"Louvre the most visited museum in the world"
1. Location and access
The Musée du Louvre, or officially the Grand Louvre in English , the Louvre Museum or Great Louvre , or simply the Louvre - is the largest national museum of France , the most visited museum in the world, and a historic monument. It is a central landmark of Paris , located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (district). Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited over an area of 60,600. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II.Remnants of the fortress are still visible. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. The Louvre Palace is an almost rectangular structure, composed of the square Cour Carrée and two wings which wrap the Cour Napoléon to the north and south. In the heart of the complex is the Louvre Pyramid, above the visitors center The museum is divided into three wings: the Sully Wing to the east, which contains the Cour Carrée and the oldest parts of the Louvre; the Richelieu Wing to the north; and the Denon Wing, which borders the Seine to the south.
2. Opening
The museum opened on 10 August 1793, the first anniversary of the monarchy's demise.
The public was given free access on three days per week, which was "perceived as a major accomplishment and was generally appreciated". The collection showcased 537 paintings and 184 objects of art. Three quarters were derived from the royal collections, the remainder from confiscated émigrés and Church property.To expand and organize the collection, the Republic dedicated 100,000 livres per year. In 1794, France's revolutionary armies began bringing pieces from across Europe, such as Laocoön and His Sons and the Apollo Belvedere , to establish the Louvre as a museum and as a "sign of popular sovereignty". The early days were hectic; artists lived in residence, and the unlabelled paintings hung "frame to frame from floor to ceiling". The building itself closed in May 1796 because of structural deficiencies. It reopened on 14 July 1801, arranged chronologically and with new lighting and columns.
3. Collections –antiquties Greek and Roman, Sculpture , decorative arts, painting
Near Eastern antiquities, the second newest department, dates from 1881 and presents an overview of early Near Eastern civilization and "first settlements", before the arrival of Islam. The museum contains exhibits from Sumer and the city of Akkad , with monuments such as the Prince of Lagash's Stele of the Vultures from 2,450 BCE and the stele erected by Naram-Suen , King of Akkad, to celebrate a victory over barbarians in the Zagros Mountains. The Iranian portion contains work from the archaic period, like the Funerary Head and the Persian Archers.
The Greek, Etruscan, and Roman department displays pieces from the Mediterranean Basin dating from the Neolithic to the 6th century CE. The collection spans from the Cycladic period to the decline of the Roman Empire. This department is one of the museum's oldest; it began with appropriated royal art, some of which was acquired under Francis I. Initially, the collection focused on marble sculptures, such as the Venus de Milo. Works such as the Apollo Belvedere arrived during the Napoleonic Wars, but these pieces were returned after Napoleon I's fall in 1815. The Louvre holds masterpieces from the Hellenistic era, including The Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo , symbolic of classical art. In the galeries paralleling the Seine, much of the museum's Roman sculpture is displayed. The Roman portraiture is representative of that genre; examples include the portraits of Agrippa and Annius Verus ; among the bronzes is the Greek Apollo of Piombino
The sculpture department comprises work created before 1850 that does not belong in the Etruscan, Greek, and Roman department. The Louvre has been a repository of sculpted material since its time as a palace; however, only ancient architecture was displayed until 1824, except for Michelangelo 's Dying Slave and Rebellious Slave . Initially the collection included only 100 pieces, the rest of the royal sculpture collection being at Versailles.
The Objets d'art collection spans from the Middle Ages to the mid-19th century. The department began as a subset of the sculpture department, based on royal property and the transfer of work from the Basilique Saint-Denis , the burial ground of French monarchs that held the Coronation Sword of the Kings of France . Among the budding collection's most prized works were pietre dure vases and bronzes. The works are displayed on the Richelieu Wing's first floor and in the Apollo Gallery, named by the painter Charles Le Brun, who was commissioned by Louis XIV to decorate the space in a solar theme.
The painting collection has more than 6,000 works from the 13th century to 1848 and is managed by 12 curators who oversee the collection's display. Nearly two-thirds are by French artists, and more than 1,200 are Northern European. The Italian paintings compose most of the remnants of Francis I and Louis XIV's collections, others are unreturned artwork from the Napoleon era, and some were bought. The collection began with Francis, who acquired works from Italian masters such as Raphael and Michelangelo ,and brought Leonardo da Vinci to his court. After the French Revolution , the Royal Collection formed the nucleus of the Louvre.
The prints and drawings department encompasses works on paper. The origins of the collection were the 8,600 works in the Royal Collection, which were increased via state appropriation, purchases such as the 1,200 works from Fillipo Baldinucci's collection in 1806, and donations. The department opened on 5 August 1797, with 415 pieces displayed in the Galerie d'Apollon.