Musée de Cluny

The Musée de Cluny (French pronunciation: [myze də klyni]), officially Musée de Cluny-Musée National du Moyen Âge (lit. 'Cluny Museum-National Museum of the Middle Ages'), is a museum of medieval art in Paris. It is located in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, bordered by square Samuel-Paty to the south, boulevard Saint-Michel to the west, boulevard Saint-Germain to the north, and rue Saint-Jacques to the east.

Its building combines Roman-era thermae, the Thermes de Cluny, including a well-preserved frigidarium, and the 15th-century Hôtel de Cluny, the Parisian mansion of the Abbey of Cluny. The museum houses one of the largest collections of art from the Middle Ages, consisting of 23,000 items, of which about 2,300 are exhibited. The museum's holding including the iconic series of six 15th-century tapestries known as The Lady and the Unicorn.

History

The Hôtel de Cluny is a rare extant example of the civic architecture of medieval Paris, erected in the late 15th century to replace an earlier structure built by Pierre de Chaslus after the Cluny Abbey acquired the ancient Roman baths in 1340. At that time, the mansion was part of a larger complex that also included a religious college (French: Collège de Cluny, no longer extant) on the location of the present-day place de la Sorbonne.

The Cluny mansion was rebuilt under Jacques d'Amboise, abbot in commendam of Cluny 1485–1510, combining Gothic and some early Renaissance elements. D'Amboise used it while also Bishop of Clermont and Abbot of Jumièges. Later users included Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII of England, who resided there in 1515, after the death of her husband Louis XII; James V of Scotland in 1537, on the occasion of his wedding with Madeleine of Valois; and several 17th-century papal nuncios, including Mazarin.