Musée Rolin

The Musée Rolin occupies the Hôtel Rolin, a handsome town house of the fifteenth century in the upper town of Autun, in southern Burgundy, and it is the main museum of a town that was one of the great cities of Roman Gaul. The house was built in the middle of the fifteenth century for Nicolas Rolin, the chancellor of the dukes of Burgundy, who was one of the most powerful and richest men of his age. Rolin also founded the Hospices de Beaune, and he came from a family of Autun, so the house here belongs to the same story of wealth and patronage. The museum was set up in 1878 by the local learned society, the Société Éduenne, and has since grown into a collection of archaeology, medieval art, local history and fine arts.

The museum is currently closed for major renovation. The closure began in October 2022 and the reopening is planned for 2028, so it is not possible to visit it at present, and anyone planning a trip should check for updates with the town or the museum. In the meantime, the town's monuments can still be seen.

The collection is strongest in two areas. The first is the Gallo-Roman archaeology, with objects from Augustodunum, the city founded under Augustus around 15 BC, among them mosaics, sculpture, inscriptions, pottery and everyday objects, which show the wealth of the town in its heyday. The second is medieval sculpture, which includes the masterpiece of the museum, Eve, a statue carved around 1130 by Gislebertus, the sculptor who worked on the Cathedral of Saint-Lazare. The reclining figure of Eve, who is shown reaching for the fruit as she creeps through the branches of the tree, once belonged to the north doorway of the cathedral and is one of the best-known works of Romanesque sculpture, notable for its sensuality and elegance. It was rediscovered in the nineteenth century, and it remains the principal draw.

The museum also holds paintings, among them the Nativity with Cardinal Rolin, a work attributed to the Master of Moulins and painted around 1480, in which the cardinal, the son of the chancellor, is shown kneeling before the infant Christ in a detailed landscape. Other departments cover regional history, the folk arts of the Morvan and fine arts from the Renaissance to the twentieth century.

When it reopens, the museum will be a good complement to the town's other sights. The Roman gate, the Porte Saint-André, the large Roman theatre, the Temple of Janus, the Cathédrale Saint-Lazare, with its Romanesque tympanum by the same Gislebertus, and the Église Saint-Nazaire are all in or around the town, and the Parc de la Combe à l'Orme offers a green space. The museum suits those interested in Roman and medieval history and in the art of Burgundy.