Apollo Gallery (Galerie d’Apollon)

The iconic Galerie d’Apollon (Apollo Gallery), home to some of the Louvre’s most precious historical collections, is famous for its high vaulted ceilings with painted decorations. Originally called the ‘Petite Galerie’ of the Louvre, this room was decorated, according to designs by Martin Fréminet for Henri IV of France, by the artists of the Second School of Fontainebleau, most notably Toussaint Dubreuil, Jacob Bunel and his wife Marguerite Bahuche.

Check out “Louvre Museum“

Gallery entrance

Originally designed as a reception hall, this was the first Royal Gallery for Louis XIV and served as a model for the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles. The gallery, left incomplete during the reign of Louis XIV, was filled with paintings by members of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in the 18th century. With a total surface area of 600 sq. m., it is 61.34 m. long, 15 m. high and was built over 350 years ago and decorated over the course of two centuries.

Here is the historical timeline of this room:

• On February 6, 1661, a fire destroyed much of this small gallery and the young Louis XIV ordered the reconstruction of this part of the Louvre as a reception hall, in line with the fashion of palaces and noble houses at that time.
• Between 1661 and 1663, architectural work was entrusted to architect Louis Le Vau who carried out reconstruction activities. The sculptor François Girardon was responsible for the stucco sculptures.
• From 1663–1677, interior decoration was implemented by Charles Le Brun, the first painter to Louis XIV, who was assigned responsibility by Colbert.
• In 1692, the academy of painting and sculpture was installed at the Louvre which encouraged young artists to finish the room with “reception” or “masterpieces.”
• From 1766–1781, the gallery was completed under the supervision of six academics.
• From 1848–1851, complex restoration work was done by architect Félix Duban, with painting The Race of Apollo by Eugène Delacroix, Aurore by Muller and Triumph of the Earth or Cybele by Joseph Guichard.
• From 1999–2004, restoration activities were carried out by the French restoration service of historical monuments.

As part of the Louvre, this unique masterpiece is both a national and World Heritage Site. A witness to 200 years of art history, it showcases 105 artworks (41 paintings, 36 sculpture groups made up of 118 sculptures and 28 tapestries) along the vaulted ceiling and frescoed walls.

The French Crown Jewels

Dozens of French artists contributed to this exceptional interior.  Le Brun authored three large paintings, designing a painted and sculpted decor on the theme of the sun and its movement through space (earth, water and continents) and time (zodiac).

Fall of Icarus (Merry-Joesph Blondel)

The Sun King Louis XIV is glorified by the myth of the sun god Apollo, also evoked by the procession of the Muses. An idyllic vision of the universe in harmony, governed by Apollo, is offered by the overall program. The central section of the ceiling, left blank since Le Brun had worked on the room, was adorned by Eugène Delacroix who thus created the spectacular Apollo Slays the Python.

As of 1663, the stuccoes were made by François Girardon, followed by the Gaspard brothers, Balthasar Marsy, and Thomas Regnaudin, resulting in the majestic, dynamic ensemble we see today.

Since 1861, the gallery has housed Louis XIV’s collection of hardstone vessels in large gilt-wood display tables and vitrines, and those along the walls and under the windows.  In 1887, it was joined by the French Crown Jewels, the legacy of centuries of monarchs who successively owned them and had them remounted to their liking.  The jewels are presented in custom-made display cases created in the 19th century.

Some of the most precious artworks in the Louvre, this inalienable collection of jewels were initially assembled by Françis I in 1532, grew under Louis XIV and reached its peak under Louis XV. During the French Revolution, the items were dispersed but they were brought back together by Napoleon I. In 1887, however, the French State unfortunately decided to sell almost the entire collection.  Luckily, the “Regent,” a white diamond “the size of a Reine Claude plum” (Saint-Simon) was not included in the auction.  Acquired by Louis XV, it is the largest of its kind known to exist in Europe.

Display cases housing the French Crown Jewels

The remaining 23 pieces of  jewels and precious stones held by the Louvre are now displayed in three cases in the center of the gallery and grouped by period: pre-Revolution (including the “Regent” and “Sancy” diamonds, which adorned the crown used at the coronation of King Louis XV in 1722), the First French Empire, the Bourbon Restoration, the July Monarchy and the Second Empire (including what remains of Empress Eugénie’s jewelry sets). Several protective cases designed to hold the items are also presented nearby.

Crown of Louis XV

NOTE:

Following the completion of works that began in March 2019, the Galerie d’Apollon reopened. Improvements were made to both the room itself and the presentation of the artworks held within with three new display cases created for the French Crown Jewels (which are now shown together), offering a complete overview of their history.

Several changes were also made in the presentation of Louis XIV’s collection of hardstone vessels. For informational purposes, further examples have been added along with a centerpiece given to Napoleon I by Charles IV of Spain, part of another artwork of royal origin and made of an equally rich variety of materials.

Conservation work was also carried out on the gallery’s décor, returning the room to its former glory.  The paintings and stuccoes, along with the tapestries (masterpieces commissioned from the Gobelins manufactory by Félix Duban and put in place in 1852), were dusted and new lighting and an improved security system were installed.  A second entrance, making the gallery accessible by both the Rotonde d’Apollon and the Salon Carré, was also opened.

