Dreams of happiness, the myth of the golden age from Ingres to Matisse

The myth of the Golden Age is that of the utopian dream of an abundant nature, of a harmonious, peaceful and egalitarian society which was to be thought of as outside of time, at the origins of the world, in an inaccessible place, an earthly paradise.
This dream of happiness will be embodied differently according to the times, according to the societies. In all the multiplicity and variations of its interpretations, the myth of the Golden Age endures with the need, specific to each era, to reinterpret it according to historical and cultural contingencies and circumstances.
The exhibition will establish a dialogue between the works of the 16th and 17th centuries, the period at the origin of all the iconography and imagination associated with dreams of an ideal humanity and society, and the works of 19th century artists.