The Musée des Arts décoratifs (Museum of Decorative Art) of the city of

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, is found on the ground floor of the Palais Rohan, the former city palace of the Prince-Bishops from the Rohan family. One half of the museum is made up of the magnificent chambers in the late baroque,

Rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

and

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

styles. The other half offers a broad overview of the art of Alsatian porcelain, gold- and silversmith masters between 1681 and 1870 (decorative arts from the region prior to the French conquest are displayed in the nearby Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame.)

The collection

After severe damage to the palace by English and American bombing on 11 August 1944, the chambers of the Prince-Bishops were restored little by little to their original condition up until the 1990s and the interior furnishings were rebuilt.

Collections

The chambers have the traditional furnishings of courtly display rooms ( Gobelins tapestries,

chinoiserie (, ; loanword from French '' chinoiserie'', from '' chinois'', "Chinese"; ) is the European interpretation and imitation of Chinese and other Sinosphere artistic traditions, especially in the decorative arts, garden design, architecture, lite ...

, wood carvings, murals,

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

decorations,

trompe-l'œil ; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...

, etc.), all displaying a high degree of craftsmanship as well as artistry. The emphasis of the remainder of the collection is the sometimes remarkably exuberant porcelain creations of the Strasbourg factory of the brothers

Paul Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

and Johann Hannong, the founders and directors of the widely famous Frankenthal Porcelain Factory. It also displays the vermeil work of the Strasbourg master families of Imlin and Kirstein. The museum displays elements of the first astronomical clock of Strasbourg Cathedral, among which the cock is said to be the world's oldest

automaton An automaton (; : automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions. Some automata, such as bellstrikers i ...

.Decorative Arts Museum, Strasbourg
www.hautehorlogerie.org/

References

Literature

*Étienne Martin et al.: ''Decorative Arts Museum. Palais Rohan'', Éditions des musées de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, 2021,

External links

Musees-strasbourg.org: official Musée des Arts décoratifs, Strasbourg website
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Musees-strasbourg.org: Selected works from the Musée des Arts décoratifs collections
�� {{DEFAULTSORT:Arts Decoratifs Strasbourg, Musee Des Art museums and galleries in Strasbourg Decorative arts museums in France FRAME Museums