LOUVOIS. 494 LOUVBE. astation of the Palaliuate in 1089. The rela- tions between Louis XIV. and Louvois were strained by the ill success of the first year of the war, and the Minister's influence was fast disap- pearing when he died suddenly, July 16, 1091. Consult: Rousset, Ilistoire de Louvois et de son administration politique et tnilitaire (Paris, 1863-05) ; Michel, Louvois et les protestants ( ib., 1870); James, Lives of Cardinal de Retz, Jean Baptiste Colbert, John de Witt, and the Marquis of Louvois (Philadeli)hia. 1837), popu- lar, but not reconunended for historic accuracy. See France; Louis XIV. LOUVBE, lixi'vr'. Palace of 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 bj' 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 luichanged initil Francis I. took down the keep in 1527. In 1541 he decided on its entire re- construction, according to a plan submitted by Pierre Leseo't (q.v.), in the new Renaissance style. This plan called for four facades aroiuid a square, with four corner pavilions. The west front was begiui by Pierre Lescot in 1540; he finished the southwest jiavilloii in 1550, and half of the south side in 1504. L'nder him worked Jean Cjoujon (q.v.), the greatest decorative sculptor of the French Renaissance, whose sculptures for tire 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 Lescot's intende<l 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 iletezan, Du Ccrceau, 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 cour.se of erection. The new plans adopted by Richelieu for the quadrangle of the Louvre itself were by Lemer- t'ier, and their centre was the Pavilion Sully, which was begun in 1()24. The west side was then finished and the north side begun. Lender Louis XIV. the west and inner east sides were first completed by Levau ; 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 adojited and carried out between 1005 and 107O. 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 monuments, superb and impressive in its grandiose proportions. Unfortuiuitely. 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 galleiy and museum led to its restora- tion and completion on a grand scale. After the preliminary clearing away. Napoleon I. intrusted to Percier 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 w'as completed by Napoleon III. — 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 185!). at a cost of about $15,- 000.000. The area covered and inclosed by the Ltmvre 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 Roi were increased by Colbert under Louis XIV. by the addition of the Mazarin and Jabach collections, bringing the paintings from about 200 to nearly 850, with 0000 drawings. An inventory of 1710 enumeiated 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 Musee 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 jiictures were removed by the Allies. From that time until the accession of Napoleon III. not many additions were made to the pictures, but other departments were organ- ized, such as that of sculptures, based on the ilusee d'AngoulOme (1824), and the Musee des Jlonunients Frani;ais, first founded by Lenoir; that of ceramics, beginning with the Toclion 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 Mariette. The golden age for the collections was inaugu- rated early in the reign of Napoleon III. by the results of the discoveries of Botta in Assyria, supplemented later by Place, and extended to other parts of Western Asia by Renan and others. The purchase of the immense Campana collection in 1862-03 added greatly to the departments of an- tique sculpture, jewelry, bronzes, glass, ceramics (c.2000 vases), and even to the paintings. The splendid policy of sending out Government mis- sions to explore and excavate {Missions seienti- fiques et litteraires) , either directly or through.! the French archaeological institutes of Athens, J Cairo, and Rome ( Ecole frangaise d'Ath&nes, l etc.), crowded the museums with antiquities | fresh from the soil, sometimes in great series. Last in date to receive attention were the arts ofl the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, especially! the minor and industrial arts, but they are now? richly represented. The custom of l)equeathing collections to the Louvre has steadily growTi in France, since the Lacaze legacy of 275 pictures in 1809, and the accessions under the Third Re- public have been quite as much due to privatej