Emerald and Diamond Tiara made for the Duchesse d’Angouleme

Louvre Museum: 75001 Paris, France.  Tel: +33 1 40 20 50 50. Open daily, except Tuesdays and holidays, 9 AM- 6 PM (until 10 PM on Wednesday and Friday evenings).

The Louvre has three entrances: the main entrance at the pyramid, an entrance from the Carrousel du Louvre underground shopping mall, and an entrance at the Porte des Lions (near the western end of the Denon wing).

Admission is free, from October to March, on the first Sunday of every month. Still and video photography is permitted for private, noncommercial use only in the galleries housing the permanent collection.The use of flash or other means of artificial lighting is prohibited. Photography and filming are not permitted in the temporary exhibition galleries. 

How To Get There: the Louvre can be reached via Metro lines 1 and 7, station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre Métro or the Louvre-Rivoli stations. By bus, take No. 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95 as well as the touristic Paris l’Open Tour. By car, there is an underground parking reachable by Avenue du Général Lemonier, every day from 7 AM – 11 PM.

The author beside the gigantic painting Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau (Antoine-Jean Gros)

Like the Daru Room (Salle Daru), the well-lit and spacious Mollien Room (Salle Mollien), named after Treasury Minister François-Nicolas Mollien (1758-1850), was created and decorated in 1863 (when the Louvre collection officially became Musee Napoleon III) for the imperial museum, as conveyed by its wine red and gold décor (to form an appropriate background for the French paintings).

Check out “Louvre Museum,“ “Louvre Museum – Painting Collection” and “Louvre Museum – Daru Room“

Liberty Leading the People (French: La Liberté guidant le peuple), painted by Eugène Delacroix in the autumn of 1830, commemorates the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled King Charles X of France. A woman personifying the concept and the goddess of Liberty leads the people forward over the bodies of the fallen, holding the the tricolor flag of the French Revolution (France’s national flag) in one hand and brandishing a bayoneted musket with the other. The figure of Liberty, known as Marianne, is also viewed as a symbol of France and the French Republic.

The Death of Sardanapal (Eugene Delacroix)

It houses large 19^th century, large scale French Neo-Classical and Romantic paintings such as Theodore Gericault’s monumental “The Raft of the Medusa” (between 1818 and 1819, his only history painting) and Eugene Delacroix’s generation-defining “Liberty Leading the People” (1830) and “The Death of Sardanapalus.”

The Massacre at Chios (Eugene Delacroix)

Joachim Murat (Antoine-Jean Gros)

NOTE:

On January 29, 2019, Gros’s ultimate masterpiece with a mysterious origin, David Playing the Harp for King Saul, acquired at the Bergé auction by the Department of Paintings with the support of the Société des Amis du Louvre, was hung in the Salle Mollien.

The Souliot Women (Ary Scheffer)

The Women of Algiers (Eugene Delacroix)

Salle Mollien: Room 700, First Floor, Denon Wing, Louvre, Paris, France. Tel: +33 1 40 20 50 50. Open daily, except Tuesdays and holidays, 9 AM- 6 PM (until 10 PM on Wednesday and Friday evenings).

The Louvre has three entrances: the main entrance at the pyramid, an entrance from the Carrousel du Louvre underground shopping mall, and an entrance at the Porte des Lions (near the western end of the Denon wing).

Admission is free, from October to March, on the first Sunday of every month. Still and video photography is permitted for private, noncommercial use only in the galleries housing the permanent collection. The use of flash or other means of artificial lighting is prohibited. Photography and filming are not permitted in the temporary exhibition galleries. 

How To Get There: the Louvre can be reached via Metro lines 1 and 7, station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre Métro or the Louvre-Rivoli stations. By bus, take No. 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95 as well as the touristic Paris l’Open Tour. By car, there is an underground parking reachable by Avenue du Général Lemonier, every day from 7 AM – 11 PM.

Daru Room

Created for the imperial museum in 1863, this gallery was decorated in red and gold (the French imperial colors) by the painter Alexandre Dominique Denuelle for the imperial museum.

Check out “Louvre Museum”

Portrait of Madame Recamier (Jacques Louis-David)

Grande Odalisque (also known asUne Odalisque or La Grande Odalisque), an oil painting  by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, was commissioned by Napoleon’s sister, Queen Caroline Murat of Naples, and finished in 1814.  It depicts a reclining figure of an odalisque, or concubine, in languid pose as seen from behind with distorted proportions. When it was first shown, it attracted wide criticism for the elongated proportions and lack of anatomical realism.

The Intervention of the Sabine Women, a 1799 painting by the French painter Jacques-Louis David, shows a legendary episode following the abduction of the Sabine women by the founding generation of Rome. The painting depicts Hersilia, Romulus’s wife and the daughter of Titus Tatius, leader of the Sabines.  She is seen rushing between her husband and her father and placing her babies between them. A vigorous Romulus prepares to strike a half-retreating Tatius with his spear, but hesitates.

Today, it devoted to large-scale Neo-Classical paintings by French painters or related to French history, notably  Jacques-Louis David‘s masterpiece The Coronation of the Napoleon and The Coronation of Empress Joséphine.

