Renaissance à l’Atelier des Lumières

About the Experience

From March 13 to September 20, 2026, "Renaissance: De Vinci, Raphaël, Michel-Ange" transforms the Atelier des Lumières into an immersive setting dedicated to the three geniuses of the Quattrocento. This new fifty-two-minute creation restores Leonardo's scientific curiosity, the harmony of Raphael's compositions, and the sculptural power of Michelangelo. For the first time, the former foundry deploys atmospheric effects – fog, lasers, smoke – that profoundly renew the sensory experience. The journey follows the voice of Giorgio Vasari, the first art historian, interpreted by actor Féodor Atkine, for a voyage from Florence to Rome at the heart of Renaissance creation.

Journey & Scenography

From Florentine workshops to the Vatican vaults, the visitor first enters the Florentine workshops where the first revolutionary sketches of the Renaissance were developed. The monumental projections restore the Tuscan light, study notebooks, and life-size models that the masters conceived before each commission. The foundry space transforms into a bottega, those collective workshops where apprentices and established artists worked side by side. The route then takes the road to Rome to reach the Vatican vaults, where frescoes and architecture take on spectacular proportions. Raphael's Rooms and the Sistine Chapel ceiling appear across the 3,300 m² of projection surfaces. Each geographical transition is accompanied by a change in musical palette composed by the Troublemakers studio, creating a dialogue between contemporary sounds and ancient motifs.

For this creation, the Atelier des Lumières completely renews its technical setup. One hundred and forty video projectors and a spatialized sound system cover the walls and floor of the former foundry. Jean-Baptiste Hardoin, artistic director, stages the production with Studio Cutback. Thomas Dechandon, light designer for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games ceremonies, orchestrates a ballet of light beams, lasers, and fog veils that give the images unprecedented physical depth. These atmospheric effects, integrated for the first time in this space, mark a departure from previous creations. The original soundtrack, composed by the Troublemakers studio, creates a dialogue between today's music and Renaissance motifs. The historical rigor of the journey is based on the work of Florian Métral, a Renaissance specialist researcher, who supervised the selection and contextualization of the works.

Three Masters

The experience devotes distinct time to each master before weaving their contributions into a shared narrative. Leonardo da Vinci opens with his anatomical studies, flying machines, and research on light, deployed through 3D modeling from high-definition scans. The visitor discovers how the methodical observation of living things nourished masterpieces projected at a scale that reveals details invisible to the naked eye in traditional museums. Raphael takes over with his rigorously balanced compositions, his Madonnas, and his great Vatican frescoes, whose colors regain the brilliance they possessed at the time of their creation thanks to digital processing. The sequence of the Sistine Chapel and The Creation of Adam at eye level are among the most striking moments of the journey.

Raphael's Rooms

Raphael was only twenty-five when Pope Julius II entrusted him with the decoration of his private apartments at the Vatican. The four Rooms (Stanze) he designed between 1508 and 1524 constitute one of the pinnacles of Western painting, blending trompe-l'œil architecture, dramatic narration, and harmony of colors. At the Atelier des Lumières, the frescoes of the Stanze emerge on the walls and columns of the foundry, crossed by laser beams that extend the perspective lines drawn by Raphael. The projection restores the monumental scale of the originals and reveals a chromatic richness that five centuries of patina had attenuated. Raphael conceals the features of his contemporaries: Plato borrows, according to tradition, the face of Leonardo da Vinci, Heraclitus that of Michelangelo, and the painter portrays himself among the astronomers.

Children's Space

The ticket to the Atelier des Lumières also grants access to the Atelier des enfants, a space dedicated to the youngest visitors where they explore Leonardo da Vinci's universe, color his emblematic machines, and see their creations come to life on the walls.

Practical Information

Venue: Atelier des Lumières, 38 rue Saint-Maur, 75011 Paris

Dates: March 13 – September 20, 2026

Opening hours: Vary by day – consult the calendar when booking to choose your time slot.

Duration: The immersive experience lasts 52 minutes. Allow approximately 1h15 total to enjoy the full journey including the children's space.

Getting there: Metro: Voltaire (line 9), Saint-Ambroise (line 9), Rue Saint-Maur (line 3). Bus: lines 46, 56, 69, and 76.

Prices

• Tiqets: Adult: €19.50 (no additional fees); Reduced rate (12–25 years, students, job seekers): €17.50; Child (3–11 years): €12.50; Child (under 3): Free
• Fnac: Adult: €19.50 (+€0.99 fees); Senior (+65 years): €18.50; Reduced rate (12–25 years, students, job seekers, disability card, Pass Éducation): €17.50; Fnac member: €17.50; Child member (3–11 years): €12.50

Access to the Atelier des enfants is included in the ticket.