L'Amphithéatre d'honneur / The Amphitheater of Honor

The Amphitheater of Honor, or Hemicycle (once used for the distribution of prizes), owes its renown to Paul Delaroche's (1797-1856) masterpiece, "Fame Distributing Crowns," a wax painting finished in 1841. It is signed at dated on the left. Damaged by fire in 1855, it was restored in 1988, thanks to the generosity of the American association "Friends of French Art."

Delaroche's composition includes 74 life-size figures. At the center Ictinous, Apelle and Phidias, transformed into judges; in front of them, 4 female figures symbolizing the 4 great artistic periods (Greek, Roman, Gothic, Renaissance); in the middle, Genius distributing crowns; and finally, on the left and right, 67 or 69 seated or standing artists who appear to be speaking amongst themselves (40 painters and engravers, 15 sculptors, 14 architects).

The painters : Léonard, Raphaël, Fra Bartolomeo, Le Dominiquin, Dürer, Fra Beato Angelico, Michel-Ange, Marc-Antoine, Edelinck, Holbein, Le Sueur, Orcagna, Sebastiano del Piombo, Giotto, Cimabue, Masaccio, Poussin, Mantegna, Jules Romain, Pérugin, Andrea del Sarto, Van der Helst, Potter, Le Lorrain, Gaspard Dughet, Ruysdaël, Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Murillo, Vélasquez, Titien, Van Eyck, Antonello de Messine, Caravage, Giovanni Bellini, Terburg, Giorgione, Véronèse, Corrège.

The architects : Arnolfo di Lapo, Robert de Luzarches, Bramante, Palladio, Mansart, Inigo Jones, Fra Angelico, Brunelleschi, Pierre Lescot, Sansovino, Ervin de Steinbach, Philibert de L'Orme, Vignole, Peruzzi.

The sculptors : Andrea Pisano, Luca della Robbia, Donatello, Ghiberti, Bandinelli, Jean Goujon, Germain Pilon, Puget, Jean de Bologne, Benvenuto Cellini, Bernard Palissy, Pierre Bontemps, Peter Fischer, Benedetto da Maiano, Giovanni Pisano.