The Louvre, Paris

late 13th century crown from the convent of Dominicains de Liege.jpg

Box known as St. Louis wooden box with gilded copper and emamel.jpg

The Louvre may look nothing like a medieval building, but it does contain one. When Philippe Auguste, the King of France, went on crusade in 1190, he decided to increase the defences of Paris before he left. He did this by ordering the construction of a wall around the city, which he reinforced at the junction of the River Seine, by building a castle. This was the first building on the site of the Louvre. The medieval castle was square in plan, with four corner towers and a central keep. The entire structure was surrounded by a moat, which was fed from the Seine. The foundations of this castle still reside in the depths of the Louvre, and are on display in the most unusual way, as it is not often we see castle foundations indoors, or be able to walk a dry moat that is now inside a museum.

The turn of the 16th Century was marked by the wars between France and Italy. When France's ambitions came to an end in 1525, King Francois I moved to Paris and into the Louvre, which was the only building in the capital that offered suitable accommodation for the King. The King collected works of art, and before he died, he decided to rebuild the Louvre in its entirety. King Henry II of France carried on the works, and the new building was finished by 1555. The Louvre was further expanded by King Henry IV of France. It was then abandoned by Louis XIV of France in the 17th Century, in favour of Versailles, and the building work at the Louvre remained unfinished.

By the end of the 17th Century, the royal apartments at the Louvre were occupied by various academic institutions, and the rest was converted into accommodation for civil servants and artists, who were being housed by the King. In 1754, Louis XV ordered further work to be completed at the Louvre, although the King now rarely stayed there. Part of the redevelopment consisted of installing the royal painting collections, in the Grande Galerie, at the heart of the palace, in order to make them accessible to members of the public who were interested.

During the French Revolution, (1789-1799), when the monarchy was abolished, the Assembly moved to the Louvre. Several committees were based in the building, and the Queen’s old apartments were occupied by the Committee of Public Safety. The works of art which had belonged to the Monarchy, were installed in the Louvre, and the Museum of Arts opened on the 10th of August 1793, in the Grande Galerie. After much discussion, it was agreed that the museum would be open to the general public for 12 days of each month.

The Louvre was now a vast complex of buildings by the time the First Consul Bonaparte officially moved in, as Emperor, in 1802. When Napoleon III arrived, he decided to finalise the redevelopment of the Louvre, which was completed by 1857. This saw the end of the major building works, but the Pyramid wasn’t added until 1989, when a new entrance was planned.

From its 12th Century origins, the original fortress that was built to protect Paris, has been transformed over the centuries into an immense series of interconnected buildings that, on the inside at least, do look more like a museum than on a Palace, that is at least, until you look up. Many of the rooms still have their exquisite architectural embellishments. Over the last eight centuries, the greatest architects have contributed to the Louvre. The very concept of a public museum was invented here, which would serve as a model for museums around the world.

While you could just spend time viewing the architecture of the Louvre, it is the collections that are the real treasures here. The Louvre's database consists of more than 480,000 items. This is divided into eight departments, but of course it is the medieval collections which we are interested in. This is not as simple as it is at Muse de Cluny, and it is divided in many different sections, with parts in all three wings of the Louvre. It is well beyond my scope to be able to cover even a fraction of them, so I can only point out a few items in the collections, to give an overall idea. The Louvre contains some of the finest examples of medieval art and craftsmanship in the world.

Medieval Christians believed in the power of relics. A belief in the actual physical remains of a person, or an object that a person had contact with, is as old as the faith itself, and developed alongside it. It was believed that these items had the power to heal. They were treasured objects, and so they would be kept in the most expensive, and elaborate, boxes that could be created, known as Reliquaries. Reliquaries differed in shape and size, but from the time of Charlemagne, most altars would possess at least one relic. The more famous, and greater that relic, the more people who would come to see it, and give offerings to the church that possessed it. In the UK, most of these Reliquaries were melted down for their precious metal after the dissolution of the monasteries, but on the continent many have survived. This Reliquary was once the Shrine of St Potentin, and dates from the first half of the 13th Century.

The crown is thought to also be a relic. It dates from the end of the 12th Century, and comes from the Convent of Dominicians de Liege. It is unknown how the crown was used, or why it was in the possession of the Convent.

Items that were once everyday items of the middle and upper classes, and have since fallen out of use, such as the aquamanile can be seen. This example dates from the 13th Century and is cast in bronze. Aquamanilia’s were used for washing your hands before meals. They are typically cast from a copper alloy, often brass or bronze, with the most valuable being made in silver. They were produced in large numbers, throughout Europe, from the 12th to 15th Centuries. They were cast in what has come to be known as the lost-wax method, where the wax once cast, would be melted away, leaving a cavity for the metal to be poured in. Although the forms varied, it was always that of a creature. Animals with symbolism were the most popular, with the lion making up 55% of surviving examples.

The painting of The Money Changer and his Wife, dates from 1514, and was created by Quentin Metsys in Flanders. The painter depicts a portrait of a jeweller, weighing gold, as his wife looks towards him.

Pieter Bruegel has only one painting at the Louvre, and that is ‘The Cripples’. It dates from 1568, and reads ‘Cripples, may your affairs prosper’. Foxtails adorn their tunics. We know these were used as a sign of the opposition to the Catholic rule in the Netherlands, imposed by Philip IV of Spain and the Netherlands, between 1621 and 1665. The foxtails were adopted as a sign of their revolt, known as the Revolt of the Beggars, in 1566.

The Louvre’s Estate, includes the Carrousel Garden and Tuleries Garden, both of which are historical parks. The parks, in central Paris, quite literally are a breath of fresh air. Once used exclusively by the Royal and Imperial families, they are now open to the public. Tuileries Garden dates from 1564, although it was redesigned in 1664, when it was first opened to the enjoyment of ‘respectable folk’. It opened to the general public in 1871. The garden has been decorated with statues since the 18th Century.