Louvre
The Louvre Museum (French: Musée du Louvre) in Paris, France, is one of the oldest, largest, and most famous art galleries and museums in the world. The Louvre has a long history of artistic and historic conservation, inaugurated in the Capetian dynasty until today. The building was previously a royal palace and holds some of the world's most famous works of art, such as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, Madonna of the Rocks, Jacques Louis David's Oath of the Horatii, Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, and Alexandros of Antioch's Venus de Milo.
Located in the center of the French capital, between the Rive Droite of the Seine and the rue de Rivoli in the 1st arrondissement, the Louvre is accessed by the Palais Royal — Musée du Louvre Metro station. The equestrian statue of Louis XIV constitutes the starting point axe historique, but the palace is not aligned on this axis.
The Louvre houses 35,000 works of art displayed in eight curatorial departments: Near Eastern Antiquities; Islamic Art; Paintings; Egyptian Antiquities; Sculptures; Prints and Drawings; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities; and Decorative Arts. With a record 8.3 million visitors in 2006, the Louvre is the most visited art museum in the world. Due to the variety of the collections and the size of the museum—555,000 square feet— visitors are encouraged to take a thematic or cross-departmental approach in seeing exhibits.
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History
The first royal "Castle of the Louvre" was founded in what was then the western edge of Paris by Philip Augustus in 1190, as a fortified royal palace to defend Paris on its west against Viking attacks. The first building in the existing Louvre was begun in 1535, after demolition of the old Castle. The architect Pierre Lescot introduced to Paris the new design vocabulary of the Renaissance, which had been developed in the châteaux of the Loire.
Castle of the Louvre in the fifteenth century.
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Model of the first royal "Castle of the Louvre"
Remains of the original, medieval foundations can still be seen underneath the museum.
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The Gallery of nineteenth-century French School
During his reign (1589–1610), King Henry IV added the Grande Galerie. Henry IV, a promoter of the arts, invited hundreds of artists and craftsmen to live and work on the building's lower floors. This huge addition was built along the bank of the River Seine and at the time was the longest edifice of its kind in the world.
Louis XIII (1610–1643) completed the Denon Wing, which had been started by Catherine Medici in 1560. Today, it has been renovated, as a part of the Grand Louvre Renovation Program.
The Richelieu Wing was also built by Louis XIII. It was part of the Ministry of Economy of France, which took up most of the north wing of the palace. The Ministry was moved and the wing was renovated and turned into magnificent galleries which were inaugurated in 1993, the two-hundreth anniversary of parts of the building first being opened to the public as a museum on November 8, 1793, during the French Revolution. Napoleon I built the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (Triumph Arch) in 1805 to commemorate his victories and the Jardin du Carrousel. In those times this garden was the entrance to the Palais des Tuileries.
The Louvre was still being added to by Napoleon III. The new wing of 1852–1857, by architects Visconti and Hector Lefuel, represents the Second Empire's version of Neo-baroque, full of detail and laden with sculpture. (Work continued until 1876.)
During the uprising of the Paris Commune in 1871, the Tuileries was burned. Paradoxically, the disappearance of the gardens, which had originally brought about the extension of the Louvre, opened the admirable perspective that now stretches from the Arc du Carrousel west through the Tuileries and the Place de la Concorde to the Place Charles de Gaulle.
In the late 1980s, the Louvre embarked upon an aggressive program of renovation and expansion. When the first plans by the Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei were unveiled in 1984, that included a glass pyramid in the central courtyard that would serve as the museum's main entrance.
In November 1993, to mark its two-hundreth anniversary, the museum unveiled the Richelieu Wing in the quarters that had been vacated, grudgingly, by the Ministry of Finance in 1989. This expansion, which completed the museum's occupancy of the palace complex, added 230,000 square feet to the existing 325,000 square feet of exhibition space, and allowed it to put an additional 12,000 works of art on display in 165 new rooms.
Louvre Pyramid
The Louvre Pyramid was built on the axis of the French Revolution. The central courtyard, on the axis of the Champs-Élysées, is occupied by the Louvre Pyramid, built in 1989, and serves as the main entrance to the museum.
The Louvre Pyramid is a large glass pyramid commissioned by then French president François Mitterrand, designed by I. M. Pei and was inaugurated in 1989. This was the first renovation of the Grand Louvre Project. The Carre Gallery, where the Mona Lisa was exhibited, was also renovated. The pyramid covers the Louvre entresol and forms part of the new entrance into the museum.
Le Louvre-Lens
Since many of the works in the Louvre are viewed only in distinct departments - for example, French Painting, Near Eastern Art, or Sculpture - established some 200 years ago, it was decided that a satellite building would be created outside of Paris, to experiment with other museological displays and to allow for a larger visitorship outside the confines of the Paris Palace. Sourced from the Louvre's core holdings, and not from long-lost or stored works in the basement of the Louvre, as widely thought, the new satellite will show works side-by-side, cross-referenced and juxtaposed from all periods and cultures, creating an entirely new experience for the museum visitor.
