This year, the Donjon de Vez presents a new artistic experience with an exhibition dedicated to Joan of Arc, a major figure in the collective imagination, whose portrayal has continually evolved over the centuries. The exhibition explores the many faces of Joan: national heroine, saint, warrior, martyr and political and spiritual symbol. In the Donjon’s chapel, the exhibition highlights the richness and diversity of interpretations of Joan of Arc across different eras and media.
A brand-new exhibition to discover from 2 May to 5 September 2026
In the 19th century, the Buren Gallery—bathed in light from the two skylights designed by Daniel Buren—houses a collection of sculptures from an enthusiast for whom Joan of Arc remains ‘the bravest man in France’. Crafted in bronze, marble, gilded metal or onyx, these works showcase the many incarnations of the Maid of Orléans: horswoman, warrior maiden, saint or patriotic figure. Nineteenth-century sculpture thus shapes an idealised image, at the crossroads of the religious and the national.
In the 20th century, in the Salle des Gardes, the exhibition presents suspended images taken from "La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc" (1928), Carl Theodor Dreyer’s masterpiece. With this black-and-white silent film, a radical modernity asserts itself. Inspired by the trial transcripts, Dreyer films the faces at close quarters, in a succession of close-ups of striking intensity. The expressions tense and contort, oscillating between austerity and strangeness. Renée Jeanne Falconetti’s deeply moving face, imbued with an inner fervour, gives Jeanne a presence that is both mystical and unsettling, somewhere between saint and witch, between divine inspiration and the vertigo of doubt.
The exhibition continues in the Eiffel Room with a display on the 21st century. Bruno Dumont, a leading figure in contemporary cinema and a Cannes award-winner, explores this theme further in his films "Jeannette" (2017) and "Jeanne" (2019). In them, he presents a stripped-back, humanised portrayal of Joan of Arc as a serious and determined child, whilst examining the historical and symbolic significance of this constantly reinvented figure.
By bringing together sculptures, film clips and artists’ perspectives, the Donjon de Vez presents an exhibition that explores the enduring legacy and transformations of Joan of Arc in art history and the French collective imagination. This exhibition invites visitors to rediscover a complex figure who is at once historical, spiritual, political and profoundly contemporary.
