Louvre Museum (Musee du Louvre) Paris France

Kings, revolutionaries, conquerors and ministers; all worked for enriching it; and their works did not go waste; Louvre remains as the most famous museum in the world.
Louvre Museum located between Rue de Rivoli -Paris’s commercial street with the most fashionable shopping arcades- and River Seine. It was originally intended to be a fortress. But its fate was to go on changing roles with the historical events that took place in France. Philip Augustus (1180 -1223) built it as a fortress (1190) to defend the land from Anglo-Norman attacks. As the time changed the building had to undergo 800 years of alternations to play roles like; a fortress, palace, prison and finally the present role as the leading museum of the world housing Mona Lisa!

The Kings

The idea of a public museum was the child of La Font de Saint Yvonne who voiced it his article; it worked with beginning of one in Luxemburg Palace; but Yvonne consistently argued for one in Louvre itself. Relenting to Saint’s views; Louis XVIII shifted the venue in 1780 to Louvre with just 99 materials. It is Francois I who built the present structure under architect Pierre Lescot; though built for his residence Francois stored many artifacts in this building but did not allow the public to view them. Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa acquired by Francis in 1519, Portrait of Bethazer and Castiglione by Raphael brought by Louis XIV in 1515 etc are some of the contributions of the kings.

Revolutionaries

With the yea1789 came the French Revolution; that altered the whole dynamics of human thinking. It had its influence in Louvre; in August 10, 1793 it was opened to the public; any citizen was made eligible to enter in to it. The revolutionaries did something more; some of the valuable artifacts that were taken away from France during the previous regimes were regained thereby giving a fillip to the museum; raising it as a status symbol France! (‘Laocoon and his sons’, ‘Apollo Belvedere’ and Ex Voto by Philip de Champagne etc belongs this group).

The conqueror

If revolutionaries could do that much; can Napoleon (the conqueror) can lag behind; he made his clout for an acquisition spree; whatever valuable artworks or artifacts could be acquired (by force or otherwise) were captured and brought it to Louvre! ‘The wedding at Cana’; a Paulo Veronese creation was taken away by Napoleon from Giorgio Maggiore Monastery along with numerous artifacts to Louver. The prestigious Borghese collection was also a forced buy of Napoleon. Fortunately the conqueror’s eyes were mostly directed at sculptures and hence he ignored most of the Italian masterly paintings. After his defeat in Waterloo; some of them had to be returned to the original owners.

Louvre Pyramid

Escaped the hands of extremist;

The Tuilery Palace that stood within the compound was vandalized repeatedly by extremists of the French Commune and finally burned it to ashes; leaving only the Tuilery Garden exists now. They were magnanimous enough to spare the nearby standing Louvre! Some damages were done by the raging fire to the Louvre; but duly repaired.

Ministers

Even the modern day politicians are magnanimous when Louvre comes for discussion. They even compete with their counterparts of the yesteryears in decorating ‘Musee de Louvre’; the Louvre Pyramid was the simbol of their love for Louver; a wonderful addition to the ‘pride of France’. The Glass Pyramid is located at the central courtyard (the pyramid also serves as an entrance to the museum) was created by a Chinese – American architect I M Pei; and was inaugurated by the then Premiere Francois Mitterand in 1989. The most coveted occupant of the museum is Mona Lisa the masterpiece of Davinci.

What are there on display?

There are about 380,000 objects in this museum; it is second richest in the world for its paintings after state Hermitage Russia. They can be classified as the following;

Ancient Egyptian collections (100,000); over and above this there are other collections from Egypt numberings about 50,000. Greek and Roman objects 45,000, Islamic Art Items, 10,000; along with all these numerous decorative arts, paintings, prints etc; displayed, 200,000. It is for its paintings the Louvre is supreme but it has got some of the masterpieces of sculptures like; Venus de Milo (ancient Greek sculpture of Goddess Venus carved in marble by Alexandro of Antioch),Winged Victory of Samothrace (of Greek Goddess Nike (victory); carved from white Parian Marble; it hand were lost one of them found later is kept in a glass cage; believed to be of Rhodes; one of the most celebrated sculptures in the world).

Masterpieces, 13^th century collections

The Louvre Museum has the credit of owning some of the most precious creations by the masters in the field like, Da Vinci, Raphael, Jean Fouquet, Giotto di Bendone, Geovanni Cenni Cymbaque, Bologna etc. The Madonna and Christ Child Enthroned with Angel; a painting by 13^th century artist Cenni di Pepo Cymbaque; known as the last painter worked on the Byzantine Tradition. ‘St. Francis of Assisi Receiving Stigmata’ created by Giotto di Bendone; an Italian painter/architect; the Italian Renaissance artist. Portrait of Charles VII by Jean Fouquet (1420 – 1481); the renowned French Painter; born in Tours Italy. ‘Condottiero’ by Antonello da Messina (1430 – 79); a Sicilian painter; who apprenticed in Palermo a town known for artistic tradition; he was a product of Italian Renaissance; a pupil of Niccolo Colantono.

16^th century collections

Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’, ‘The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne’. ‘La belle jardiniere’ and ‘Belthazar and Castiglione’ by Raphael; picturing the Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist. Raphael (1483 – 1520) was born in Urbino Italy; painter and architect of Italian Renaissance; contemporary of Michelangelo and Da Vinci; he died at the age of 37.

17^th century collections

Saint Joseph Charpentier by Georges de la Tour, ‘The club foot’ by Joseph de Ribera, ‘Pilgrims of Emmaus’ and ‘Bathsheba at her bath’ by Rembrandt, ‘Ex Voto’ by Philip de Champaigne, ‘The lace maker’ by Johannes Vermee, ‘Coronation of Marie de Medici in St Denis’ by Peter Paul Rubens etc are just some belonging to the 17^th century.

18^th century collections

Portrait of Louis XIV by Hyancinthe Rigaud, The Embarkation for Cythera by Antoine Watteau, ‘La Raie’ by Jean Baptiste Chardin, Master Hare by Joshua Reynolds etc, ‘Oath of Horatii’ by Jacques Louis David.

19^th century

‘The Raft of Medusa’ by Theodore Gericault, ‘Liberty Leading the People’ by Eugene Delacroix, ‘The Turkish bath’ by Ingres etc.

The Borghese collection is a prestigious possession of the Louvre; acquired by Napoleon from the Camillo Borghese in 1807. It includes 154 statues, 160 busts, 170 bas relieves, 30 columns along with numerous royal vases and utensils; Borghese include (Titian’s ‘Sacred and Profane love’, Geovanni Bologna’s ‘Rape of the Sabine Woman’, Hercules and Nessus’, Truth unveiled by time’ etc). The Borghese Museum (Galleria Borghese) is functioning in Rome with new artifacts and vacant spaces duly filled.

A Satellite to Louvre

Also in the drawing table is a satellite museum for Louvre at the outskirts of Paris (in Lens) named ‘La Louvre-Lens’ that is to be completed in 2010. This new building will be tailor-made for a museum and will be capable to house more than 500 major works. It estimated cost is 96.6 million dollars and when competed will have 22,000 sq meters of space. Let all projects take wings and Louvre rise to greater heights!