Louvre Museum has been the homes of many notable paintings and sculptures in the world. Louvre, in full Louvre Museum or French Musée du Louvre, official name Great Louvre or French Grand Louvre. It the is France’s national museum and art gallery, located in a portion of a vast palace in Paris on the site of Philip Augustus’s 12th-century fortification. It is the world’s most visited museum of art, with a collection spanning ancient civilizations through the mid-nineteenth century.
History of Louvre Museum
In 1546, Francis I, an avid art collector, ordered the demolition of this old fortress and began construction of another royal residence, the Louvre. The museum undergone various renovations throughout every ruler.
Only a small fraction of the current Louvre was finished during the reign of Francis I, under the architect Pierre Lescot. This original piece’s name was the Cour Carrée’s southern section. Louis XIII and Louis XIV made significant expansions to the building complex in the 17th century. Cardinal de Richelieu, Louis XIII’s main minister, amassed significant items of art for the king. Louis XIV and his minister, Cardinal Mazarin, amassed magnificent art collections, including those of Charles I of England and Charles II of France. The Colonnade section of the Louvre was planned by a team comprised of architects Claude Perrault and Louis Le Vau, as well as decorator and painter Charles Le Brun.
Furthermore, the Louvre Museum established in 1793, housing the French monarch’s art collection and the outcome of Napoleon’s Empire’s pillaging. In 1989, a glass pyramid was created in the palace’s main courtyard, breaking the monotony of the Louvre’s facade.
Since its inception, the museum has been open to the public on a few selected days each week, which was considered groundbreaking at the time. The Louvre, first opened at the end of the eighteenth century, is France’s most famous museum and one of the most visited in the world. At the moment, it draws more than 8 million visits every year.
Louvre Museum Exhibits
The permanent collection of the Louvre has almost 300,000 works of art dating before to 1948. Only 35,000 pieces of arts is viewable to the public.
The vast collection is divided into many departments: Oriental Antiquities, Egyptian Antiquities, Greek Antiquities, and Roman and Etruscan Antiquities. Additionally, the museum features a section on the history of the palace. It includes the Louvre throughout the Middle Ages, as well as Islamic art, paintings, sculptures, and graphic art.
Among the most outstanding works on show are the following:
- Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa
- Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People
- Paolo Veronese’s The Wedding at Cana
The most well-known sculptures are the following:
- Venus de Milo, a statue from ancient Greece.
- Ancient Egyptian sculpture of a Seated Scribe.
- Samothrace’s Winged Victory, a Hellenistic sculpture
Louvre Museum is one of the world’s most frequented museums. The place is enormous and one could spent countless days exploring its beauty within and outside of the museum premises. It would take time to view the museum’s most notable paintings, sculptures, and other works of art.
Thus, he museum is a golden place for those who love arts and architecture. A place where you can indulge to the beauty and wonders of art.