Royal Palaces and Parks of France

so coldly inconvenient and inhospitable to his host, Francis I, that that monarch decided forthwith upon its complete reconstruction and enlargement. Owing to various combi

ct. His mania was for building-when it was not for affairs of the heart-and so daring was he that when he could not get an old fabric to remodel he would brave all, as did Louis XIV at Versailles

ic with another which should bear the same name. One has read of the monarch's thoughts when he was awaiting the coming to Paris of his old enemy in the peninsula; how he regretted the moment when he should sally out to meet him and leave his new-found friend, the Duchesse d'étampes, in spite of her pleadings for h

eign parts, and many others were brought from Italy by Italian artists, whom he had commanded to the capital: Primaticcio brought with him, upon his arrival, more than a hundred antique sta

n 1661 he bought the fine collection left by Cardinal Mazarin, and ten years later purchased the contents of the celebrated gallery belonging to the banker Jacob

was a hundred years later that a national museum was actually created. This was virtually brought about from the fact that the royal collections were transported in a great par

d July 27, 1793. It was aided and enriched considerably under Napoleon I, that passionate lover of the beautiful, who,

instance) were afterwards returned to their original owners, but the nucl

talian, Serlio, was bidden prepare a set of plans for the Renaissance glory that was to be. Serlio

t a name unknown in the world of architecture his talents were sufficiently great, magistrate and parliame

pted by intrigues of court, of love, of war, nor by

judging from the interpolated monograms of Charles IX and Henri IV on the south wing, work progressed less hurriedly. The two other constructions, whic

were the plans of Lescot. A sole wing, that following the Seine and ab

ons, were entrusted to Jean Goujon (1520-1572), who became a victim of the horr

Lo

f window, two kneeling figures, one blowing a trumpet, and the other extending a palm branch. "Victory and Fame," replied Lescot. And, in honour of the architect and his sentiment, Ronsard composed

ouvre with that portion along the banks of the Seine by the double arch, through which swing the autobusses coming from the Rive Gauche with

ques is installed, and which is usually thronged, in season and out, with globe-trotting sight-s

tic idea radiated from the ambitious mind of Catherine de Médici. In this connection it must be remembered, however, that Catherine, so commonly reviled as "the Italian," was not all Italian; French blood flowed through her veins through that of her mother, Madeleine de la Tour d'

ative of the Chambiges of Fontainebleau and Saint Germain, the Petite Galerie, a mere means of communication between the two chateaux, and not the least to be likened to a defen

h was unavoidable save by recourse to a substitution less to be objected to than the existing fault. Actually the connection with the Tuileries was made by the prolongation

ed beneath the windows of his apartments on the quay-side of the Louvre. This, if not the chief incident of his association with the fabric, is at least the best remembered one. Henri III, too, led a scandalous life within the walls of

a small apartment over the watergate of the Louvre, the queen and her two sons were huddled together not knowing what might happen next. The multitude streamed by on the quay before the palace, and, finally, amid all the horror of Coligny's murder, and the throwing of his body from a

his "royal hunt," and hideous oaths and threats such as: "We'll have them all, even the women and children," are

e project of Catherine de Médici), and, by the end of the sixteenth century, had built a long fa?ade under the advice of the brothers Ducerceau. This work was added to on the courtyard side under the

the celebrated Pavilion de Flore, a work of the Hen

rstices and unfinished vaults and arches leading towards the Old Louvre were, at this epoch, completed by Metezeau

d to give symmetry and an additional extent of available space the rectangle facing Saint Germain l'Auxerrois to-day was completed, thus enclosing in one corner of its ample courtyard the foundations of the earlier work whose outlines are p

sures. From ground to sky-line the fa?ades are embroidered by the works from the magic hand of the Siècle Italien. Jean

that of Méhémet-Ali when one praises the pyramids." In a way the Louvre is the most magnificent edifice in the universe; "four palaces one piled up on another, une ville entière." And w

tect Lemercier on the basis of a project adopted in 1642, and, to a great

beyond her personal needs little was done for the moment towards actually linking up the various loose

rs of his race; it was literature, music and painting which more particularly flourished during his reign, and so the Austrian contented herself at first with mere

his elders, and charged the architect Levau to finish off the north wing, which was done in 1660. A year later the Galerie H

ern fa?ade which was intended to be the chief entrance to the mass o

ade at once, and made rapid progress until 1664, when an abrupt order came for him to stop all work. Political conspiracy, graft, if you like, was at work, and Colbert, little favourable towards Levau, made a proposition to the king to open a competition for the design and execution of the fa?ade. Willingly enough, his mind doubtless mo

o be impracticable from an economic or constructive point of view, or both. This is often enough true, and it proved to be so in this case, for in spite of a certain amount of advice from an expert Italian builder, who had come to Paris to help the good doctor with his difficult task (for

ovator he was. He allowed the Louvre to be filled up with all sorts of riffraff, who were often given a lodging there in place of a money payment for some serv

es Batiments Royaux, obtained the authorization to chase out the parasites and clean up the Augean stable and put things in order as best pleased

ileries) was finally joined to the seventeenth century work of Lemercier under Louis Napoleon in 1852. This gallery, the work of "moderns," is no mean example of palace-building, either. It was the work of Visconti and Lefuel, and with the adoption of this plan was finally accomplished the interpolatio

iven by Napoleon III to all the architects, artists and labourers who had been engaged upon the work. In the same Salle, two years

at is even of cursory interest. The well-known, the little-known and the comparatively unknown mingle in varying proportions, according to the individual mood or attitude. To some the appeal will lie in the vastness of the fabric, to others in th

ant events which have taken place in the Louvre since the days of Henri III, the pe

embers of the Conseil des Seize were hung in the S

prophecy was cast in 1610 that reminds one of that which perhaps had not

documentary horoscope signed by an astrologer calling himself La Brosse, which w

ed the king, and crumpled

rom the Rue Saint Honoré into the Rue de la Ferronière that the royal coach, frequently blocked by crowds, offered

a short, brief journey to the royal apartments above in the Pavilion de l'Horloge, but it must have been an interminable calvary to the gallant Henri de Navarre. The body was received by Marie de Médici in tears, and the

artier" of the dismembered body of the regicide and roasted it in a fire set alight be

thful ever to the interests of his royal master. In spite of this, one of the first acts of Marie de Mé

mbroidered with gold, was all that remained of Henri IV of France and Navarre. Around t

he chapter of the relations of

rance from the troublous revolt at home, lived in the Louvre in 1644. She had at first been graciously received by Mazarin, but was

d in the Salle des Caryatides, gave the first "command" performance on

ailly, the first curator of the Musée du Lo

tired, leaving hundreds of dead on the field. The parterre beneath the famous colonnade was their burial place, thoug

ace surroundings under Louis XIV, and with little change his scheme of decoration lasted un

dusty gravel and the too sparse architectural embellishments do not mark the gardens of the Louvre as

se fairly well in holding the rabble at bay, a rabble to whose credit is the fact that it respected the artistic inherita