The fascinating and little-known story of the Louvre, from its
inception as a humble fortress to its transformation into the palatial
residence of the kings of France and then into the world's greatest art
museum.
Some ten million people from all over the world flock to the Louvre each
year to enjoy its incomparable art collection. Yet few of them are aware
of the remarkable history of that place and of the buildings
themselves―a fascinating story that historian James Gardner elegantly
chronicles in the first full-length history of the Louvre in English.
More than 7,000 years ago, men and women camped on a spot called le
Louvre for reasons unknown; a clay quarry and a vineyard supported a
society there in the first centuries AD. A thousand years later, King
Philippe Auguste of France constructed a fortress there in 1191, just
outside the walls of a city far smaller than the Paris we know today.
Intended to protect the capital against English soldiers stationed in
Normandy, the fortress became a royal residence under Charles V two
centuries later, and then the monarchy's principal residence under the
great Renaissance king François I in 1546. It remained so until 1682,
when Louis XIV moved his entire court to Versailles. Thereafter the
fortunes of the Louvre languished until the tumultuous days of the
French Revolution when, during the Reign of Terror in 1793, it first
opened its doors to display the nation's treasures. Ever since―through
the Napoleonic era, the Commune, two World Wars, to the present―the
Louvre has been a witness to French history, and expanded to become home
to a legendary collection, including such masterpieces as the Mona Lisa
and Venus de Milo, whose often-complicated and mysterious origins form a
spectacular narrative that rivals the building's grand stature.
Includes a 16-page full-color insert, featuring images illustrating the
history of the Louvre, a full-color endpaper map detailing the Louvre's
evolution from fortress to museum, and black-and-white images throughout
the narrative.
