Notes on The Louvre, Arc de Triomphe

Louis XIII (1610-1643) completed the Denon Wing, which had been started by Catherine Medici in 1560. Today it has been renovated, as a part of the Grand Louvre Renovation Programme. The Richelieu Wing was also built by Louis XIII. It was part of the Ministry of Economy of France, which took up most of the north wing of the palace. The Ministry was moved and the wing was renovated and turned into magnificent galleries which were inaugurated in 1993, the 200th anniversary of parts of the building first being opened to the public as a museum on November 8, 1793 during the French Revolution.

Commissioned by Louis XIV, architect Claude Perrault's eastern wing (1665-1680), crowned by an uncompromising Italian balustrade along its distinctly non-French flat roof, was a ground-breaking departure in French architecture. His severe design was chosen over a design provided by the great Bernini, who came to Paris for the purpose. Napoleon I built the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (Triumph Arch) in 1805 to commemorate his victories and the Jardin du Carrousel. In those times this garden was the entrance to the Palais des Tuileries.

The building complex metamorphosed and expanded over eight centuries. It began as a medieval fortress (12th century) that was transformed into a royal palace (16th) and then a public museum (18th). Recently, the Louvre Museum undertook a major renovation project. The most striking addition was architect I.M. Pei's modern glass pyramid (most people like it but some despise it).

Louvre is made of up of 8 miles of corridors and to walk the whole perimeter is a 3 mile journey

The earliest part is the Renaissance Cpur caree and the most recent is the Pyramid

The Louver pyramid is designed according to the proportions of the great pyramid at Giza in Egypt. The glass structure was made by the French company St. Gobain which also made the mirrors in the famed Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. It is made up of pure white sand from Fountainbleau, laminated in France and polished in England.

In the Antiquities center such as the great sphinx of tanis you will see ankhs- the symbol of breath of life and ankhs are seen at the nose of pharaohs; the nose is considered the seat of life by which a magic force entered the body . Invaders later smashed the Sphinx’s nose to symbolize taking the life. The Sphinx is 4000 years old and brought by boat; a hole had to be made in the museum wall to install it.

The Venus de Milo statue name comes from the Cycladic island where she was found . Melos became Milo in French- the name of the island means Apple and she may have been holding an apple.

The winged Victory of Samothrace was painted in bright colors and would have been holding symbols of victory in each hand probably a wreath and trumpet. The grand staircase was built especially for her in the 1930”s.

Botticelli is a nickname for little barrel- the artists real name was Alessandro Filipepi

The Madonna of the Rocks- This painting was ordered by the brotherhood of the Immaculate Conception as the main altar piece for the newly built church in Milan; the first one was turned down (and is here in the Louvre) because it did not have all the symbols (halo etc) and another was painted and that one is in the National Gallery in London.

The Death of the Virgin by Caravaggio created a scandal because he was accused of fishing a prostitute out of the river to use as his model; In the picture The Fortune Teller it shows a wealthy patron having his palm read while the gypsy steals his ring.

The Arc is the second largest triumphal arch in existence [1] Its design was inspired by the Roman Arch of Titus; The Arc de Triomphe is so colossal that an early daredevil flew his plane through it (Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport fighter through the Arc de Triomphe in 1919). Inspired by Rome's Arch of Titus, this colossal, 164-foot triumphal arch was planned by Napoléon -- who liked to consider himself the heir to the Roman emperors -- to celebrate his military successes. Unfortunately, Napoléon's strategic and architectural visions were not entirely on the same plane, and the Arc de Triomphe proved something of an embarrassment. Although the emperor wanted the monument completed in time for an 1810 parade in honor of his new bride, Marie-Louise, the arch was still only a few feet high, and a dummy arch of painted canvas was strung up to save face. Empires come and go, and Napoléon's had been gone for more than 20 years before the Arc de Triomphe was finally finished, in 1836. It's known for its magnificent sculptures by François Rude, such as The Departure of the Volunteers, better known as La Marseillaise, to the right of the arch when viewed from the Champs-Élysées. Names of Napoléon's generals are inscribed on the stone facades -- the underlined names identify the hallowed figures who fell in battle.

Beneath the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from the First World War. Interred here on Armistice Day 1920, it has the first eternal flame lit in Western Europe since the Vestal Virgins' fire was extinguished in the year 391. It burns in memory of the dead who were never identified, now in both World Wars. France took the example of the United Kingdom's tomb of The Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. A ceremony is held there every November 11 on the anniversary of the armistice signed between France and Germany in 1918. It was originally decided in November 12, 1919 to bury the unknown soldier's remains in the Panthéon, but a public letter-writing campaign led to the decision to bury him beneath the Arc. The coffin was put in the chapel on the first floor of the Arc on November 10, 1920, and put in its final resting place on January 28, 1921. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy of the United States paid their respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, accompanied by French President Charles de Gaulle. After the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, Mrs. Kennedy remembered the eternal flame at the Arc de Triomphe and requested that an eternal flame be placed next to her husband's grave at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. President de Gaulle went to Washington to attend the state funeral, and he was able to witness Jacqueline Kennedy lighting the eternal flame that was inspired by her then visit to France.

When Napoleon I moved in the Tuileries on July 2nd, 1800, the views out his windows didn’t bear any resemblance to what they might be today. Back then, the horizon was confined to a maze of narrow and sinuous streets, and a tangle of more or less elegant houses and town homes. This neighborhood was a real labyrinth cut off to the south by the Seine, and closed off to the north since the Rue de Rivoli had yet to be built. Traffic there was horrendous. It is even said that ten years earlier, Marie-Antoinette got lost in one of those small streets while trying to run off to Varennes, which caused the escape coach to leave late. This delay turned out to be fatal for the royal family. Napoleon I had chosen Paris rather than Versailles like his predecessors had, and wanted to join the Louvre and Tuileries palaces to create an imperial city worthy of his magnificence. He spared no expense in renovating the interiors freed up by many expropriations. When he returned victorious from Austerlitz in 1805, the clearing work had begun at last and he could finally see the Louvre from the windows of the Tuileries

The Carrousel Arch of Triumph

The Emperor decided to erect arches of triumph to celebrate his glory. The Carrousel arch had a double goal, to majestically mark the entrance to the Tuileries and also to commemorate his victory at Marengo. Various 1805 campaign scenes and statues of the different army corps of the Empire were sculpted into the low-reliefs and the pink marble columns. The top was crowned with the horses of Venice’s St-Mark church-war trophies that were somewhat useless- and adorned with Victory and Peace statues. The sculptor added a chariot which was at first intended to carry a statue of Mars, and later one of the Emperor, but he formally opposed it in the end. So the chariot remained empty until 1830, when a goddess probably representing the Restoration was placed in it. Meanwhile, the original horse statues were returned to Venice and replaced with copies. When the monument was finished, it was confined to a space still cluttered with a few houses. This monumental gateway was extended on each side by metal gates, themselves framed by booths. Beautiful as a gem, it was given its current showcase setting many years later when Haussmann demolished the last remaining houses and tripled the square’s area. Only then did the axis of this monumental arch reveal the magnificent perspective that we see today. Napoleon I planned another arch of triumph in honor of Austerlitz: the Arch of Triumph which today majestically dominates the Champs Elysées but was not completed until the Second Empire.