Main collections

In Fabre's day, this gallery presented paintings and casts of antique sculptures. Today, it is devoted to masterpieces of European art from the 14th to the 16th centuries. Pietro da Rimini illustrates the influence and dissemination of the work of Giotto. Renaissance painters include Brescianino, Kempeneer and Jean Cousin, whose Charity testifies to the revival of French art through the Fontainebleau School. Salviati and Allori represent Florentine Mannerism, while Bassano, Palma the Younger and Veronese reflect the vitality of the Venetian school.

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Like the previous gallery, this room was used for the display of artworks in Fabre's day, and featured a collection of marble sculptures. Today, the small, intimate space is given over to a display of small-format Italian works from the early 1600s, the period of the Italian Counter-Reformation. Religious paintings by Elsheimer, Cigoli and the Albani family illustrate the transition from 16th-century Mannerism to the 17th-century paintings displayed in the next room.

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This superb space was known in Fabre's day as the Galeries particulières de M. le directeur ("the Director's personal galleries"). Restored to its former dimensions, it features a Neo-Etruscan frieze by Thomas Baroffi, commissioned by Fabre. The gallery provides a fitting setting for large-format French and Italian religious paintings and classical landscapes of the 17th century. The diversity of Italian painting during this period is reflected in the works of Carravaggist painters such as Pretti and Ribera, the Late Mannerists (Cigoli) and classicising artists of the Bolognese school (Domenichino and Cagnacci). Works by Poussin, the Montpellier-born painter Bourdon (chiefly active in Rome and Paris), Vouet and Blanchard illustrate the rise of a distinctive French school in the period 1630-70, in the face of a bewildering array of Italian movements and trends (Atticism, Venetianism..)

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This small, elongated gallery lined with hardwood panelling connects the two wings of the Hôtel du Chevalier de Massilian, and pays tribute to the Musée Fabre's great donors, Fabre himself, and Valedau. The display cases present collections of antique ceramics, art objects and miniatures illustrating less well-known but significant aspects of their respective personal tastes.

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This themed gallery presents religious works of the Counter-Reformation, extending the collections on display in the Griffin Gallery. Italian painters such as Dolci and Guercino illustrate highly expressive yet utterly different approaches to piety. Legros's sculpture of Religion triumphing over Heresy is a superb example of Baroque triumphalism à la Bernini. Masterpieces by the Spanish painter Zurbaran – St Agatha and The Angel Gabriel – are displayed to superb effect in this small gallery, formerly a sitting-room in Fabre's private apartments.

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This second interpretive gallery is devoted to the painter and collector François-Xavier Fabre, the founder of the Musée Fabre. The displays are installed in Fabre's former private study, where he worked as director of the museum from 1828 until his death in 1837. Printed interpretive sheets and interactive information stations provide further details of Fabre's life and work.

Realist French and Italian works of the 17th century are displayed in what was once the bedroom of Fabre's private apartments. Portraits by Bernini and Roman landscapes by Napoletano are presented together with a group of French genre scenes.

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Following on from its representative survey of European painting from the 14th century to the first half of the 17th century, the museum's collection of pre-19th-century art continues with mostly French works. The grand salon of its original director, François-Xavier Fabre, is today devoted to history paintings, portraits and landscapes from 1660-1700, including a number of Languedoc artists such as the Montpellier-born painter Bourdon (who was chiefly active in Paris), and the Toulouse-born artists Rivalz and de Troy.

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This gallery, formerly known as the Salle du Trésor, formed part of the original Musée Fabre when it was first opened in the late 1820s. The gallery comprises two rooms formerly devoted to prints and drawings. Today, it presents works from the end of the reign of Louis XIV to the Régence, with a particular focus on local history, including three busts of the Deydé family, works by two great portraitists of the period (Rigaud and Largillière), and the Montpellier-born portraitist and genre painter Jean Raoux, who enjoyed a distinguished reputation during the Régence.

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The Galerie des Colonnes was built circa 1875 to house the collection of Alfred Bruyas, and a selection of Old Master paintings. Today, the gallery presents large-format French paintings from the end of the reign of Louis XIV to the end of the reign of Louis XV (1680 to 1760). The collection includes a dozen "reception pieces" by Natoire, Troy etc., marking their creators' admission as members of the Académie Royale, together with an exceptional series of monumental canvases painted by Coypel for the Gallery of Aeneas at the Palais Royal in Paris. Visitors will also see works by Restout, Dulin etc., and the Montpellier-born artists Ranc and Raoux.

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Built in 1877, the gallery was intended to link the Galerie des Colonnes with the north side of the municipal library, and formerly housed the Fages reserve library, named after a Montpellier doctor, donor of some 10,000 books on natural science, ethnology and archaeology. Today, the gallery houses a collection of works by French artists (Subleyras, Vernet, Van Loo) and painters of the northern European schools (Bloemen and Dietrich), many of whom travelled to Italy in the first half of the 18th century. Italian painters represented here include Panini, Locatelli and Guardi. The works illustrate the importance of Italy during this period as a catalyst for the spread of artistic influences between schools.

All the works exposed in this room