Photographs of the Louvre, Paris

Monday
May 2, 2016
The Louvre,
The Arc de Triomphe du
Carrousel
The Jardin des Tuileries,
and
The Grande Roue de
Paris
The Louvre Museum
The Louvre Museum is one of the largest and most
important museums in the world. It is housed in the expansive Louvre Palace, situated in the 1st arrondissement, at the heart of Paris. Originally a royal palace,
but now the world's most famous museum, housing
some of the most famous works of art such as the
Venus of Milo, the Nike of Samothrake, the Dying Slave
by Michelangelo and of course Leonardo da Vinci's
Mona Lisa.
The collection of the Louvre Museum was first established in the sixteenth century as the private collection
of King Francis I. One of the works of art he purchased
was the now famous Mona Lisa painting. The collection grew steadily thanks to donations and purchases
by the kings. In 1793, during the French Revolution, the
Louvre became a national art museum and the private
royal collection opened to the public.
The museum has a collection of over one million works of art, of which about 35,000 are on display,
spread out over three wings of the former palace. The museum has a diverse collection ranging from
the Antiquity up to the mid-nineteenth century.
After entering the museum through the Louvre Pyramid or via the Carrousel du Louvre, you have
access to three large wings: Sully, Richelieu and Denon. Below a brief description of the highlights in
each wing.
Sully Wing
The Sully wing is the oldest part of the Louvre. The second floor holds a collection of French paintings, drawings and prints. One of the highlights is the erotic Turkish Bath, painted in the late eighteenth century by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
The first and ground floors of the Sully
wing display works from the enormous
collection of antiquities. In the thirty
rooms with Egyptian antiquities you
find artifacts and sculptures from Ancient Egypt such as the famous Seated
Scribe and a colossal statue of Pharaoh
Ramesses II. On the ground floor is the
statue of Aphrodite, better known as the
'Venus of Milo', one of the highlights of
the Louvre's Greek collection.
For something completely different, you can go to the Lower
Ground Floor of the Sully wing
where you can see some remnants of the medieval castle of
the Louvre.
Richelieu Wing
Paintings from the Middle Ages
up to the nineteenth century
from across Europe are on the
second floor of the Richelieu
wing, including many works
from master painters such as
Rubens and Rembrandt. Some
of the most notable works are
the Lacemaker from Jan Vermeer and the Virgin of Chancellor Rolin, a fifteenth-century work by the Flemish painter Jan van Eyck.
The first floor of the Richelieu wing houses a collection of decorative arts, with objects such as clocks,
furniture, china and tapestries.
On the same floor are the sumptuously decorated Napoleon III Apartments. They give you an idea of
what the Louvre interior looked like when it was still in use as a royal palace.
The ground and lower ground floor are home to
the Louvre's extensive collection of sculptures.
They are arranged around two glass covered
courtyards: Cour Puget and Cour Marly. The latter
houses the Horses of Marly, large marble sculptures created in the eighteenth century by Guillaume Coustou. Nearby is the Tomb of Philippe Pot,
supported by eight Pleurants ('weepers').
The ground floor also houses a collection of antiquities from the Near East. The main attraction here
is the Code of Hammurabi, a large basalt stele
from the eighteenth century BC, inscribed with the
Babylonian law code.
Denon Wing
The Denon Wing is the most crowded of the three
wings of the Louvre Museum; the Mona Lisa, a
portrait of a woman by Leonardo da Vinci on the
first floor is the biggest crowd puller. There are
other masterpieces however, including the Wedding Feast at Cana from Veronese and the Consecration of Emperor Napoleon I by Jacques Louis
David. Another star attraction of the
museum is the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a Greek marble statue displayed
at a prominent spot in the atrium connecting the Denon wing with the Sully
wing.
The ground floor of the Denon wing
houses the museum's large collection of
Roman and Etruscan antiquities as well
as a collection of sculptures from the
Renaissance to the nineteenth century.
Here you find Antonio Canova's marble
statue of Psyche Revived by Cupid's
Kiss. Even more famous is Michelangelo's Dying Slave. On the same floor are
eight rooms with artifacts from Africa,
Asia, Oceania and the Americas. Medieval sculptures from Europe are displayed on the lower ground
floor of the Denon wing.
History of the Louvre Palace
The Louvre was created in several phases. Originally built as a twelfth-century fortress by King Philip
II, it was significantly expanded in the fourteenth century during the reign of King Charles V.
Its current palatial appearance goes back to the late fifteenth century, when the original fortress was
demolished and the wing along the Seine river was built.
The palace was extended during the sixteenth century
by architect Pierre Lescot, who expanded the palace
into a complex with two courtyards. A decade later Catharina de Medici added the Tuileries Palace to the west
of the Louvre. Construction on the Louvre was halted for
some time when king Louis XIV decided to move to the
Versailles Palace.
In the nineteenth century, during the Second Empire,
the Louvre was expanded again with the addition of the
Richelieu wing. The wings were extended even further
westward during the Third Empire. The Louvre now had
four symmetric wings surrounding a large courtyard.
This would not last long, as the Communards burned the
Tuileries Palace to the ground in 1871, opening up the
west side of the palace.
The most recent addition to the Louvre was the construction of the Louvre Pyramid, which functions as the
museum's main entrance. The pyramid was built in 1989
by the renowned American architect I.M. Pei. The glass
pyramid allows the sunlight to enter the underground
floor.
The modern addition originally received
mixed reviews, as it contrasts sharply
with the classical design of the surrounding buildings, but today it is generally
accepted as a clever solution which has
given the museum a spacious central
entrance without the need to touch the
historic patrimony.
