LOUVRE, PALAcE or THE. An exten sive group of buildings in Paris, including and connected with a quadrangular square on the north bank of the Seine, in the centre of the city. The site is supposed to have been originally a hunting-site, and was later a castle. The main keep was built in 1204, and many towers were added by Charles V. The Louvre was used as a fortress, arsenal, and prison, and only occasional ly as a royal residence. The feudal building re mained unchanged until Francis T. took down the keep in 1527. In 1541 he decided on its entire re construction, according to a plan submitted by Pierre Leseol. (q.v.), in the new Renaissance style. This plan called for four facades around a square, with four corner pavilions. The west front was begun by Pierre Lescot in 1546; he finished the southwest pavilion in 1556, and half of the south side in 1564. Under him worked Jean Goujon (q.v.). the greatest decorative sculptor of the French Renaissance, whose sculptures for the windows, doors, and interior details arc famous. What remains of this inner west front is the most perfect example of the French form of rich middle Renaissance. The Louvre, as it now stands, is about four times the size of Lcscot's intended building. The large and small galleries were commenced in 1554 under Henry II., after Les cot's designs, but not completed until the close of the century under the architects Metezan, Du Cerecan, and others. The long gallery west of the original quadrangle, with its main facade on the Seine, was completed in 1608, and is still one of the most impressive of French Renaissance structures. It connected the Louvre with the Tuileries, then in course of erection.
The new plans adopted by Richelieu for the quadrangle of the Louvre itself were by Leiner eier, and their centre was the Pavillon Sully, which was begun in 1624. The west side was then finished and the north side begun. Under Louis XIV. the west and inner east sides were first completed by Levan ; and then, by order of Col bert, architects were requested to send in designs for a monumental outer facade for the east side, the most beautiful of which proved to be that of an amateur architect, the physician Claude Per rault; it was adopted and carried out between 1665 and 1670. This facade, with its twenty eight pairs of large Corinthian columns, known as the Colonnade of the Louvre, is one of the purest of Neo-classic momunents, superb and impressive iir its grandiose proportions. Unfortunately, its height required the adding of upper stories to other parts of the palace, which not only de tracted from their effect, but led to their unroof ing and temporary dilapidation owing to the neglect of Louis XIV.. who concentrated all his
extravagance on Versailles (q.v.).
It was not until the time of the wars of the French Revolution, when Napoleon's victories in Italy gave him the opportunity to bring back such a multitude of artistic treasures to France, that the idea of turning the Louvre into the great national gallery and museum led to its restora tion and completion on a grand scale. After the preliminary clearing away, Napoleon I. intrusted to Perrier and Fontaine the task of building on the Rue de Rivoli a north connecting gallery be tween the Louvre and the Tuileries, to corre spond to the old long gallery, and this scheme was completed by Napoleon Ill.—thus completing the New Louvre around the Place du Carrousel. The scheme was due to the well-known Italian Visconti (q.v.). and is one of the most splendid architectural undertakings of modern times; it was completed in 1359, at a cost of about $15, 000,000. The area covered and inclosed by the Louvre and Tuileries, thus combined, was about fifty acres. The entire scheme of composition was, however, ruined by the fire which destroyed the Tuileries in 1871.
The collections contained in the galleries of the Louvre are probably the most valuable in any one building in the world. The treasures of the Cabinet du Iioi were increased by Colbert under Louis XIV. by the addition of the Nazariu and Jabach collections, bringing the paintings from about 200 to nearly 850, with 6000 drawings. An inventory of 1710 enumerated 2403 paintings. These auspicious beginnings were interrupted by the removal of the collections to Versailles and the Luxembourg. It was not until 1793 that the Music National was opened at the Louvre, large ly from the various royal collections. A second check occurred in 1815 after the fall of Napoleon, when about 2000 pictures were removed by the Allies. From that time until the accession of Napoleon 111. not many additions were made to the pictures, but other departments were organ ized, such as that of sculptures, based on the Musee d'Angouleine (1824), and the 5lus6e des Monuments Francais, first founded by Lenoir; that of ceramics, beginning with the Tochon col lection of 574 vases in 1818, and the Durand col lection of about 2200 vases in 1825. The Egyp tian collections were started with the results of the work of Champollion and enriched by those of Marlette.