Paolo Coen, University of Teramo, The Louvre and the Musée Napoléon

Editor's Notes

1. The extraordinary adventure of the Napoleon Museum is an almost legendary episode in European museum history. In 1802, Vivant Denon was appointed director of the Louvre and renamed it the Napoleon Museum with the ambition of making it the world’s most beautiful. The museum continued to grow and take shape under his direction, as he saw to the presentation of collections and acquired masterpieces from the collections of conquered cities as spoils. This creation was only temporary, however, since the works were returned to their rightful owners under the Vienna Treaty of 1815. But the bygone museum became “an even bigger colossus in the imagination”.
2. The Louvre, in its successive architectural metamorphoses, has dominated central Paris since the late 12th century. Built on the city's western edge, the original structure was gradually engulfed as the city grew. During the forty-three-year reign of Philippe Auguste (1180–1223), the power and influence of the French monarchy grew considerably, both inside and outside the kingdom. In 1190, a rampart was built around Paris, which was Europe’s biggest city at the time. To protect the capital from the Anglo-Norman threat, the king decided to reinforce its defenses with a fortress, which came to be known as the Louvre. It was built to the west of the city, on the banks of the Seine.
3. 1190–1202 Construction of the fortress and keep under Philippe AugustePhilippe Auguste's fortress of 1190 was not a royal residence but a sizable arsenal comprising a moated quadrilateral (seventy-eight by seventy-two meters) with round bastions at each corner, and at the center of the north and west walls. Defensive towers flanked narrow gates in the south and east walls. At the center of this complex stood the massive keep, the Grosse Tour (fifteen meters in diameter and thirty meters high). Two inner buildings abutted the outer walls on the west and south sides.
4. 1230–40 The vaulting of the Salle Basse in the western sectionThe Salle Basse (Lower Hall) is all that remains today of the Louvre’s medieval interior. Its original function is unknown. The vaulted ceiling (now destroyed) rested on two columns at the center of the hall and on supporting walls. The vaulting, columns, and corbels that can be seen today date from 1230–40 and were added to the old masonry.
5. 1358–65 New ramparts by Etienne Marcel and Charles VIn the mid-14th century, Paris spread far beyond Philippe Auguste’s original wall. With the onset of the Hundred Years' War, further defenses were needed for the French capital. Etienne Marcel, provost of the merchants of Paris, instigated the construction of an earth rampart (1356–58), which was continued and developed under Charles V. The new defenses encompassed the neighborhoods on the right bank of the Seine. Enclosed within the expanding city, the Louvre lost its defensive function.
6. 1364–69 Transformation by Raymond du TempleIn 1364, Raymond du Temple, architect to Charles V, began transforming the old fortress into a splendid royal residence. Contemporary miniatures and paintings contain marvelous images of ornately decorated rooftops. Apartments around the central court featured large, elaborately-carved windows. A majestic spiral staircase, the “grande vis,” served the upper floors of the new buildings, and a pleasure garden was created at the north end. The sumptuous interiors were decorated with sculptures, tapestries, and paneling.
7. 1527–28 Destruction of the keepAfter the death of Charles VI, the Louvre slumbered for a century until 1527, when Francois I decided to take up residence in Paris. The Grosse Tour (the medieval keep) was demolished, affording still more light and space. The medieval Louvre gave way to a Renaissance palace.
8. The demolition of the Grosse Tour marked the beginning of a new phase of building work that would continue through to the reign of Louis XIV. The transformation of Francois I’s chateau continued under Henri II and his sons. However, the construction of the Tuileries palace some 500 meters to the west led to a rethinking of the site. Ambitious royal plans to link the two buildings culminated in the creation of the Grande Galerie.
9. 546–60 The Lescot wing, the Pavillon du Roi, and the south wingEven after its transformation, Charles V’s chateau was inadequate for the needs of Francois I, who ordered the construction of new buildings at the Louvre in 1546. The medieval west wing was demolished and replaced with Renaissance-style buildings designed by Pierre Lescot and decorated by Jean Goujon. The work begun under Francois I was completed by Henri II, who created the Salle des Caryatides (Hall of the Caryatids) on the ground floor and built a new wing following the demolition of the castle's medieval south wing. The Pavillon du Roi (King’s Pavilion) was built at the junction of the new buildings and housed the king’s private apartments on the first floor. The new, uniform facades established the Parisian Renaissance style. Their decoration was finally completed under Henri IV.