The imposing, 10 m. (33 ft) wide and 6 m. (20 ft.) high Coronation of Napoleon, a painting completed in 1807 by Jacques-Louis David as the official painter of Napoleon, depicts the crowning and the coronation that took place at Notre-Dame de Paris, Napoleon’s way to make it clear that he was a son of the Revolution.

Oath of the Horatii, a large painting by the French artist Jacques-Louis David painted in 1784, immediately became a huge success with critics and the public, and remains one of the best known paintings in the Neoclassical style of art. It depicts a scene from a Roman legend about a dispute between two warring cities, Rome and Alba Longa. The painting increased David’s fame, allowing him to take on his own students.

The room contains, amongst other things, large-scale French Neo-Classical paintings by Francois Gérard, Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, Antoine-Jean Gros and Charles-François-Prosper Guérin.

Oedipus Explaining the Enigma of the Sphinx, an oil painting by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1808), was initially a figure study that made up one of Ingres’s “dispatches from Rome.” Then, almost twenty years later, Ingres enlarged it to make a history painting and in so doing toned down the archaism of the earlier canvas.

Pygmalion & Galatéa (Anne-Louis Girodet)

The Empress Josephine (Pierre-Paul Prudh’on)

Salle Daru: Room 75, First Floor, Denon Wing, Louvre, Paris75001, France. Tel: +33 1 40 20 50 50. Open daily, except Tuesdays and holidays, 9 AM- 6 PM (until 10 PM on Wednesday and Friday evenings).

The Louvre has three entrances: the main entrance at the pyramid, an entrance from the Carrousel du Louvre underground shopping mall, and an entrance at the Porte des Lions (near the western end of the Denon wing).

Admission is free, from October to March, on the first Sunday of every month. Still and video photography is permitted for private, noncommercial use only in the galleries housing the permanent collection. The use of flash or other means of artificial lighting is prohibited. Photography and filming are not permitted in the temporary exhibition galleries. 

How To Get There: the Louvre can be reached via Metro lines 1 and 7, station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre Métro or the Louvre-Rivoli stations. By bus, take No. 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95 as well as the touristic Paris l’Open Tour. By car, there is an underground parking reachable by Avenue du Général Lemonier, every day from 7 AM – 11 PM.

Daru Gallery (Galerie Daru)

The Daru Gallery (Galerie Daru), which formed part of Napoleon III‘s “New Louvre,” was originally intended as a sculpture gallery for the annual Paris Salon.

Check out “Louvre Museum” and  “Louvre Museum – Painting Collection“

Daru Staircase

It now receives and displays Greek and Roman antiquities from the Borghese collections, notably the celebrated Borghese Gladiator which exemplifies increased focus on the human form after the 4th century BC., and the Borghese Vase, bought by Napoleon I from his brother-in-law Camille Borghese.

Check out “Louvre Museum – Greek, Etruscan and Roman Department”

Mercury Abducting Psyche (Adriaen de Vries)

It also houses large nineteenth-century French works by the Romantics Antoine-Jean Gros, Theodore Géricault, and Eugene Delacroix.

Like the one opposite, the former Mollien Gallery (currently the Michelangelo Gallery), the Daru Gallery is on the ground floor of the buildings built on the south side of the new buildings built for Napoleon III between 1854 and 1857.

Built for the exhibition of the Salon’s sculptures, these two galleries take the form of the Salle des Cariatides, one of the oldest rooms in the Louvre Palace.

The gallery, decorated between 1861 and 1862, is located between the entrance to the Denon Pavilion and gives access to the Daru Staircase (completed in 1930), dominated by the Winged Victory of Samothrace.

Michelangelo’s Dying Slave

Louvre Museum: 75001 Paris, France.  Tel: +33 1 40 20 50 50. Open daily, except Tuesdays and holidays, 9 AM- 6 PM (until 10 PM on Wednesday and Friday evenings).

The Louvre has three entrances: the main entrance at the pyramid, an entrance from the Carrousel du Louvre underground shopping mall, and an entrance at the Porte des Lions (near the western end of the Denon wing).

Admission is free, from October to March, on the first Sunday of every month. Still and video photography is permitted for private, noncommercial use only in the galleries housing the permanent collection. The use of flash or other means of artificial lighting is prohibited. Photography and filming are not permitted in the temporary exhibition galleries. 

How To Get There: the Louvre can be reached via Metro lines 1 and 7, station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre Métro or the Louvre-Rivoli stations. By bus, take No. 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95 as well as the touristic Paris l’Open Tour. By car, there is an underground parking reachable by Avenue du Général Lemonier, every day from 7 AM – 11 PM.

Jandy, Grace, Manny and Cheska walking along the Grand Gallery (Grande Galerie), First Floor, Denon Wing

Our first stop, upon the museum’s opening, was the Painting Collection which has more than 7,500 works, from the 13th century to 1848.  Nearly two-thirds are by French artists while more than 1,200 are Northern European. The French and Northern European works are in the Richelieu Wing and Cour Carrée while the Spanish and Italian paintings are on the first floor of the Denon Wing.

