Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon

Egypt

Ancient Egypt is the main theme of the museum's antiquities department, due to the historic importance of egyptology in Lyon, encouraged by men like Victor Loret, whose family gave over 1000 objects to the museum in 1954. From 1895, the musée du Louvre provided nearly 400 objects (unguent vases, funerary figurines etc.) to form the foundation of the department; other objects (canopic vases, jewellery, material from Antinoöpolis) were added later to complement this initial donation, and were augmented in 1936 by objects from the artisans' village of Deir el-Medina.

The highlights of the collection are its display of sarcophaguses and the gates of Ptolemy III and Ptolemy IV from the temple of Medamud dug by the Lyons archaeologist Alexandre Varille in 1939 and donated by the French Institute of Oriental Archeology of Cairo. The remaining objects shed light on everyday life in ancient Egypt.

The collection has 600 works displayed in 9 rooms, in a thematic and chronological sequence:

• Room 1 : Life After Death
  The development of funerary practices are explored via a display of Old Kingdom to Late Period coffins, canopic vases, organs, shabtis and 155 amulets on a variety of subjects. There is also a fragment of the tomb of Bakenranef found at Saqqarah, dating to the 26th Dynasty, as well as a Roman-era shroud.

• Room 2 : The divine and its rites
  Decorations from a temple are recreated along the length of this room, culminating with the gates of Ptolemy III and Ptolemy IV from the late temple at Medamud (the former is fragmentary but retains part of its original polychromy, whereas the latter is nearly complete). The other bas-reliefs in this room come from Koptos - eight are dated to the Middle Kingdom and come from a temple to Min. They were discovered by Adolphe Reinach in 1909 in the foundations of a late building. 11 other fragments come from the end of the Ptolemaic era, and more precisely from the reign of Cleopatra VII. Even if Pharaonic statuary is underrepresented in the museum, the fragment of the statue of Ramses VI in pink granite and the outline of the statue of Commodus as pharaoh document this aspect of Egyptian art.

• Room 3 : The cult of the divine
  Entered through the gate of Ptolemy IV, at the centre of this room is a support from a barque or statue dating to the reign of Ptolemy II. On the walls are three fragments of bas-reliefs from the 28th Dynasty, also found in Koptos.

• Room 4 : Images and emblems of the divine
  This room's three cases contain a collection of bronze statuettes of Gods from the Egyptian pantheon, with a rare representation of Hapy, god of the Nile, dating from the Late Period. One whole case is devoted to representations of Osiris and another to those of the pharaoh. In this room is the head of a pharaoh of the 30th Dynasty, attributed to Nectanebo II, a Middle Kingdom bust (characterised by its over-large ears), and a scarab with the name of Amenhotep II.

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  Bust of a pharaoh, Middle Kingdom
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  Statuette of the child Horus, Late Period
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  Statuette of the Nile God Hâpy, Late Period

• Room 5 : Pharaoh and his servants
  In one case are 18 wooden models obtained from tombs from the time of the 23rd Dynasty from Assiout. They represent scenes from everyday life such as grazing cattle, or beer-making. In the opposite case are two displays: one on writing, and the other on the pharaoh's servants. The latter has, among other objects, a limestone statue of an anonymous Old Kingdom couple, a Ptolemaic male bust, and a fragment of a statuette of a kneeling scribe.

• Room 6 : Stelae
  Arranged around a wooden statue of Osiris are four Middle Kingdom stelae, eight New Kingdom stelae, and four from the Roman era. One of the most beautiful is that of Ptahmose, high priest of Amon, vizir of Thebes and chief of works under Amenophis III, which retains traces of its polychromy.

• Room 7 : Everyday life
  One case contains 14 protohistoric and pre-dynastic vases, whilst another shows a selection of vases spanning the New Kingdom to the Late Period. The main display in this room contains many unique pieces, such as the 2nd Dynasty stela of Nes-Henou, or the magnificent wooden male head of the 28th Dynasty, perhaps part of the ornamentation of a harp. It also contains everyday objects like sandals, mirrors, jewellery, and even a stool.

• Room 8 : Egypt and the Greeks - Egypt and Rome
  This room explores Greek and Roman influences on Egyptian art. This is especially prevalent in private works of art such as a series of terracotta figurines of Egyptian Gods with Hellenistic traits, and five 2nd and 3rd century funerary stelae from Koptos showing Palmyrenean influence.

• Room 9 : Egypt and the Roman Empire - Coptic Christianity
  This room houses gold-plated funerary masks from the Roman period; and bas-reliefs, pateras and textiles from the Coptic civilisation, including a fragment of the famous "shawl of Sabina".

Near East and Middle East

One room contains cylinder seals, clay tablets and bas-reliefs from the Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian civilisations, as well as Luristan bronzes, ceramics and statuettes from Cyprus and a fine collection of Syrian objects (including an anthropoid sarcophagus and a marble bas-relief).

Ancient Greece and Italy

A single room is devoted to the main work in this department, the 6th century BC marble kore from the Acropolis of Athens. A second room is dedicated to ancient Greece, containing a series of Attic vases in black-figure or red-figure, bronzes and terracotta Tanagra figurines. Finally, a small room is devoted to Magna Graecia, with many ceramics and bronze helmets.

Roman sculpture is also presented across several rooms - marble statues (a torso of Venus, a child on a cockerel, statues of draped figures etc.) and also small bronze figurines of Gods from the Roman Pantheon such as Mercury, Venus, Mars etc.

The Gallo-Roman collections of the city of Lyon, previously presented at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Antiquarium, were transferred in 1975 at the Lugdunum museum on the hill of Fourvière near the Roman theatre and Odeon.