Art and Travel by Dave's video: The Complete Louvre Part 40: The Medieval Louvre or The History of The Louvre

This should really be called The History of The Louvre, as it moves past the middle ages fairly quickly. There has been a Louvre in Paris for the past 850 years. You need to go back to 1190 to find a Paris without The Louvre, when King Phillip Augustus (1165-1223), built himself a fortress, with quite an impressive foundation. No one knows where it gets its name for certain. To see a possible solution, stay to the end. For hundreds of years the fortress evolved into a palace. Francis I (1515–1547) tore down the palace. He collected Raphael’s, and brought Leonardo to France to kick start an art movement in France. His son Henry II (1519-1559) rebuilt what his father tore down. This is his crown and helmet. He married Catherine De Medici at the age of 14, who built The Tuileries Palace far from the palace. It was Catherine’s wish to connect the two palaces with a long gallery but died before doing so. Catherine’s son in-law, Henry IV (1553-1610) built what is now called The Grand Gallery. At 950 feet long, it was so big that Henry had it filled it with trees, birds, and dogs. He even held fox hunts here. After his death, his window Marie De Medici commissioned Rubens to paint a cycle of 21 paintings paying homage to her. Her son, Louis XIII added a wing. His son, Louis XIV ascended to the throne at 5 years old. His rein would last 70 years. He finished The Cour Carrée, the square court and the amazing colonnade. He also bought a lot of art. The Cor de Carousel hosted the first use of the guillotine. In 1792 The National Assembly proclaimed that The Louvre would from then on be a public museum and it remained so, for six years. Then a new tenant moved in. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) sacked the countries of Europe who supplied even more art to The Louvre. This Louvre lasted until Waterloo, shortly thereafter some of the art was returned. Napoleon built the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and added a wing. Napoleon’s excavations in The Middle East became a tradition for French diplomats, who sent back to France everything they could find. Napoleon III (1808-1870), Napoleon’s nephew became emperor in 1852 and built more of The Louvre than any monarch, adding two wings. He rebuilt The Grand Gallery and widened it. The splendor of The Louvre is owed to Napoleon III. Here you can see a painting of him examining the plans for the expansion by Ange Tissier (1814-1876). He was also its last tenant, even as it existed as a museum. I hope he had a private entrance. Or a museum pass. In 1870 The Comminar attacked of The Louvre. The Tuileries Palace was burned to the ground. This is how The Louvre looked in 1875 in a painting; The Salon Carré In The Louvre by K. Lucjan Przepiórski (1830-1898). When the Nazis entered The Louvre in 1940, they found nothing. Jacques Jaujard organized the removal of each and every object which were secretly spirited out of the museum. The museum owns over 300,000 works of art, only about ten percent of them are on display. Commissioned by the President of France, François Mitterrand, in 1984, the pyramid, surrounded by three smaller ones was designed by the Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei. in 1989. He also designed the entrance. And if you think it’s difficult to navigate now, you should have seen it back when. This is the dungeon of King Augustus. Remember him from 1190? He kept his dogs, used for hunting wolves here. Such a kennel, in French, is called a "louvetier." Perhaps this is where the museum gets its name.