The project completion is planned for late 2010; the building will be capable of receiving between 500 and 600 major works, with a core gallery dedicated to the human figure over several millenia. This new building should receive about 500,000 visitors per year. There were orginally six city candidates for this project: Amiens, Arras, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Calais, Lens, and Valenciennes. On November 29, 2004, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin chose Lens, Pas-de-Calais to be the site of the new Louvre building. Le Louvre-Lens was the name chosen for the museum.
The new satellite museum, funded by the local regional government, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, will have 236,806 square feet of usable space built on two levels, with semi-permanent exhibition space covering at least 53,820 square feet. There will also be space set aside for rotating temporary exhibitions. The project will also feature a multi-purpose theater and visitable conservation spaces. The building is comprised of a series of low-laying spaces clad in glass and stainless steel in the middle of a 60 acres former mining site, largely reclaimed by nature. The new satellite building, with an estimated cost of $96.6 million, was selected after an international architectural competition in 2005.
The architectural joint-venture team of SANAA of Tokyo and the New York-based IMREY CULBERT LP were awarded the project on September 26, 2005. SANAA is a widely recognized Japanese architectural firm, noted for their ethereal designs. IMREY CULBERT is an American/French architectural firm, specializing in museum and exhibit designs, with offices in New York and Paris. Tim Culbert, project architect that lead the team's submission for the Louvre-Lens project, was previously an associate-partner of I.M. Pei, architect of the Pyramid of the Louvre.
Access
The station is named after the nearby Palais Royal and the Louvre. Until the 1990s, its name was Palais Royal; it was renamed when a new access was built from the station to the underground portions of the redeveloped Louvre Museum.
Management
Long managed by the French state under the Réunion des Musées Nationaux, the Louvre has recently acquired powers of self-management as an Etablissement Public Autonome ("government-owned corporation) in order better to manage its growth.
Directors
The director of the Louvre has in the past been known as its "Conservateur," and is now known as its "président directeur général." These have included:
- Dominique Vivant: 1804-1815
- Michel Delignat-Lavaut: ?-1987
- Michel Laclotte: 1987-1994
- Pierre Rosenberg: 1994-2001
- Henri Loyrette: 2001-present
Collections
Works of artists like Fragonard, Rembrandt, Rubens, Titian, Poussin, and David can be seen. Among the well-known sculptures in the collection are the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo.
The collection of Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845–1934), given to the Louvre in 1935, fills an exhibition room. It contains more than 40,000 engravings, nearly 3,000 drawings, and 500 illustrated books.
Besides art, the Louvre has many other types of exhibits, including archeology, history, sculpture and architecture. It has a large furniture collection, whose most spectacular item used to be the Bureau du Roi of the eighteenth century, now returned to the Palace of Versailles.
Since September 14, 2005, the Louvre museum has gradually forbidden the taking of photos of its artworks. Signs prohibiting photography suggest the consultation of the images on the Louvre online catalogue instead.
Notable paintings
Thirteenth to fifteenth century
- The Madonna and Christ Child enthroned with angels, Cimabue (about 1270)
- Saint Francis of Assisi receives the stigmata, Giotto (about 1290–1300)
- Portrait of John II the Good, anonymous (about 1350). Acquired by Louis XV, part of the royal collection
- The Virgin with Chancellor Rolin, Jan van Eyck (about 1435). Seized in the French Revolution (1796)
- Portrait de Charles VII, Jean Fouquet (1445–1448). Bought in 1838
- The Condottiero, Antonello da Messina (1475). Bought in 1865
- St. Sebastian, Andrea Mantegna (1480)
- Ship of Fools, Hieronymus Bosch (1490–1500)
- Self-Portrait with flowers, Albrecht Dürer (1493). Bought in 1922
Sixteenth century
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The Virgin and Child with St. Anne
- Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci (1503–1506), acquired by Francis I in 1519
- The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, Leonardo da Vinci (1508)
- The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist, called La belle jardinière, Raphael (1508). Belonged to the royal collection, acquired by Francis I
- Portrait of Balthazar Castiglione, Raphael (about 1515), acquired by Louis XIV from the estate of Mazarin
- The Wedding at Cana, Paolo Veronese (1562–1563). It hung 8.25 feet from the floor in the San Giorgio Maggiore monastery for 235 years, until it was plundered by Napoleon in 1797
Seventeenth century
- Saint Joseph charpentier, Georges de la Tour (1642), donated in 1948
- The club foot, Joseph de Ribera (1642), bequeathed in 1869
- The pilgrims of Emmaus, Rembrandt (1648), seized in the French Revolution in 1793
- Le young mendicant, Murillo (about 1650), bought by Louis XVI about 1782
- Bathsheba at Her Bath, Rembrandt (1654, bequeathed in 1869
- Ex Voto, Philippe de Champaigne (1662), seized in the French Revolution in 1793
- The Lacemaker, Johannes Vermeer, (1669–1670), bought in 1870
- Et in Arcadia ego, Nicolas Poussin (1637–1638)
Eighteenth century
- Portrait of Louis XIV, Hyacinthe Rigaud (1701)
- The Embarkation for Cythera, Antoine Watteau (1717)
- La Raie, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (before 1728)
- Oath of the Horatii, Jacques-Louis David (1784)
- Master Hare, Joshua Reynolds (1788–1789)
Nineteenth century
- Bonaparte visitant les pestiférés de Jaffa, Antoine-Jean Gros (1804)
- The Raft of the Medusa, Théodore Géricault (1819)
- Liberty Leading the People, Eugène Delacroix (1830)
- The Turkish bath, Ingres (1862)
References in popular culture
The Louvre is a central location in the 1979 serial City of Death in the science fiction television series Doctor Who. In this adventure, Scaroth, last of the Jagaroth, attempts to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre.
