The Louvre Museum
The Converse & The Inverse
When WOOLF toured the exquisite Muse du Louvre, we observed that the extraordinary architecture of the Louvre plays off two very different architectural aesthetics: the polarity of the converse and the inverse. The first aesthetic is famous pyramid which is a 20th Century paired down glass pyramid structure that is juxtaposed against an equally famous incredibly ornate 12th Century historic building, which is the original Louvre Palace. The modern converse structure is contrasted against the historic inverse structure.
We are always intrigued by blending of the modern and historic architectural coalescence is a cultural norm. Aside from the amazing array of art work on display, the architecture of the Louvre is a pure postmodernist space, which remains one of the most significant and outstanding international design icons. Explore WOOLF Curate projects.
The Louvre Palace is a former royal palace located on the Right Bank of the Seine River in Paris, between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois. Originally a fortress built in the medieval period, it became a royal palace in the 14th century under Charles V and was used from time to time by the Kings of France as their main Paris residence. Its present structure has evolved in stages since the 16th century. In 1793, part of the Louvre became a public museum, now the Muse du Louvre, which has expanded to occupy most of the building.
The "Old Louvre"
The Muse du Louvre contains more than 380,000 objects and displays 35,000 works of art within eight departments plus a dedicated permanent collection.
The Louvre exhibits sculptures, objects d'art, paintings, drawings, and archaeological finds. It is the world's most visited museum, averaging 15,000 visitors per day, 65 percent of whom are foreign tourists.
The present-day Louvre Palace is a vast complex of wings and pavilions on four main levels which, although it looks to be unified, is the result of many phases of building, modification, destruction and restoration.
Remains of the medieval foundations can still be seen on the lower ground floor of the Sully wing. The Louvre was renovated frequently through the Middle Ages.
Under Louis IX in the mid-13th century, the Louvre became the home of the royal treasury. Under the Valois dynasty, it housed a prison and courtrooms.
The Louvre complex may be divided into the "Old Louvre": the medieval and Renaissance pavilions and wings surrounding the Cour Carrée, as well as the Grande Galerie extending west along the bank of the Seine. The "New Louvre" constitutes 19th-century pavilions and wings extending along the north and south sides of the Cour Napoléon along with their extensions to the west which were originally part of the Palais des Tuileries (Tuileries Palace), burned during the Paris Commune in 1871.
The Old Louvre occupies the site of the Louvre castle, a 12th-century fortress built by King Philip Augustus, also called the Louvre. Its foundations are viewable in the basement level as the "Medieval Louvre" department. This structure was razed in 1546 by King Francis I in favour of a larger royal residence which was added to by almost every subsequent French monarch. King Louis XIV, who resided at the Louvre until his departure for Versailles in 1678, completed the Cour Carrée, which was closed off on the city side by a colonnade. Explore WOOLF Historic Projects
The "New Louvre"
In 1983 the French President, François Mitterrand, personally asked the American architect I. M. Pei to work on his ‘Grand Louvre Project’ to overhaul the museum in order to repair it and enhance the visitor experience. I.M. Pei designed the modernist glass pyramid for the central Napoleon courtyard along with developing the myriad of underground rooms and spaces in which the museum could proudly display its many treasures. The Pyramid and its underground lobby were opened to the public on 29 March 1989. Controversial from the beginning for its daring and ‘ugly’ architecture, it has now become a much accepted Parisian architectural landmark. The second phase of the Grand Louvre plan, La Pyramide Inversée (The Inverted Pyramid), was completed in 1993.
A vast underground complex of offices, shops, exhibition spaces, storage areas, and parking areas, as well as an auditorium, a tourist bus depot, and a cafeteria, was constructed underneath the Louvre's central courtyards of the Cour Napoléon and the Cour du Carrousel. The ground-level entrance to this complex was situated in the center of the Cour Napoléon and is crowned by the prominent steel-and-glass pyramid (1989), the most famous element designed by Pei.
In a proposal by Kenneth Carbone, the nomenclature of the wings of the Louvre was simplified in 1987 to reflect the Grand Louvre's organization. Corresponding to the three pavilions through which the public must pass to reach the museum from the main reception area under the glass pyramid, the north part of the complex is now referred to as the Richelieu wing; the east, as the Sully wing; and the south, as the Denon wing. This allows the casual visitor to avoid (to some extent) becoming totally mystified at the bewildering array of named wings and pavilions.
The Louvre Looking Ahead
Muse du Louvre needs to expand its ground plan to properly display all its collections, and if the Tuileries Palace were rebuilt the Louvre could expand into the rebuilt palace.
It's also proposed to rebuild the state apartments of the Second Empire as they stood in 1871, as all the furniture and paintings from the palace survived the 1871 fire because they had been removed in 1870 at the start of the Franco-Prussian War and stored in secure locations.
Watch the 800 year ‘History of The Louvre’.
Today, the furniture and paintings are still deposited in storehouses and are not on public display due to the lack of space in the Louvre. It is argued that recreating the state apartments of the Tuileries would allow the display of these treasures of the Second Empire style which are currently hidden. Explore WOOLF Curate projects.
