The chapel of the Collège des Jésuites was originally converted for the purpose of displaying Medieval and Gallo-Roman sculptures from the Musée Calvet. For about a decade other collections have been displayed there : Egyptian, Greek and Etruscan. These arrangements predate the recently redisigned archeological exhibitions at the Musée Calvet.

Recent research by the historian Alain Breton reveals that this superb example of Baroque architecture located in the center of Avignon is not the work of one architect. Etienne Martellange (1568 or 1569-1641) designed the church and began construction in 1620. Eight years later the architect François de Royers de la Valfenière took over the work site brought it to conclusion.

The plan of the edifice is neat and simple. It is composed of a single nave, preceded by a narthex and ending at the choir composed of a short bay and a pentagonal apse.

The two sacristies are comprised of the ground floors of the bell tower and clock tower. The nave is flanked on each side by five arcaded bays, and a tribune with balusters.
Over the tribunes are a freize (vegetal forms), cornice and the attic. Large windows surmount the ensemble. Now sealed, they used to contain the stained glass work of F. Commeaux of Nîmes.

At the entry to the nave a pair of windings stairs lead up to the lateral tribunes as well as to the large central balustered tribune that dates from 1660. The architectural decoration is mainly the work of the Avignonnais sculptor Reynaud Barbeau.

It is comprised of a rich repertoire of plant forms : palms, acanthus leaves, garlands and rosettes. The exuberance of the wisely controlled decoration, and particularly its harmonious distribution in the upper part of the building, intensify the majestic elegance of the groin vaults over the name, while in the choir, the vigorous play of lines of the barrel vault that terminates in the pentagonal half-dome constitutes an irresistible appeal to the infinite. The aggregate is striking in its grandeur even though the building has undergone numerous modifications and degradations, as the configuration of the actual choir attests.

At the end of the seventeenth century a massive high altar of plaser filled the space. This portico of gigantic proportions was composed of no less than ten columns, sixteen pilasters, and an attic that extended around the entire apse. It was created by Jean Péru. Péru is also responsible for the plaster glory at the base of the vault of the apse. The recess in the wall at the end of the apse date from the same period. It replaces a large stained glass window.

In the beginning of the nineteenth century the transformation of the school into a barracks, and the chapel into kitchens, a laundry and a canteen, brought about the destruction of the choir, the complete loss of the altar and the partial destruction of Péru’s glory. In 1851, when it became a church again, important work was done on the choir : an altar and a communion table were installed and Péru’s glory was restored.

At the same time, dark oak woodwork was applied to the walls, concealing the pilaster bases and mitigating some of the force of the original layout. In addition, the beautiful gold-adorned wood altar, embelishing the large tribune at the entrance to the nave, is not original to this structure ; it comes from another chapel in the Vaucluse, Le Thor. In the first two decades of the twentieth century the chapel experienced many vicissitudes, for example it served as an exhibition space for an airplane during a beekeepers fair.

The decision to intall the Musée lapidaire within its walls is a fine break from the bizarre and often inappropriate uses to which this noble building has been put.

The Archeological Gallery

Since 1933 the chapel of the Collège des Jésuites has displayed archeological pieces from the Musée Calvet. At first reserved exclusively for Gallo-Roman and Miedeval sculpture, the building now presents an inspired and diverse selection of Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, and Roman works.

At the center of the building, on the right side of the nave, a selection of Egyptian works (a tomb wall, funerary steles, offering tables, honorific and votive statues) as well as objects relating to the cult of the dead (Canopic jars, ushabti boxes and ushabti, perfume and galene bottles, furniture, amulets, miniature bronzes). The most exceptional piece is a basalt vizier’s head, dating from the Middle Empire. This portrait of the Pharaoh’s highest administrator was originally part of Esprit Calvet’s (1728-1810) cabinet of curiosities.

The display tables along the left present Greek vases illustrating the diversity of productions (Attic, Corinthian, Italiot), techniques (black figure, red figure), and functions (wine vases : krater, kylix, skyphos ; transport vessels : amphora, pelike, hydria ; cosmetic receptacles : pyxis, albastron). Certain large vases, such as the Apulian « Baltimore » barrel-amphora, were specifically fabricated to accompany entombment. Greek terracottas complete the exhibition devoted to Hellenic civilization of the classical period.

There are several tables featuring representative displays from the Gallo-Roman collection. These include bronze statuettes and dishware, terracotta lamps, objects of glass, bone, ivory and molten glass, and gold jewelry. Many of these items were unearthed in the Vaucluse (Vaison, Apt, Orange) during the nineteenth century by the Calvet Foundation. Most of the objects, such as interfitting pyxes and gold rings, come from burial sites.

Among the bronze objects, some are important artifacts from daily life ; note the triple burner lamps, part of the « Apt Treasure », and the chest-lock from Vaison-la-Romaine. Others derive from the Gallo-Roman pantheon and demonstrate the virtuosity of bronze workers of the Imperial period ; note the statuette of the great Gaulish god, Dispater, with his wolf-pelt coif, and Asclepius, the god of medecine.

The five chapels to the right contain sculptures from Roman Gaul : funerary, honorific and votive inscriptions, statues in the round, public and private portraits. The Tarasque de Noves is located in the first chapel on the right. The significance of this man-eating monster remains unknown, and no similar examples from the Gallo-Roman period exist. Statues in the round can be seen in front of the pillars, on each side of the nave. On to the left are two statues of Gaulish warrior from Montdragon evidences indigenous clothing (sagum and Gaulish shield).

The one from Vachères has Roman attire, but is wearing a torque (Celtic ornament).

Perhaps the most important work of the museum is to be found in front of the third chapel on the left. It is a scene from a funerary monument erected for a rich wine or oil merchant of Cabrières-d’Aigues, showing how merchandise was transported by river in Antiquity.

The sacristy on the right is devoted to Christian antiquities in stone, such as funerary inscriptions, fragments of sarcophagi, altars, ablutionary basins. The sacristy on the left is devoted to Greek sculpture. Funerary steles and votive and honorific reliefs comprise a unique ensemble of original Greek pieces, dating from 4BC to 3AD. This grouping includes some excellent works, such as the stele of the young female figure and doll.

Another beautiful classical Attic stele was aquired by the Calvet Foundation in 1999. It presents a hunter brandishing his hare-impaled lagobôlon (rounded club), surrounded by his Laconian hounds.

The chancel area boasts Etruscan urns of tufa, alabaster and terracotta from the Hellinistic period. They represent characteristic funerary themes of the period : scene from mythology, history and domestic life. These urns were placed in chambered tombs, and come primarily from the two major Etruscan sites, Voterra and Tarquinii.

One of the most remarkable pieces in this grouping is an alabaster urn from Volterra. It represents two dolphins facing an aquatic plant from either side. These graceful sea mammals often adorn the walls of Etruscan necropoli, and must have served an expiatory or redemptive purpose ;

The original museological arrangement is maintained in the first four chapels on the left. There is a magnificent Renaissance fireplace decorated with a scene of Leda and the Swan ; Gothic Renaissance tomb from the Dominican monastery ; and more modern sculpture, such as a tomb by Gaspard de Simiane, and Péru’s Virgin and Child.

Note the sculpted blocks that come from a doorway of the forum of ancient Avignon (site of the Place de l’Horloge) and several statues including a Greek copy of Praxiteles’Apollo Sauroktonos, and a woman draped in the style of the Hellenistic period (a rare example of an original Greek sculpture outside of a capital city).