The national museum of art in Paris, France, and one of the finest art collections in the world. Built for Francis I in 1546, the Louvre was added to by successive French monarchs. The Grande Galerie of the Louvre was officially opened to the public in 1793.
Musée du Louvre| Established | 1793 |
|---|---|
| Location |
Palais Royal, Musée du Louvre, 75001 Paris, France |
| Visitor figures | 7,300,000 (2005) |
| Director | Henri Loyrette |
| Website | www.louvre.fr |
The Louvre Museum (French: Musée du Louvre) in Paris, France, is one of the largest, oldest, most important and famous art galleries and museums in the world.
In 2005, the Louvre received a record 7.3 million visitors in part due to the success of Dan Brown's 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code—a significant boost of 22% compared to previous figures, placing the Louvre as the most visited monument in Paris.
Construction and architecture
Map of the LouvreThe first royal "Castle of the Louvre" was founded in the centre of Paris by Philip Augustus in 1190, as a fortified royal palace to defend Paris on its west against Viking attacks.
The existing part of the Châteaux du Louvre was begun in 1535.
Louis XIII (1610-1643) completed the Denon Wing, which had been started by Catherine Medici in 1560.
The Richelieu Wing was also built by Louis XIII.
Commissioned by Louis XIV, architect Claude Perrault's eastern wing (1665-1680), crowned by an uncompromising Italian balustrade along its distinctly non-French flat roof, was a ground-breaking departure in French architecture.
Napoleon I built the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (Triumph Arch) in 1805 to commemorate his victories and the Jardin du Carrousel.
The Louvre was still being added to by Napoleon III.
Louvre Pyramid
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 Ieoh Ming Pei and was inaugurated in 1989. The pyramid covers the Louvre entresol and forms part of the new entrance into the museum.
La Pyramide Inversée
The Pyramide Inversée is a skylight constructed in an underground shopping mall in front of the Louvre.
The pyramid marks the intersection of two main walkways and orients visitors towards the museum entrance.
Future projects
Le Louvre-Lens
Since a large part of the works in the Louvre are in storage, it was decided that an extension to the Louvre was to be created to the north of Paris. On November 29, 2004, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin chose Lens, Pas-de-Calais to be the site of the new Louvre building.
The new building, under the administration of the Regional Council of Nord-Pas-de-Calais will have semi-permanent exhibition space covering at least 5000 m².
Access
The station is named after the nearby Palais Royal and the Louvre. 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 to better manage its growth.
Collections
The Louvre holds works of art through till 1848.
Among the thousands of priceless paintings is Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, probably the most famous painting in the world, housed in the Salle des Etats in a climate-controlled environment behind protective glass.
The collection of Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1934), given to the Louvre in 1935, fills an exhibition room.
Besides art, the Louvre has many other types of exhibits, including archeology, history, sculpture and architecture.
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 catalog instead.
Notable antiquities
|
Lady of Auxerre |
Venus de Milo |
Winged Victory of Samothrace |
Antinous Mondragone |
Other famous antiquities in the Louvre include:
The Seated ScribeNotable 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). Bought in 192216th century
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Mona Lisa |
The Virgin and Child with St. Anne |
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)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)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.
The Louvre inspired a virtual setting of adventure in the video game Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, starring Lara Croft.
Music
British rock band Queen mentioned the Louvre in a line in the song "Lazing On a Sunday Afternoon"
The Cole Porter song 'You're the Top', from the musical Anything Goes, includes the lines "You're the top, you're the Louvre Museum" and "You're the smile on the Mona Lisa"
Film
The Louvre, its art, particularly the art in the basement — not on display, is the subject of a scene in Kate &
The Da Vinci Code
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.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.
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