Check out “Louvre Museum“

The Italian paintings compose most of the remnants of Francis I and Louis XIV’s collections, others are unreturned artwork from the Napoleonic Era, and some were bought. The collection began with Francis I, who acquired works from Italian masters such as Raphael, Michelangelo and several works of Giambattista Pittoni .

Exemplifying the French School are the early Avignon Pietà of Enguerr and Quarton; the anonymous painting of King Jean le Bon (c.1360), possibly the oldest independent portrait in Western painting to survive from the post Classical era; Hyacinthe Rigaud‘s Louis XIV; Jacques-Louis David‘s The Coronation of Napoleon; and Eugène Delacroix‘s Liberty Leading the People.

Daru Room (SalleDaru)

The notable Italian holdings, particularly the Renaissance collection,  include works by Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini‘s Calvarys, which reflect realism and detail “meant to depict the significant events of a greater spiritual world.” The High Renaissance collection includes works of Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio and, from 16th century Venice, Titian‘s Le Concert Champetre, The Entombment and The Crowning with Thorns.

Check out “Louvre Museum – Grand Gallery,” “Louvre Museum – Daru Room,” “Louvre Museum – The State Room,” “Louvre Museum – Mollien Room” and “Louvre Museum – Salon Carre“

Some of the best known paintings of the museum have been digitized by the French Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France.

• Salle Boucher (France) – Mid-18^th century works of Francois Boucher, the favorite painter of the Marquise de Pompadour, Louis XV’s mistress. Room 927, Second Floor, Sully Wing
• Salle Vien (France) – Works of Joseph-Marie Vien and the antiquarian the Comte de Caylus, pioneers of Neoclassicism in France. Room 934, Second Floor, Sully Wing
• Carlos Besteigui Collection – devoted to the donation made n 1942 by Carlos de Beistegui (Mexico, 1863–Biarritz, 1953), it consists chiefly of portraits, and includes works by the 15th-century Burgundian Master, Hey, Rubens, van Dyck, Largillierre, Nattier, Drouias, Fragonard, Goya, David, Lawrence, Gérard, Ingres, Meissonnier, and Zuloaga. Room 901, Second Floor, Sully Wing
• Salle Restout (France) – Works of Jean Restout, the leading religious painter of his day. Room 924,  Second Floor, Sully Wing.
• Painters of Louis XIV Room (France) – numerous decorative projects at Versailles and other royal residences, commissioned by Louis XIV and all overseen by Le Brun, who gathered a team of noted specialists and succeeded in rallying personalities such as Jouvenet and La Fosse to the cause. First Floor, Sully Wing
• Charles Le Brun Room (France) – features enormous compositions of Charles Le Brun, royal painter to Louis XIV, illustrating the life of the king’s hero and model, Alexander the Great.
• Room 914, Second Floor, Sully Wing
• Salle Watteau (France) – features Watteau’s highly original art  influenced by the French colorists, and also by his master, Claude Gillot, who introduced him to the fête galanteand scenes drawn from the theater. Room 917, Second Floor, Sully Wing
• Salle des Etats (Mona Lisa room, Italy) – A new setting for Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Venetian Renaissance paintings. Room 711, First Floor, Denon Wing.
• Salle Mollien (Romanticism, France) – houses large French Romantic paintings. Room 700, First Floor, Denon WingSalon Carré (Italy) – displays Italian paintings from the 12th to 15th centuries. Room 708, First Floor, Denon Wing
• Grande Galerie (Italy) – houses collections of Italian paintings. Room 710, 712, 716, First Floor, Denon Wing
• Salle Daru (Neoclassicism) – houses large-scale French Neoclassical paintings. Room 702, First Floor, Denon Wing
• Galerie Médicis (Flanders – Rubens) – displays 24 monumental canvases, painted by Rubens between 1622 and 1625, originally housed in the Luxembourg palace, home of the Italian-born French queen Marie de Médici. Room 801 , Second Floor, Richelieu Wing
• Salle Rembrandt (Holland – Rembrandt) – collection of Rembrandt’s paintings covering a wide range of subjects and periods, including a number of well-known self-portraits. Room 845, Second Floor, Richelieu Wing
• Holland, Second Half of the 17th Century – late 17th century Dutch paintings represented by Johannes Vermeer, and contemporaries such as Pieter de Hooch, Ruisdael, and Ter Borch. Room 837, Second Floor, Richelieu Wing
• Second School of Fontainebleau (France) – features the new decorative style of artists of the Second School of Fontainebleau. Room 824, Second Floor, Richelieu Wing
• The Netherlands, 16th Century – features 16th-century Dutch painting, particularly that of the Antwerp school and the Romanists. Room 809, Second Floor, Richelieu Wing
• The Netherlands, Second Half of the 16th Century – displays masterpieces of late 16th- and early-17th-century Northern and German Mannerism. Room 806, Second Floor, Richelieu Wing
• Pays-Bas, Netherlands, First Half of the 16th Century – features works of Northern artists who assimilated Italian influences, but continued to work in the pictorial tradition established by the founders of the Dutch school of painting during the preceding century. Room 811, Second Floor, Richelieu Wing.

Louvre Museum: 75001 Paris, France.  Tel: +33 1 40 20 50 50. Open daily, except Tuesdays and holidays, 9 AM- 6 PM (until 10 PM on Wednesday and Friday evenings).