The Louvre inspired a virtual setting of adventure in the video game Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, starring Lara Croft.
Film
The Louvre, its art, particularly the art in the basement — not on display, is the subject of a scene in Kate & Leopold where Leopold talks about having a private tour of the basement to see the "real treasures."
Scenes were filmed in the Louvre in both Martin Scorsese's 1993 The Age of Innocence and Merchant Ivory's 1990 Mr. and Mrs. Bridge.
The Louvre is destroyed (along with the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe) during a counter-terrorism mission in the 2004 satirical film Team America: World Police.
The Da Vinci Code
The Louvre and many of its works of art are featured prominently in Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code and in the 2006 film adaptation. The Louvre is the main setting in the prologue and first few chapters of the book and parts of the movie. The museum is the homicide crime scene where curator Jacques Saunière is murdered by an Opus Dei member named Silas.
Film productions
The Da Vinci Code Louvre scenes were filmed on location. Originally, director Ron Howard was unable to obtain permission to film in the Louvre, having already been denied access to Westminster Abbey and Saint-Sulpice (Paris). However, French President Jacques Chirac invited Howard to lunch at his home, where he informed the director that he would obtain clearance and Howard could contact him personally if there were any further problems (TIME, April 2006).
Gaming
In the video game, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, the Louvre is visited by Lara Croft in a few levels of the game.
Radio
The Louvre is a frequent location in the British radio series The Goon Show, in particular the episodes "Napoleon's Piano" (October 11,1955 - in which Seagoon and friends steal the eponymous fictional instrument from the Louvre) and "The Mountain Eaters" (December 1, 1958 - in which it is known as "the well-known double-entendre and comic's resort," and in which Seagoon signs an IOU on the Mona Lisa).
Band
The Louvre was also the name of a popular Los Angeles-based rock band in the eighties featuring Steven Spiller-vocals, Paul Lauer-guitar, Tristen Beamon-bass, Greg Garcia-drums, and Cliff Martin-keyboard.
Abu Dhabi Louvre
In March 2007, the Louvre announced that a Louvre museum would be completed by 2012 in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The 30-year agreement, signed by French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres and Sheik Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, will prompt the construction of a Louvre museum in downtown Abu Dhabi in exchange for $1.3 billion. It has been noted that the museum will showcase work from multiple French museums, including the Louvre, the Georges Pompidou Center, the Musee d'Orsay, and Versailles. However, Donnedieu de Vabres stated at the announcement that the Paris Louvre would not sell any of its 35,000-piece collection.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Bonfante-Warren, Alexandra. Louvre, Universe, 2000. ISBN 978-0883635018
- D'Archimbaud, Nicholas. Louvre: Portrait of a Museum, Harry N. Abrams, 2001. ISBN 978-0810983154
- Gowing, Lawrence. Paintings in the Louvre, Stewart, Tabori, and Chang, 1994. ISBN 978-1556700071
- Laclotte, Michel. Treasures of the Louvre, Tuttle Shokai, Inc., 2002. ISBN 978-4925080026
- Mignot, Claude. The Pocket Louvre: A Visitor's Guide to 500 Works, Abbeville Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0789205780
External links
- Official Louvre website (Requires Flash)
- Official Louvre website (French) (Requires Flash)
- Extensive Photo Gallery from The Louvre — Photos of almost all the sculpture, many of the paintings and Objects d'Art
- Fullscreen Virtual Tour by Virtualsweden
- History of the Louvre
- Excerpt of Michael T. Cannell's book on I.M. Pei — discusses controversy over Pei's pyramid.
- Antiquities of the Louvre
- 200 photographs from a one-day visit
- Official École du Louvre website (Requires Flash)
- (Spanish) The most important museums of the world
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