The Arc de Triomphe
du Carrousel
The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is
the smallest of the three arches on the
Triumphal Way, the central axis between
the Louvre and La Défense. The arch is
crowned with a bronze chariot. The other
two arches are the Grande Arche de la
Défense and the Arc de Triomphe de
l'étoile, the most famous of the three.
Like the latter, the Arc du Carrousel was
commissioned by Emperor Napoleon in 1806 to commemorate his Austrian victories and honor his
grand army. The Arc du Carrousel was built from 1806 to 1808 at a site between the Louvre and the
Palais de Tuileries. This palace was destroyed in
1871 allowing an unobstructed view west towards
the Place de la Concorde. The design of the
triumphal arch was based on the Arch of Constantine in Rome. The arch has three archways;
the largest, central one is 6.5m or 21ft high. The
whole structure is 19m (63 ft) high and 23m (75ft)
wide.
On top
of the
arch
were
four
gilded
bronze
horses taken by Napoleon from St. Mark's Square in Venice. The statues were returned to Venice after Napoleon's
downfall at Waterloo. In 1828 a bronze quadriga pulled by
replica versions of the horses - created by François Joseph
Bosio - was installed as a replacement. Originally a statue
of Napoleon was supposed to be put in the chariot but
he rejected the idea so the chariot stayed empty until the
restoration of 1828 when an allegorical figure took the place
of the emperor. It is flanked by statues symbolizing Victory
and Peace.
The Jardin des Tuileries
The Jardin des Tuileries is one of Paris's most visited
gardens thanks to its central location between the Louvre
and Place de la Concorde. As such the Tuileries are part
of a grand central axis leading from the Louvre all the way
to La Défense, the city's business district.
In the early sixteenth century the area was a clay quarry
for tiles (tuilerie in French, hence the name). After the
death of her husband Henri II in 1559, Catherine de Médicis had a Palace built at the tuileries, the Palais de Tuileries. The palace featured a large garden in Italian style,
reminding her of her native Tuscany.
Between 1660 and 1664 the garden was
Jardin des Tuileries redesigned in French
formal style by André Le Nôtre, the celebrated gardener of the Sun King, best
known for his design of the gardens at the
Versailles Palace. Le Nôtre built a terrace
along the riverbank and opened up a central axis which he extended three years
later with the creation of the Champs-Elysées.
The Jardin des
Tuileries was
one of the first
parks to open
to the public
and it quickly
became a
place to see
and be seen.
Even in the
eighteenth century the park
featured amenities such as
cafes, kiosks,
deck chairs and
public toilets.
The Palais des Tuileries, situated near the Arc du Carrousel, was razed in 1871 by the Communards,
opening up the view from the Statues at the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe.
Most recently renovated in 1990, Le Nôtre's formal design of the Tuileries garden has been kept
intact. At the same time the park was separated from car traffic. Many modern sculptures were added
and in 1999 the Passerelle de Solférino (now the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor), a footbridge
across the Seine opened, linking the Tuileries with the Musée d'Orsay.
Like the Jardin du Luxembourg, Jardin des Tuileries is one of those parks where you can grab a
chair for free and sit wherever you like. It also features several fountains, two large basins, numerous
sculptures and two museums: the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume and the Musée de l'Orangerie,
which displays Claude Monet's large water lily paintings. Those two buildings are the only remains of
the original Palais de Tuileries.
Jardin
des
Tuileries
The Grande Roue de Paris
Ideally located along the Historical Axis,
the temporary structure offers a great view
of the Eiffel Tower and River Seine. The
view from the top The top of the wheel
reaches 65 metres and offers a stunning
view over the Historical Axis: from the
Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe
and the towers of La Défense and from the
Tuileries Garden to the Louvre. Most of
Paris’ great monuments can be seen too:
the Eiffel Tower, the Montparnasse Tower,
Notre-Dame, Montmartre and Sacré-Cœur
and much closer, the Madeleine Church
and Palais Bourbon.
Now that the “Grande Roue” or Big Wheel
of Paris has returned from its extensive international tour, the 42 gondolas rise 200 metres (60ft)
above the Tuileries Gardens where, instead of any
permanent or semi-permanent traditional type of foundation, the whole structure instead sits on a ballast of
40,000 litres (8,800 imp gal; 11,000 US gal) of water.
The well known Paris “Ferris Wheel”’s previous location was as a millennium focal point on the Place de
Concorde.
The current version of the Grande Roue de Paris
follows
that built
for the
1900
Paris
Exposition. The
earlier
version
was
100-metre
(328 ft) high and its cars were sufficiently large as to be
removed for use as family housing at the end of WW I.
This original Grande Roue de Paris and the American
Ferris Wheel were engineering feats that would not be
equaled or surpassed for 90 years.
In between its residence at both Paris locations, the
Grande Roue went “on tour”, being briefly re-named
as the Wheel Birmingham and then the Wheel of Manchester during residence in each city in 2003-2004. In
2005 the Grande Roue was a
feature in the Netherlands and
then took up a sparkling but
brief residence in Gateshead,
England, to celebrate the Tall
Ships Race. Further afield in
2006-2007 the Wheel was in
Bangkok and then returned
to Europe with a short stay in
Antwerp – and it seems also in
Antibes. All this can be accomplished relatively easily as the
modern Grande Roue was designed by the specialist maker
of giant ferris wheels for easy
and rapid dismantling and
remounting. It comes down in
60 hours and can be erected in
72 – but does require a specialist team to do so.
In residence in the Tuileries Gardens in 2012, the Grand Roue seemed like a sort of modern sculpture complementing architecture of the Louvre Palace and the more traditional sculpture throughout
the gardens themselves.