The Louvre has three entrances: the main entrance at the pyramid, an entrance from the Carrousel du Louvre underground shopping mall, and an entrance at the Porte des Lions (near the western end of the Denon wing).

Admission is free, from October to March, on the first Sunday of every month. Still and video photography is permitted for private, noncommercial use only in the galleries housing the permanent collection.The use of flash or other means of artificial lighting is prohibited. Photography and filming are not permitted in the temporary exhibition galleries.

How To Get There: the Louvre can be reached via Metro lines 1 and 7, station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre Métro or the Louvre-Rivoli stations. By bus, take No. 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95 as well as the touristic Paris l’Open Tour. By car, there is an underground parking reachable by Avenue du Général Lemonier, every day from 7 AM – 11 PM.

The magnificent skylit Baroque ceiling of Salon Carre

The Salon Carré (Square Salon), one of the most emblematic rooms in the Louvre Museum, was built by French Baroque architect Louis Le Vau at the east end of the Grand Gallery (Grande Galerie) after the fire of 1661. It links the Apollo Gallery with the Grand Gallery.

Check out “Louvre Museum“ “Louvre Museum – Apollo Gallery,” “Louvre Museum – Painting Collection” and “Louvre Museum – Grand Gallery”

Ceiling detail

Between 1667 and 1789, the French monarchy sponsored periodic exhibitions of works by members of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture) and, from 1725, the Salon Carré and nearby rooms in the Louvre were the setting for these exhibitions. The official French art exhibition in Paris took its name from the Salon Carré.  In 1793, the Louvre’s first public museum opened here and, for many years, it housed exhibitions of contemporary art.

The author beside The Coronation of the Virgin, a 213 cm × 211 cm (84 in × 83 in) painting by the Italian early Renaissance master Fra Angelico, was executed around 1434-1435. The composition is based on the pyramidal structure of the steps and the figures of the Virgin and Christ.

On April 2, 1810, Napoleon I and Marie-Louise of Austria were married before God in a ‘chapel’ created by architects Charles Percier and Pierre-Francois-Leonard Fontaine out of the Salon Carré. In order to reach this large space usually given over the exhibition of paintings, the wedding procession and cortege had to walk all the way from the Tuileries Palace and down a great part of the Grande Galerie.

An excerpt from Fontaine’s Journal stated that Vivant Denon, the director of the Louvre, had been opposed to removal of the very large paintings in that gallery in order to make way for the two-level tribunes which were to be built to accommodate the congregation. However, the emperor, on hearing of this intransigence, “with animosity, gave the order for the paintings to be removed, and as for any which could not be removed, they should be burned”!

The threat was effective and the Salon Carré was emptied of its masterpieces and the tribunes built.  Furthermore, an altar was erected facing the entrance to the gallery, topped with a large cross and six chased vermeil candlesticks made by Odiot.  The walls were draped with gold embroidered hangings.

From 1848 up until World War I, the Salon Carré was used to display the Louvre’s masterpieces. The gallery now displays Italian paintings from the 12th to 15th centuries and from various schools. This magnificent, Baroque skylit gallery has towering windows and a vaulted gilt ceiling engraved with the names of painters, by nation, from the Renaissance (Peter Paul Rubens, Raphael, etc.) and Bartolome Esteban Murillo to Nicolas Poussin.

Jandy beside the The Battle of San Romano of Florentine painter Paolo Uccello, a set of three paintings in egg tempera on wooden panels, each over 3 m. long, depicts events that took place at the Battle of San Romano between Florentine and Sienese forces in 1432. They are significant as revealing the development of linear perspective in early Italian Renaissance painting, and are unusual as a major secular commission.

Salon Carre: Room 708, First Floor, Denon Wing, Louvre, Paris 75001, France. Tel: +33 1 40 20 50 50. Open daily, except Tuesdays and holidays, 9 AM- 6 PM (until 10 PM on Wednesday and Friday evenings).

The Louvre has three entrances: the main entrance at the pyramid, an entrance from the Carrousel du Louvre underground shopping mall, and an entrance at the Porte des Lions (near the western end of the Denon wing).

Admission is free, from October to March, on the first Sunday of every month. Still and video photography is permitted for private, noncommercial use only in the galleries housing the permanent collection. The use of flash or other means of artificial lighting is prohibited. Photography and filming are not permitted in the temporary exhibition galleries.

How To Get There: the Louvre can be reached via Metro lines 1 and 7, station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre Métro or the Louvre-Rivoli stations. By bus, take No. 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95 as well as the touristic Paris l’Open Tour. By car, there is an underground parking reachable by Avenue du Général Lemonier, every day from 7 AM – 11 PM.

Grand Gallery (Grande Galerie)

The jaw-dropping Grand Gallery (Grande Galerie), built along the River Seine, is one of the most beautiful hallways and the most famous room of the Louvre.

Paintings along the hallway

This new piece of the palace was built from 1595 to 1610 by Henry IV, King of France  (initially 460 m. long at the time, it was the longest edifice of its kind in the world), which was part of the Grand Dessein he saw completed.

