9 things you might not know about Louvre in France
2023-05-16
The Louvre Museum in Paris, France has a rich collection and is one of most popular museums in world. The Louvre is most visited museum in world, but if you've been to Louvre, do you really know Louvre? Let's take a look at what you might not know about Louvre.
01. Is Louvre a palace?
Is Louvre a palace? While Louvre has word "palace" in its name, it hasn't actually always been a palace since Louvre existed in the 12th century. The Louvre was a fortress built to protect against Viking raids!
In 1190, King Philip Auguste decided to build a strong wall around Paris for protection. Although today Louvre is located in center of Paris, in 12th century it was actually located on outskirts of Paris. The Louvre was originally a defensive tower but was eventually turned into a palace during reign of Francis I.
02. Isn't Mona Lisa always on display in Louvre?
Speaking of King Francis I of France, it is said that French king loved work of Leonardo da Vinci so much that François stayed with him in his bed when he died. It is said that it was at this time that François acquired Mona Lisa painting.
Portrait of Francis I
After da Vinci's death, Mona Lisa moved from many royal palaces, such as Palace of Versailles and Palace of Fontainebleau, and finally found a permanent home in Louvre. Today it is protected by bulletproof glass and a special climate control system. (To protect her or to protect you? Read next paragraph and you will find out...)
03. Have Mona Lisa's eyes completely confused your brain?
There are always a lot of tourists in the Mona Lisa. When you look at this masterpiece for yourself, you will find that when you look into Mona's eyes, her gaze will follow you as you move left and right. That's just terrible. Da Vinci was a genius.
Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci
In fact, this effect is achieved through a special drawing technique that uses innate properties of our brain, which automatically tries to understand what eyes see. Essentially, using shadow, light, and perspective on a 2D canvas allows our brains to automatically and consciously perceive 2D paintings as 3D. But why are eyes following you? In real life, if you walk from side to side in front of someone, light, shadow, and perspective change because this is a 3D reality. However, light, shadow and perspective in a painting are fixed in two dimensions - no matter what angle you look at them from, they look almost same.
It turns out that if you draw a person looking at you, his or her eyes will continue to move with you, from side to side; no matter how you move, his or her gaze will not be directed at you, even if you are standing in position when artist painted it, you cannot do anything. This is method of perspective. Perspective drawing began to be used only in 14th century, and Da Vinci was one of first masters who truly mastered perspective drawing. However, you will find that Louvre has a plethora of paintings that will amaze you like Mona Lisa.
04. When Louvre first opened, there were only 721 works of art.
During reign of King Francis I of France, Louvre turned into a royal palace. When Louis XIV moved palace to Versailles, status of Louvre changed. On eve of French Revolution, during reign of Louis XVI, idea of a museum of royal collections took shape. Therefore, it is often believed that French Revolution created Louvre.
Louis XVI
After French Revolution, Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, clearly unhappy with changes, decided to use Louvre as a museum to showcase national masterpieces. From August 10, 1793, public can visit for free 3 days a week. When it first opened, Louvre had only 721 works of art (537 paintings, 184 items). Today, Louvre has more than 35,000 works of art on display, and each ticket costs 15 euros.
French Revolution
05. Napoleon renamed museum after himself
Portrait of Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte was certainly not known for his modesty, and he also renamed Louvre in his honor. How narcissistic is that. Napoleon came to power in 1799 and began to carry out radical reforms in Paris. Have you ever seen Vendôme Column or Madeleine? And Arc de Triomphe? All this (and much more) thanks to Napoleon!
Portrait of Napoleon
Among many changes, one small but important one: name of Louvre. If you go back to 1802, you will visit Napoleon Museum. Also, believe it or not, during his reign, Napoleon used to hang Mona Lisa in his private bedroom! This guy can really have some fun with himself.
06. Nazi Stolen Art Stored in Louvre
The Nazis invaded France
When Louvre's curators learned of Nazi invasion, they made every effort to get Louvre's most prized possessions to safety. Fortunately, they succeeded. Most of good things are saved and hidden somewhere in France.
For example, Samothracian goddess of victory was sent to castle of Valenche (central France). The Venus de Milo and Mona Lisa were first moved to Chambord, then to Louvigny, Abay-de-Roc-Dieu, to Montauban Museum, and finally to Montal (southwest France).
Therefore, when Nazis came, Louvre looked empty. But Nazis slapped themselves on head and decided it wasn't enough to be empty, so they decided to fill it with something else. The Nazis looted many works of art, mostly from Jewish families. The loot was kept in Louvre during occupation. The loot in museum occupies more than six rooms.
07. The Mona Lisa was stolen
August 21, 1911, thousands of people poured into Louvre, looking at empty wall where it once hung, leaving flowers, notes and souvenirs in crowd, and Mona Lisa was gone. So who stole it? At first, artists such as Picasso also participated in police investigation and interrogated them one by one.
Picasso
Two years after theft of Mona Lisa, an art dealer in Florence, Italy, received a letter from Perugia, signed at time "Leonardo", claiming that he had found an Italian national treasure, but he does not expect to get rich in this picture, but also does not mind a small reward. The merchant gave letter to Giovanni Pozzi, director of Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Pozzi has photographs from Louvre showing markings on back of original panel; The forger could never have known this. In Pozzi, he invites an art dealer to Florence. At Uffizi Gallery, Pozzi took "Mona Lisa" taken from "Leonardo" and compared them one by one with photographs from Louvre. The lines in picture are same. Obviously it's stolen. Mona Lisa However, when Pozzi called curator of Louvre and found Mona Lisa, Frenchman, who was having lunch, replied that it was impossible and hung up. In end, through diplomatic channels, Louvre returned Mona Lisa, and on January 4, 1914, Mona Lisa returned to wall of hall of Louvre Square.
Mona Lisa
She was away for two years and four and a half months. Over next two days, more than 100,000 tourists came to commemorate this lost and rediscovered treasure of town hall. The thief of Perugia was sentenced to 7 months in prison, but is Perugia real mastermind behind theft? Everything is not so simple.
In addition, Perugia himself is a native Italian. After his arrest, he claimed that his theft was out of patriotism. Qi - Italian) especially a national treasure plundered by Napoleon and brought home. In fact, "Mona Lisa" came to France 200 years before birth of Napoleon and was not stolen by Napoleon at all. As mentioned above, Mona Lisa may have been a gift from da Vinci to King Francis I of France.
08. The Mona Lisa Theft Mystery
It has always been thought that theft of a painting deserved a more imposing burglar, and by no means should it have been someone unknown. In 1932, journalist Carl Decker offered a new story in article "What and Why Mona Lisa Was Stolen".
In this report, Decker recounts how he met real mastermind in Casablanca, revealing that mastermind behind operation was a noble named Eduardo de Valferno. Decker persuaded posing aristocrat to tell whole story after several glasses of brandy. He said that Perugia was just part of his plan, Walferno's plan to sell six elaborate Mona Lisa fakes to American millionaire upstarts. Then he asked Perugia to carry out famous theft, and after Mona Lisa was stolen, Valferno's clients trusted him without hesitation and bought original.
09. Once Louvre was closed due to too many pickpockets.
In 2013, almost half of 450 Louvre employees refused to go to work because Louvre was infested with pesky pickpockets. Since visitors under 18 were given free entry to Louvre, teenage criminals have risen, using art to distract them and successfully stealing money from wealthy American and Asian tourists, officials, property and employees say. papers also tried to intervene, but things were not taken seriously. The workers did not return to their posts until authorities agreed to tighten security measures.
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