The Musée de Tessé is the main fine arts museum of Le Mans, housed in the former bishop's palace near the cathedral. Its collection spans Egyptian antiquities, medieval sculpture, and European paintings from the 15th century to the 19th, with particular strength in French and Flemish work.
The highlight is an unusual enamel plaque: the Geoffrey Plantagenet enamel, dating from around 1151, is one of the earliest surviving large-scale portraits in Western medieval art and depicts Geoffrey of Anjou — father of Henry II of England and the man from whom the Plantagenet dynasty took its name. The museum also holds a series of local scenes painted in the 17th century that document the landscape and people of the Sarthe region in striking detail.