Check out “Louvre Museum – Greek, Etruscan and Roman Department”

Statue of Diana of Versailles, a partially restored Roman marble copy of a lost Greek bronze original, of the Goddess of the Hunt with a deer, attributed to Leochares ( ca. 325 BC)

When he was a child, future King Louis XIII was playing and initiated to fox hunting there. It wasn’t completed until the reign of Louis XV, about 50 years later.  During the 17^th century, it was used for the “scrofula ceremony,” during which the Sun King, Louis XIV, laid his hand on the sick.

The author beside The Fortune Teller, a painting by Italian Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, exists in two versions.  The first, from 1594, is now in the Musei Capitolini in Rome. The second, from 1595, in the Louvre museum, was painted by Caravaggio for Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte.  Copied from the original 1594 version, it had certain changes. The undifferentiated background becomes a real wall broken by the shadows of a half-drawn curtain and a window sash, and the figures more completely fill the space and defining it in three dimensions. The light is more radiant, and the cloth of the foppishly-dressed boy’s (model is believed to be Caravaggio’s companion, the Sicilian painter Mario Minniti) doublet and the gypsy girl’s sleeves more finely textured. The dupe becomes more childlike and more innocently vulnerable, the girl less wary-looking, leaning in towards him, more in command of the situation. Close inspection of the painting reveals what the young man has failed to notice – the girl is removing his ring as she gently strokes his hand while reading his palm.

On November 8, 1793, in the midst of the Reign of Terror, the Musee Central des Artes  was created and the Grande Galerie was officially opened.

La Belle Jardinière, also known as Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist, painted by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael during his stay in Florence between 1507 and 1508, was commissioned by the Sienese patrician Fabrizio Sergardi and shows Mary, Christ and the young John the Baptist.  Raphael’s use of contrasting light and dark, and the relaxed, informal pose of the Madonna illustrates Leonardo da Vinci’s influence. Because of the harmony and balance of the picture together with the high quality of elements present, this 48 in × 31.5 in (122 cm × 80 cm) paintings is one of Raphael’s famous works.

During the reign of  Louis XVI of France (1754-1793), this gallery was planned to be the location of the future royal “Museum.” Charles-Claude Flahaut de la Billaderie, comte d’Angiviller, helped build and plan the Grande Galerie and continued to acquire major works of art.

The author beside the Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, another oil painting attributed to Raphael (1514–1515), is considered one of the great portraits of the Renaissance and has an enduring influence. It depicts the diplomat and humanist Baldassare Castiglione, Raphael’s friend, who is considered a quintessential example of the High Renaissance gentleman.  The painting was acquired by Louis XIV in 1661 from the heirs of Cardinal Mazarin.

The Virgin of the Rocks (sometimes called the Madonna of the Rocks), a  painting by Leonardo da Vinci, shows the Madonna and Child Jesus with the infant John the Baptist and an angel, in a rocky setting which gives the painting its name. This painting is regarded as a perfect example of Leonardo’s “sfumato” technique.

For many years, the area beneath the Grande Galerie served as artists’ studios and workshops. The engaged columns along the sides were added during the Empire by Charles Percier and Pierre-Francois-Leonard Fontaine, Napoleon I’s favorite architects.

Cheska and Kyle beside The Death of the Virgin, a painting completed by Italian Baroque master Caravaggio in 1606, was commissioned by papal lawyer Laerzio Cherubini for his chapel in the Carmelite church of Santa Maria della Scala in Trastevere, Rome . The figures are nearly life-sized. The Virgin Mary, the painting’s central theme, lies reclined, clad in a simple red dress. Caravaggio completely abandons the iconography traditionally used to indicate the holiness of the Virgin.  Her cast-off body, with lolling head, hanging arm and swollen, spread feet, depict a raw and realistic view of the Virgin’s mortal remains, with nothing of the respectful representation found in devotional paintings.

Shortened by a third during the Second Empire to build the Flore Wing, it now houses collections of Italian painting dating back to around the 13th century (1250-1800).

Jandy beside Venus and Cupid with a Satyr (c. 1528), a 5 cm. × 125.5 cm. (74.2 in. × 49.4 in.) painting by the Italian late Renaissance artist Antonio Allegri da Correggio, depicts Venus sleeping with her son Eros. Behind them, a satyr is caught while discovering the goddess.

Mars and Venus (Andrea Mantegna)

The Great Gallery now houses one of the world most prestigious Italian Renaissance painting collection, from the Quattrocento (early Italian Renaissance) to High Renaissance and Mannerism with masterpieces of the most famous artists such as:

• Allegory of the Vice‎,  Allegory of the Virtues, Venus, Cupid and a Satyr, and Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria with Saint Sebastian by Antonio da Correggio
• Autumn (1573)‎, The Four Seasons (1573),‎ Spring (Arcimboldo, 1573), Winter (1573)‎ and Summer (1573) by Arcimboldo
• Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt, The Death of the Virgin and The Fortune Teller by Caravaggio
• Fishing, Hunting, Resurrection of Christ and The Virgin Appears to Saint Luke and Saint Catherine by Annibale Carracci; Big Holy Family, John the Baptist, Portrait of Baldassarre Castiglione and St. Margaret by Raphael‎; Noli Me Tangere, The Holy Family with St Anna and the Infant St John the Baptist and Portrait of a Man Holding a Statuette by Agnolo Bronzino
• Annunciation by Giorgio Vasari
• Charity by Andrea del Sarto
• Christ among the Doctors by Giovanni Serodine
• Circumcision by Federico Barocci
• David and Goliath by Daniele da Volterra
• The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Francesco Salviati
• Les Mystères de la Passion du Christ by Antonio Campi
• St. Michael Vanquishing Satan and Self-portrait with a Friend by Raffaello Sanzio
• Madonna and Child Adored by Saints John the Baptist, Francis of Assisi and Catherine of Alexandria by Peter Candid
• The Triumph of David by Bartolomeo Manfredi
• Madonna and Child Appearing to St. Hyacinth by Lodovico Carracci
• Madonna and Child with Saint Anna and Four Saints and Portrait of a Jeweler by Jacopo Pontormo
• Madonna and Child with St. Elisabeth and the Infant St. John by Andrea del Sarto
• Madonna in Glory with St. John the Baptist and St. Stephan by Michelangelo Anselmi
• Moses Rescued from the Nile by Niccolò dell’ Abbate
• Mystic Marriage of St.  Catherine by Parmigianino
• Pietà by Rosso Fiorentino
• The Rape of Proserpina by Niccolò dell’ Abbate
• Riposo Durante la Fuga in Egitto by Orazio Gentileschi
• The Circumcision by Giulio Romano
• Venus and Adonis by Luca Cambiaso
• Venus Led by Cupid to the Dead Adonis by Jacopo Bertoia
• The Virgin Appearing to St. Luke and St. Yves by Jacopo Chimenti;
• Visitation by Sebastiano del Piombo;
• David with the Head of Goliath by Guido Reni;
• Ceres by the Raphael workshop
• Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata by Giotto
• Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman by Sandro Botticelli
• Saint Sebastian by Andrea Mantegna
• Saint Anne by Leonardo da Vinci
• Saint Michael Slaying the Devil by Raphael

Mysteries of Christ’s Passion (Les Mystères de la Passion du Christ) , by Italian Renaissance painter Antonio Campi, is an oil on canvas created in 1569

This was a gallery that we “saw” quickly in a rush on our way to the State Room (Salle des Etats) to see the Mona Lisa on her stand alone wall. Later, Jandy and I would explore the Grand Gallery in detail.

Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, another oil painting attributed to Raphael (1514–1515), is considered one of the great portraits of the Renaissance and has an enduring influence. It depicts the diplomat and humanist Baldassare Castiglione, Raphael’s friend, who is considered a quintessential example of the High Renaissance gentleman.  The painting was acquired by Louis XIV in 1661 from the heirs of Cardinal Mazarin.

Divided into two by a central tribune, this immense hall originally connecting the Louvre to the Tuileries Palace and is more than a quarter of a mile long and one hundred feet wide.

Check out “Louvre Museum – The State Room“

Noli Me Tangere by Agnolo Bronzino, an 289 cm. (113.7 in.) by 194 cm. (76.3 in.) oil on poplar wood, was created in 1561 in the Mannerism (Late Renaissance) style.

Louvre Museum: 75001 Paris, France.  Tel: +33 1 40 20 50 50. Open daily, except Tuesdays and holidays, 9 AM- 6 PM (until 10 PM on Wednesday and Friday evenings).

The Louvre has three entrances: the main entrance at the pyramid, an entrance from the Carrousel du Louvre underground shopping mall, and an entrance at the Porte des Lions (near the western end of the Denon wing).

Admission is free, from October to March, on the first Sunday of every month. Still and video photography is permitted for private, noncommercial use only in the galleries housing the permanent collection. The use of flash or other means of artificial lighting is prohibited. Photography and filming are not permitted in the temporary exhibition galleries. 

How To Get There: the Louvre can be reached via Metro lines 1 and 7, station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre Métro or the Louvre-Rivoli stations. By bus, take No. 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95 as well as the touristic Paris l’Open Tour. By car, there is an underground parking reachable by Avenue du Général Lemonier, every day from 7 AM – 11 PM.

Cheska and Kyle at the State Room (Salle des Etats).  Behid them is the Mona Lisa

The State Room (Salle des États), the Louvre Museum‘s most visited room, is the customary home of  Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci’s (the Louvre holds the largest collection of his work) Mona Lisa (also known as the Gioconda, it was painted between 1503 and 1506), the most famous portrait painting of the world which anybody that visits the Louvre Museum for the first time would want to see as if this is the only work that has to be seen.

Actually, some visitors only buy a Louvre ticket just to have a quick glance at the Mona Lisa and to take a selfie. If you enter Le Louvre by the Pyramide you will have to follow a long and slow way to reach the Mona Lisa in the 1st floor,Denon Wing because the stairs passing by the Samothrace Victory statue is usually crowded with visitors. The painting is kind of small, being only 77 cm. × 53 cm. (30 in. × 21 in.).

Check out “Louvre Museum” and “Louvre Museum – Painting Collection“

The Mona Lisa (or in French La Joconde, or in Italian La Gioconda) was on permanent display here since 1797.

