LOUVRE

(Redirected from Musée du Louvre)

The 'Louvre Museum' () in Paris, France, is the most visited and 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 and continuing to this day. 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 centre of the city of Paris, between the Rive Droite of the Seine and the rue de Rivoli in the Ier arrondissement, it is accessed by the Palais Royal — Musée du Louvre Metro station. The equestrian statue of Louis XIV constitutes the starting point of the "axe historique", but the palace is not aligned on this axis.
With 8.3 million visitors in 2006,[1] the Louvre is the most visited art museum in the world.
View of Musée du Louvre from Jardin des Tuileries[2]

Musée du Louvre, Pavillon Richelieu


Contents
History
Construction and architecture
Louvre Pyramid
Le Louvre-Lens
Access
Management
Directors
Departments & Collections
Notable Paintings
Trivia
Abu Dhabi Louvre
See also
Gallery
References
External links

History


Upon the French Revolution, the royal Louvre collection (supplemented by the collections of the French Academy and confiscations from the Church and from émigrés) became the "Muséum central des Arts" and opened as such in 1793. From 1794 onwards, France's victorious revolutionary armies brought back increasing numbers of artworks from across Europe, aiming to establish it as a major European museum. A particularly significant addition was the masterpieces from Italy (including the ''Laocoon and his sons''[1] and the ''Apollo Belvedere'', both from the papal collection) which arrived in Paris in July 1798 with much pomp and ceremony (a special Sèvres vase was commissioned for the occasion).
The sheer number of these statues forced the museum's curators into reorganising the displays. The building was redecorated, augurated in 1800, and renamed the "musée Napoléon" in 1803. It continued to grow (led by Vivant Denon) through purchases and spoliation (eg the forced purchase of part of the Borghese collection) and was an attempt at creating a universal museum of art, with all the best sculptures.[2] - indeed, most of the art Napoleon directed his commissioners to take was sculpture rather than old-master paintings. For a short period, this allowed north Europeans to see the finest of classical sculpture without organising an expensive Grand Tour to Italy itself. The collections shrank again when almost all wartime acquisitions had to be returned after Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo in 1815.

Construction and architecture


Main articles: Palais du Louvre

''The Richelieu Wing'' of the Louvre at night

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 Plantagenêt 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.
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 Programme.
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 200th 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 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.
Panoramic view of the Louvre in 1908



Louvre Pyramid

Main articles: Louvre Pyramid

View of the outside from inside the Louvre Pyramid

The central courtyard of the museum, on the axis of the Champs-Élysées, is occupied by the Louvre Pyramid, built in 1989, which serves as the main entrance to the museum.
The Louvre Pyramid is a 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 millennia. This new building should receive about 500,000 visitors per year. There were originally 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 22,000 square meters of usable space built on two levels, with semi-permanent exhibition space covering at least 5000 m². There will also be space set aside for rotating temporary exhibitions. The project will also feature a multi-purpose theatre and visitable conservation spaces. The building is comprised of a series of low-laying volumes clad in glass and stainless steel in the middle of a 60 acres former mining site, largely reclaimed by nature. The estimated cost for this building is 70 million euro, or 96.6 million US dollars (at July 2007). The new satellite building 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, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa with Tim Culbert and Celia Imrey / IMREY CULBERT LP [3]). SANAA is a widely recognized Japanese architectural firm, noted for their ethereal designs. IMREY CULBERT is a US/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


Map of the Louvre

The Louvre can be accessed by the Palais Royal — Musée du Louvre Métro station. 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 ''Établissement 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

Departments & Collections



The Musée du Louvre's collections number over 380,000 objects [3], though not one of worlds largest collections, arguably one of the finest.
The Louvre displays 35,000 works of art drawn from eight curatorial departments, displayed in over 60,600 square meters of exhibition space dedicated to the permanent collections[4]. According to the most recent Annual Report, published in 2005[3], the museums holdings are as follows:


★ Near Eastern Antiquities

★ Egyptian Antiquities

★ Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities

★ Islamic Art

★ Sculptures

★ Decorative Arts

★ Paintings

★ Prints and Drawings


★ 100,000

★ 50,000

★ 45,000

★ 10,000

★ 6,550

★ 20,704

★ 11,900

★ 183,500



The hallmark of the museums collection is its 11,900 paintings (6,000 on permanent display and 5,900 in deposit), representing the largest holdings of western pictoral art in the world. There are large holdings from such artists as Fragonard, Rembrandt, Rubens, Titian, Van Dyck, Poussin, and David. Among the well-known sculptures in the collection are the ''Winged Victory of Samothrace'' and the ''Venus de Milo''.
The collection of Prints and Drawings were significantly supplemented with the donation of Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845–1934) collection in 1935, containing more than 40,000 engravings, nearly 3,000 drawings and 500 illustrated books.
Besides art, the Louvre displays a host of other exhibits, including archaeology, sculpture's and objet d'art. The permanent galleries showcase large holdings of furniture, whose most spectacular item was the Bureau du Roi, completed by Jean Henri Riesener in the 18th 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.[6] Signs prohibiting photography suggest the consultation of the images on the Louvre online catalogue instead.
Notable Paintings

;13th to 15th 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
;16th century


★ ''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 2.5 metres (8¼ ft) from the floor in the San Giorgio Maggiore monastery for 235 years, until it was plundered by Napoleon in 1797
;17th 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)

★ ''Coronation of Marie de' Medici in St. Denis'', Peter Paul Rubens (1622-1625)
;18th 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)
;19th 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)

Trivia


:The Louvre is a central location in the 1979 serial ''City of Death'' in the science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''.
''Film''
:The Louvre, its art, particularly the art in the basement — not on display — is the subject of a scene in ''Kate & Leopold''.
: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 ''.
''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 Louvre scenes of ''The Da Vinci Code'' were filmed on location. Originally, director Ron Howard was unable to obtain permission to film there, 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.[7]
''Gaming''
:The Louvre inspired a virtual setting of adventure in the video game , starring Lara Croft.
''Radio''
:The Louvre is a frequent location in the British radio series ''The Goon Show'', in particular the episodes "Napoleon's Piano" (11 October 1955) and "The Mountain Eaters" (1 December 1958).
''Music''
:The Louvre was also the name of a Los Angeles-based rock band in the 1980s.

Abu Dhabi Louvre


In March 2007, the Louvre announced that a Louvre museum would be completed by 2012 in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The thirty-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 USD. 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, on display.[8]

See also



École du Louvre

La Pyramide Inversée

Louvre Pyramid

Place du Louvre

Quai du Louvre (the Louvre is officially no. 36)

WebMuseum

Gallery


''Medieval Fortress

''Paintings



Peter Paul Rubens - Coronation of Marie de' Medici in St. Denis



References


1. Yahoo News
2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/89297978@N00/sets/72157594515487122/
3. 2005 Annual Report - ''Tableau récapitulatif de l’état d'avancement de l'informatisation des collections fin 2005'', pg 185
4. http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/alaune.jsp?bmLocale=fr_FR
5. 2005 Annual Report - ''Tableau récapitulatif de l’état d'avancement de l'informatisation des collections fin 2005'', pg 185
6. Photography Restricted in the Louvre.
7. ''TIME'', April 2006
8. http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1596692,00.html

External links



Official Louvre website (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

Excerpt of Michael T. Cannell's book on I.M. Pei — discusses controversy over Pei's pyramid.

Antiquities of the Louvre

Official École du Louvre website (Requires Flash)

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