The Louvre

February 1, 2020
The evolution of the Louvre reflects the political, intellectual, and aesthetic history of France. "Before the Louvre was a museum," writes art and literary critic Gardner (Buenos Aires: The Biography of a City, 2015, etc.), "it was a palace, and before that a fortress, and before that a plot of earth, much like any other." Drawing on scholarly sources that include the recently published three-volume Histoire du Louvre, the author offers a vivid chronicle of strife, wars, rivalries, and aspirations culminating in the present grand architectural complex, comprising nearly 400,000 objects, "a vast, indiscriminate cocktail of princely collections purchased or purloined over the course of centuries." Gardner focuses on several of France's rulers whose embrace of the arts shaped the future of the museum--e.g., Francois I, who brought the Italian Renaissance across the Alps as a patron and collector of works by Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, and Leonardo, whom he lured from Italy. When Leonardo arrived in 1516, he had in his trunks three paintings, including the Mona Lisa, which has become the Louvre's most coveted attraction. In addition to collecting art, Francois took up the challenge of modernizing the royal residence, beginning "the 350-year process that would result in the Louvre as we know it today." The 17th-century monarch Louis XIII, though not particularly interested in art or architecture, assigned the renowned architect Jacques Lemercier to enact significant changes. As far as the art collection itself, Louis XIV, with "an unappeasable appetite for masterpieces," filled the Louvre with priceless treasures as well as quadrupling its size. But when Louis decided to move the court to Versailles in 1682, the Louvre fell into disrepair. After the American Revolution, repayment of the Colonies' debt to France funded considerable repair and reconstruction. A small portion of the palace opened as a public museum--the Musée Central des Arts--only in 1793, in the midst of the Reign of Terror. Gardner cites Napoleon III, who ruled France from 1848 to 1870, as decisive in transforming the Louvre into its modern iteration. A richly detailed journey through a palimpsest of the past.

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Starred review from March 9, 2020
Art critic Gardner (Buenos Aires) traces the turbulent history of Paris’s Louvre Museum from fortress to castle to center of France’s cultural universe in this engrossing account, revealing a building that Gardner calls “as great a work of art as anything it contains.” The Louvre was a nexus of French art, architecture, and culture, and Gardner argues that through the Louvre one can see the growth of “Paris itself.” The site was originally a campground 7,000 years ago; in 1191, King Philippe Auguste constructed a fortress there; a century and a half later, Charles V had remodeled the Louvre into a castle, which in the early 16th century became the primary residence for King Francois I. After Louis XIV moved the royal court to Versailles in 1682, the Louvre suffered neglect until it was converted into a public art museum in 1793, during the French Revolution. In elegant prose, Gardner describes how over the next 200 years the Louvre endured constant evolution and construction as its reputation as a leading repository for art treasures grew and it became the world’s most famous museum (“there is something at once presumptuous and miraculous in its emergence out of nothing”). Fast-paced and evocative, this is a must for Francophones as well as art and architecture lovers.

April 1, 2020

Gardner (Buenos Aires) charts the progress of the Louvre in this comprehensive text. Starting as a fortress in the Middle Ages, the Louvre became a royal residence under Charles V and then the French monarch's primary abode under Renaissance king Fran�ois I. In the late 17th century, when Louis XIV abandoned the estate and moved to the Palace of Versailles, the Louvre was used to house the five great acad�mies of France, including the Acad�mie Royale de Peintre et de Sculpture and the Acad�mie Fran�aise, finally opening as a museum in 1793 during the French Revolution. From here, the progression of the Louvre's art collecting is examined from the treasures plundered during Napoleon Bonaparte's military campaigns as well as works acquired from archaeological excavations, donations from collectors, and savvy purchases by the museum's curators. A detailed, clearly marked floor plan helps readers navigate the different wings of this enormous and complicated building from the Louvre's days as a palace under various rulers to those as a museum. VERDICT Recommended for readers interested in the history of France, the history of architecture, and museology.--Sandra Rothenberg, Framingham State Univ. Lib., MA

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