Francesco del Giocondo, a nobleman, cloth merchant and politician, ordered the painting to thank his wife  Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo for giving him two children.  Leonardo used the sfumato painting technique, a slow process where the paint is applied in thin layers. After painting one layer on a thin white Lombardy poplar panel, Leonardo da Vinci waited for it to dry, repeating this procedure several times until the painting was completed.

Jandy with the massive Wedding at Cana (or The Wedding Feast at Cana) in the background. An oil painting by the late-Renaissance or Mannerist Italian painter Paolo Veronese, it is the largest painting in that museum’s collection. The piece was commissioned in 1562 by the Benedictine Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, Italy, and completed in fifteen months by the year 1563. It hung in the refectory of the monastery for 235 years, until it was plundered by Napoléon in 1797 and shipped to Paris. The scene depicts a mixture of contemporary and antique details.

That is the main reason why it took him three years to finish it. The painting, characterized by an unprecedented formal audacity, retains an aura of mystery that, generation after generation, still continues to fascinate the crowds of visitors that come to admire Mona Lisa’s famously enigmatic smile.

Mythological Couple (Paris Bordone)

The painting only became widely famous in 1911 when, while working at the Louvre, Italian carpenter  Vincenzo Peruggia stole the canvas, smuggling it out under his overalls. Mistakenly thinking that she had been looted by Napoleon (Leonardo actually had taken the painting with him to France, finishing it there in 1516, three years before his death, before it passed into the collections of King Francis I of France and his successors), like so many other Italian masterworks in the Louvre’s vast collection, he wanted to bring her back to her homeland.

Jandy with Supper at Emmaus of Italian Renaissance painter Paolo Veronese in the background. This 242 cm. x 416 cm. oil painting, dated c. 1559, is the artist’s first large religious work.

Two years later, the painting resurfaced after Perugia tried to sell it to Giovanni Poggi, director of the Uffizi Gallery in  Florence where he believed the painting belonged in. Giovanni warned the authorities about the situation. On January 4, 1914, it was returned to the museum.

The author beside The Pastoral Concert of Italian Renaissance master Titian. This 105 cm. × 137 cm. (41 in. × 54 in.) oil painting ( 1509) portrays three young people (a naked woman and two men dressed in contemporary costumes) on a lawn, playing with each other.  Next to them is a naked standing woman pouring water from a marble basin. In the wide background is a shepherd and, among the vegetation, a far landscape.

The fragile, very rarely handled painting last traveled in 1974 to Russia and Japan, having crossed the Atlantic in 1964 to be shown in the United States despite the fierce protests of the Louvre’s curators. It was moved between 1992 and 1995 and again from 2001 to 2005 during another round of renovations.  Daily, about 15,000 to 20,000 visitors seek out the painting.

The Crucifixion (Paolo Veronese)

The Salle des Etats, designed by Lefuel, was built to accommodate the major legislative sessions presided over by Napoleon III from 1859. In 1878, the hall became part of the museum. The original decorations have disappeared, but the recent refurbishment by Lorenzo Piqueras has provided a new setting for the Mona Lisa.

The Entombment of Christ (Titian)

Opposite the Mona Lisa, we also saw The Wedding Feast at Cana.  Painted by Paolo Veronese, this huge (6.77 x 9.94 m) painting depicts Jesus Christ’s first miracle, where he, surrounded by 130 feast-goers, turns water to wine. These 2 paintings steal the most of the attention, but they are not the only masterpiece in the room as the room is also home to a number of wonderful Venetian Renaissance paintings.

NOTE:

On July 17, 2019, the Mona Lisa was transferred to the adjoining Galerie Médicis (Room 801, Level 2, Richelieu wing) so that renovation work in the Salle des États can start.

A new secure and air-conditioned showcase has been installed (the Mona Lisa is kept at a constant temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit and a hydrometry of 50%).

The 500-year-old painting remained there, protected by bulletproof glass in its temporary home, until the work was completed in the beginning of October just before a blockbuster Leonardo da Vinci exhibition (marking the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death in Amboise) opened on October 24.

The exhibition features a grouping 162 works including loans by Queen Elizabeth II of Britain from the Royal Collection, the British Museum, the Hermitage of Saint Petersburg and the Vatican. However, the painting will remain in its spot and will not be part of the special exhibition.

Supper at Emmaus (Titian)

The State Room: Room 711, First Floor, Denon Wing, Louvre, 75001 Paris, France. Tel: +33 1 40 20 50 50. Open daily, except Tuesdays and holidays, 9 AM- 6 PM (until 10 PM on Wednesday and Friday evenings).

The Louvre has three entrances: the main entrance at the pyramid, an entrance from the Carrousel du Louvre underground shopping mall, and an entrance at the Porte des Lions (near the western end of the Denon wing).

Admission is free, from October to March, on the first Sunday of every month. Still and video photography is permitted for private, noncommercial use only in the galleries housing the permanent collection. The use of flash or other means of artificial lighting is prohibited. Photography and filming are not permitted in the temporary exhibition galleries.

 How To Get There: the Louvre can be reached via Metro lines 1 and 7, station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre Métro or the Louvre-Rivoli stations. By bus, take No. 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95 as well as the touristic Paris l’Open Tour. By car, there is an underground parking reachable by Avenue du Général Lemonier, every day from 7 AM – 11 PM.