Gabriel Millet was appointed full professor of the Esthétique et histoire de l'artchairat the Collège de France onMay20 1926, succeeding André Michel (1920-1925) whose Histoire de l'art françaischairwas thus re-titled. In 1924, Millet had already presented his candidacy for a chair entitled Archéologie du Proche-Orient médiéval (Archaeology of the Medieval Near East), but this was ultimately not created. In 1926, the professors' assembly seems to have preferred a broad, general title, echoing the nomenclature of the chairs held by Charles Blanc (1878-1882), Eugène Guillaume (1882-1905) and Georges Lafenestre (1905-1919). A large majority of professors voted in favor of a specialist in Eastern Christian art, whose previous work emphasized the role played by Eastern models on Western art in the fields of architecture, decoration, painting and illumination.

Taught twice a week until his retirement in 1937, Gabriel Millet's lectures moved from the general to the specific. Thus, from 1927 to 1930, Millet devoted four years to the study of religious painting and its stylistic evolution on the one hand, and the study of illuminated manuscripts in the East on the other. In 1930, the period he calls the " Byzantine Renaissance " of the ^14th century was the subject of a study lasting several years (1930-1932), allowing him to focus on remarkable works from Russia and Serbia. From 1931 onwards, Millet favored a geographical approach : Byzantine, Slavic and Romanian architecture (from 1931 to 1933), painting in Macedonia (1933), Serbia (1934-1935) and Syria (1934).

As soon as he was elected, Millet gave lectures abroad, but his travels were often closely linked to his research. In 1930, the Ministry of Public Instruction sent him to Mount Athos, where he completed the documentation he had gathered in 1918-1920 ; in 1934, the French and Yugoslav governments, as well as the Bulgarian Archaeological Institute, financed study missions devoted to churches from the ^12th to ^15th centuries, in Serbia and Bulgaria respectively.

In his readings on religious painting, while emphasizing the survival of the ancient manner in the treatment of architecture, landscapes and the human figure, Millet supports a theory of the succession of styles : the Hellenistic picturesque is replaced by a severe, classical style under the influence of theologians (Millet draws extensively on theological and mystical doctrines to explain iconography and its architectural articulation), then a final picturesque style emerges thanks to the humanists of the " Byzantine Renaissance " of the ^14th century, whose premises date back to the ^12th century and which aims to place man in his environment by drawing inspiration from ancient models. He places particular emphasis on the existence, from the ^12th century onwards, of several artistic centers outside Constantinople, some of which, like Serbia, were confronted with the Italian Primitives. While he emphasizes the notion of regional schools or national groups, he also seeks to compare and highlight filiations and relationships, freeing himself from borders and highlighting the themes of decorative programs.

Booklet written by Marc Verdure (Collège de France - Institute of Civilizations).