Autour du Louvre, la collonnade du Louvre(english)

La collonnade du Louvre(english)

In 1625, after over ten years of inactivity, Louis XIII decided to resume construction work and carry out the so-called Grand Dessein (Grand Design) envisaged by Henry IV.

Louis XIII ordered the demolition of part of the north wing of the medieval Louvre and its replacement by a continuation of the Lescot wing, with identical decoration and detail.

·          In the 17th century Louis XIII and his minister Richelieu extended Lescot's west wing northward by adding the majestically domed Pavillon de l'Horloge (clock pavillion) by Jacques Lemercier and recreating Lescot's building beyond it.

·         The façade was ordered by Louis XIV, who in 1665 invited the Italian sculptor and architect Bernini to work on the eastern wing of the Cour Carrée, where a new entrance to the royal residence should be built.

·         His project didn’t like the king who prefers a classic style, and finally choose the designs of the architect Louis Le Vau, who collaborates with the painter Charles Le Brun, and the architect and scientist Claude Perrault.

·          (Perrault, Claude: 1613–88, French architect, scientist, and physician. He advanced the study of anatomy and made other scientific contributions. At the request of Colbert, he translated (1673) and added notes to the monumental work of Vitruvius, roman architect and engineer who lived in I century BC. Charles Perrault, the writer, was his brother.)

·         The design of the facade demonstrates the majesty and authority of French Baroque architecture, which is notable for its classical grandeur; restrained ornament not very decorated, and balanced proportions.

·         (The façade was built in a classicizing baroque manner) we can observe the right lines, symmetry, geometry, sobriety in the surfaces.

·         The portico with double colonnades has given the name to this wing of the Sully pavilion.

·         It’s a monumental façade with a peristyle with double Corinthian columns which form a classical colonnade.

·         The entrance it’s a triumphal arch which rises on a high basement.

·         There is a bas-relief sculpture over the entrance.

·         At the top, in the centre there is a triangular pediment with a sculpted tympanum.

·         The façade is crowned by an Italian balustrade along its flat roof.

·         The capitals and the monumental decoration have been sculpted by Matthieu Lespagnandelle and Philippe Caffieri, at the time of Louis XIV.

·         The pediment and the central tympanum were sculpted in the XIX century, at the time of Napoleon I. (François-Frédéric Lemot and Pierre Cartellier)

·         Building was stopped in 1682 by Jean-Baptiste Colbert (the minister who controls the finances), when Louis XIV moved to Versailles, leaving the project unfinished.

·         In 1669, the artist members of de Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture held their first exhibition at the Louvre, in the Grande Gallery and later in 1725 in the Square Salon. The show was known as the “salon”.

·         In 1756, Louis XV ordered the resumption of construction work at the Louvre. The wings begun under Louis XIV were partially completed, and the north, east, and south sides of the Cour Carrée were finally roofed. At the same time, the monumentality or Perrault’s Colonnade could at last be properly appreciated thanks to the demolition of buildings at its foot.

·         In 1964, the minister of culture, André Malraux, ordered the digging of a dry moat in front of Perrault’s Colonnade.