Louvre Musée Presentation Of The New Richelieu Wing
Presentation Of The New Richelieu Wing
History:
1852: Napoleon III is the one who achieves the “Grand Dessin”, “Great Design”, finishing the Louvre.
The architects are Visconti (who died during the works) and Lefuel.
First of all, they demolish the district which became too dangerous, situated between the two palaces, the Louvre and the Tuileries.
In the north, we continue the parallel wing to the Rivoli’s street, the Richelieu wing.
1871: In may 1871, the Commune sets fire the Tuileries and under the third Republic, we finish tearing down this palace and so the opened-up perspective is finally opened from the Louvre where we can see now the “Champs Elysées” with the “Arc de Triomphe” and “l’Arche de la Défense”, which is outside Paris.
1981: The project “Grand Louvre”, decided by President François Mittérand.
1989: The Finance ministry which occupied the Richelieu wing until 1989 was moved to the east of Paris, Bercy, to give more space to the Collections.
1993: The new wing is officialy inaugurated on november 28th 1993 for the bicentenaryl of the museum.
Collections:
The Richelieu wing is composed of 3 courtyards:
- la cour Marly
- la cour Puget
- la cour Korshabad
Beneath the ground floor, you can find french sculptures from the late Middle-Ages to the mid 19th century. There, you can see the Horses of Marly from Coustou or the Milo of Crotone from Puget. As well as a part dedicated to the Arts of Islam: ivories, ceramics, metals, woods, carpets and paintings dating from the 7th to the 19th centuries, all from Iran, Central Asia and India.
In the ground floor, are presented French sculptures and Oriental Antiquities such as the Mesopotamian section, where you can see the famous Code of Hammurabi or the Winged Bull from the Palace of Sargon II.
In the first floor, there are the “Objets d’art” “ “Objets of art” along with the Appartments of Napoleon III.
It’s in this department that you can admire the Eagle of Abbot Suger, the Abbot of Saint Denis basilica.
Finally, in the second floor, you have french paintings and the Northern Schools from the 14 to the 17th c: German, Flemish, Dutch, Belgian, Russian, Swiss and Scandinavian paintings.
You ha ve a nice portrait of John II the Good.
The Rubens Room, the lacemaker from Vermeer.