into the identity of a medieval leper colony and its practices. The exhibition is the fruit of studies of the various excavations carried out on the site since 2002.
By putting the site into perspective on a larger scale, and by focusing on a number of features, the aim is to discover the unprecedented character of this place of hospitality.

In partnership with the Service Archéologique Municipal.

Find your favorite visits, like the one to the Manufacture Nationale de la Tapisserie. Discover the ancestral art of tapestry in this emblematic place. And for our youngest visitors, we’ve thought of everything: interactive tours followed by a creative embroidery workshop, perfect for awakening their imagination and introducing them to this unique know-how.

Reservations required at the Beauvais and Beauvaisis Tourist Office, 1 rue Beauregard, Beauvais or 03 44 15 30 30

Dans ce lieu patrimonial emblématique – et unique en France – de l’architecture hospitalière de l’époque médiévale, en prenant appui sur ses facettes plurielles et son passé de site d’accueil, de soins, de travail agricole, les artistes Stéphanie Cailleau, Isabelle Chapuis, et Isabelle Léourier questionnent l’éphémère et la durabilité du matériau, les liens entre l’art et la nature, la présence humaine et le vivant, métamorphosant la grange médiévale et la chapelle avec des installations faites à base de terre, d’habits, de matières et d’imaginaires singuliers. Particulièrement investies dans les questions écologiques, ces créatrices incitent à réfléchir la place de l’humain et par résonance de l’artiste dans cet écosystème contemporain bousculé.

Avec la précision du geste de l’artisan, Isabelle Léourier sculpte l’espace de ses robes chrysalides suspendues ; Isabelle Chapuis propose des images de séries distinctes qui convergent dans son acuité au corps et de la terre nourricière là où Stéphanie Cailleau investit l’espace de vêtements évolutifs qui se nourriront d’air et d’eau. L’immersion est immédiate et l’espace devient poétique, avec une forêt de vêtements végétalisés, des robes chrysalides suspendues, des photographies de corps semi-vêtus en clair-obscur…

AUTOUR DE L’EXPOSITION

DIMANCHES 3 AOÛT ET 7 SEPTEMBRE
à 16h • Visite « regard sur… »
avec Léa, médiatrice.

SAMEDI 13 SEPTEMBRE
à 11h • Rendez-vous au jardin avec les artistes,
dans le cadre des Journées des plantes.