The RMN considers publishing works on the museums’ permanent collections to be a public service. Online catalogues of collections are a continuation of the “scientific” publications which form an inventory of public collections.
The same high standards, new functionalities
These publications make available to specialists all the information they could find in printed catalogues, whether summary, annotated or presented in the form of inventories.
They include precise texts on provenance, dating, history and the style of works from the collections presented.
They also offer new functionalities to visualize the works in full screen colour, and explore their smallest details using a navigable zoom.
They also allow refined searches according to a range of criteria and using various interactive indices.
Information can also be saved in a personal folder.
Free expanded access
As a result of being published on the internet, these scientific publications are accessible to a wider public.
Genuine research tools, they can be freely consulted by anyone.
By being a pioneer in this medium, the RMN has occupied a key place in the field of scientific publishing of online catalogues since 2004, when the catalogue of masterpieces from the Grandidier collection of China ceramics owned by the Asian Arts-Guimet National Museum first appeared, followed by the online catalogue for decorative outdoor sculptures from the Château de Versailles in 2005.
Freely accessible titles
- Gallery of Mirrors at Versailles
The Gallery of Mirrors, the plush surroundings for big parties held by the court of King Louis XIV, has undergone a restoration started in 2004 and completed in June 2007, overseen by Vinci.
This new scientific online catalogue deciphers the paintings from the Gallery’s famous vaulted ceiling and the War and Peace drawing rooms.
The catalogue of illustrations published online offers detailed navigation of the decorative composition, broken down into zones and viewable using a zoom facility. The texts, comparative works and illustrative indexing decode the historic and symbolic messages of all the allegories and characters represented.
- Masterpieces from the Grandidier collection of China ceramics at the Asian Arts-Guimet National Museum
First catalogue to be published online in 2004.
Around 2000 objets d’art housed at the Guimet Museum.
- Versailles, decorative outdoor sculptures
Nearly 1320 sculptures which decorate the outdoors of buildings around the national estate of the Château de Versailles and de Trianon.
- Contemporary French ceramics, 1955-2005, from the National Museum of Ceramics, Sèvres
More than 520 contemporary ceramics housed at the National Museum of Ceramics in Sèvres.
- Drawings at the Château de Pau
285 drawings, from the 17th to the 20th century, housed at the Château de Pau National Museum.
- French drawings at the Magnin Museum, Dijon
492 drawings and engravings of a collection of artists from the 17th to the 19th centuries from the collection of the Magnin Museum in Dijon.
- Le Roc-aux-Sorciers : art et parure du Magdalénien
The 7th scientific online catalogue
- The Gustave Moreau Museum’s drawings
This online catalogue contains more than 1200 colour images. The site provides a navigable zoom to look at the smallest detail of a drawing, a general search engine or the possibility of searching within seven categories (by illustrative subject, artist or copied works... 6700 index entries are included in all, not to mention hypertext links within each work entry).
Catalogues from printed collections
Recent titles:
National Museum of the Middle Ages, Cluny thermal baths, Hispanic ceramics
Écouen, National Museum of the Château, Ebony furniture and panels
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, National Archaeology Museum, Antique terracotta lamps
Rodin Museum, Rodin and bronze
To be published in early 2008:
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, National Archaeology Museum, Napoleon III’s Merovingian collections in the forest of Compiègne
Museums review:
Revue des Musées de France, five issues a year
Orsay Museum, Review 48/14, published biannually
C2RMF, Technè: published biannually
Scientific publications are produced with the help of research credits.
The list of the scientific publications