10. The reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV had a major impact on the Louvre and Tuileries palaces. The extension of the west wing of the Cour Carree under Louis XIII marked the beginning of an ambitious program of work that would be completed by Louis XIV and added to by Louis XV, resulting in the Louvre that we see today. However, following the completion of Versailles, royal interest in the palace waned, plunging the Louvre into a new period of dormancy. 1662–64 The Galerie d'ApollonOn February 6, 1661, fire ravaged the upper story of the Petite Galerie. While Le Vau oversaw the reconstruction work, the Sun King, Louis XIV, commissioned Charles Le Brun to execute decorative paintings evoking the passage of the sun represented by the Roman sun god Apollo. The decoration was left unfinished, but includes three ceiling panels by Le Brun (begun in 1663) and a number of large-scale stucco sculptures.
11. 1665 Designs by BerniniIn 1665, Louis XIV invited the Italian sculptor and architect Bernini to work on the eastern wing of the Cour Carree, the planned site of a grandiose new entrance to the royal residence. Bernini submitted two projects, but Louis called a halt to construction work, and neither was completed.
12. 1667–72 The ColonnadeIn 1667, a committee that included the physician Claude Perrault designed the celebrated Colonnade, a monumental facade with a peristyle of double columns occupying the entire upper story. Building was stopped in 1672, when Louis XIV moved to Versailles, leaving the project unfinished.
13. 1692 A new role for the abandoned palaceIn 1692, Louis XIV ordered the creation of a gallery of antique sculpture in the Salle des Caryatides. In the same year, the deserted palace received new occupants: the Academie Francaise was followed by the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which remained until 1792. In 1699, the latter held the first of a long series of salons, drawing large crowds.
14. 1699 The birth of the Paris SalonIn 1699, the artist members of the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (founded in 1648) held their first exhibition at the Louvre, in the Grande Galerie. From 1725, the event was held in the Salon Carre (Square Salon), near the Academie's offices. The show was henceforth known as the “Salon.”
15. 1756 Resumption of work under Louis XVIn 1756, Louis XV ordered the resumption of construction work at the Louvre. The wings begun under Louis XIV were partially completed, and the north, east, and south sides of the Cour Carree were finally roofed. At the same time, the monumentality of Perrault’s Colonnade could at last be properly appreciated thanks to the demolition of buildings at its foot. A complex of ancillary buildings in the Cour Carree was also razed. 1791 A monument to science and the artsIn 1791, the revolutionary Assemblee Nationale decreed that the “Louvre and the Tuileries together will be a national palace to house the king and for gathering together all the monuments of the sciences and the arts.'' From Palace to Museum With the Revolution, the Louvre entered a phase of intensive transformation. For three years, Louis XVI lived in the Tuileries palace, alongside the Convention Nationale. In 1793 the Museum Central des Arts opened to the public in the Grande Galerie and the Salon Carre, from where the collections gradually spread to take over the building. Anne of Austria’s apartments housed the antique sculpture galleries, and further rooms and exhibition spaces were opened under Charles X.
16. 1798 Artworks from Italy: the Musee NapoleonThrough the treaties of Tolentino and Campo Formio, France acquired numerous paintings and antiquities from the Vatican and the Venetian republic. These were enriched by spoils from Napoleon I's conquests. The museum, of which Dominique-Vivant Denon had become director in 1802, was renamed the Musee Napoleon in 1803. A bust of the emperor by Bartolini was installed over the entrance. After the fall of the empire in 1815, each nation reclaimed its treasures and the museum was disbanded.
17. 1800 Antique marble statues in the Petite GalerieOn November 9, 1800, the first anniversary of the coup d'etat of 18 Brumaire VII, Napoleon and Josephine inaugurated the Musee des Antiques in the former apartments of Anne of Austria on the ground floor of the Petite Galerie (the upper floors were too weak to support the weight of the marble sculptures). Here, visitors could admire pieces from the Vatican, the Capitoline museum, and Florence, together with the collections of the French royal family and emigre aristocrats.
18. 1804–11 Enlargement and embellishment under FontaineThe enlargement and embellishment of the palace was entrusted to the architect Fontaine. A new monumental staircase served the Salon Carre and the Grande Galerie, which was bathed in daylight from new windows overhead. The facades facing the Cour Carree were homogenized, and staircases were raised at each end of the Colonnade, whose central pavilion received a bronze door and a tympanum. A new north wing progressed from the Tuileries toward the Louvre along the rue de Rivoli.
19. Benjamin Zix, Wedding Procession of Napoleon and Marie-Louise of Austria 1810 Pen, brown ink and brown wash Musée du Louvre, Paris
20. 1806–7 The Arc de Triomphe du CarrouselIn 1806, Percier and Fontaine built a small triumphal arch aligned with the Pavillon de l’Horloge and the central pavilion of the Tuileries. Inaugurated in 1808, it was decorated with reliefs and statues by Denon celebrating French military victories. On the top, Denon installed the four celebrated antique bronze horses from the facade of Saint Mark's Basilica in Venice. The horses were returned to Venice in 1815.