During our tour of the Louvre several days ago, I noticed that the tour guide kept mentioning changes that were made to the building in one particular era. As we would go through the rooms, she would point around the room and mention things that were changed during the mid 1800s. When she first mentioned this while we were in the Salon Carré, I was a bit surprised as the room held to the glitz I expected from a former palace, with gold and statuary everywhere on the ceiling. However, when she began pointing out that the names that circled the perimeter of the ceiling were those of artists it began to make more sense.
Another room that we went into on the tour was one of the most ornate things I’ve ever seen. The Galerie d’Apollon has been left largely the same as it was in the time of Louis XIV, one of the most ornate people I’ve ever heard of. The massive gold room still holds many of the symbols of Louis XIV and the french monarchy. The fleur de lis can be found in many of the designs, as can the sun which was a personal favorite of the sun king.
While at first glance this room seems to have escaped modernization or change, a closer look reveals that the portraits along the wall are not contemporary. The tour guide mentioned that this room also had changes made to it in the mid 1800s. At this point people who had contributed to the construction of the Louvre were recognized by having tapestries made in their likeness.
The repurposing of the Louvre from palace to home for the arts lead to some additions that are totally out of place with the original structure, and my immediate reaction to that is a major NO; however, when thinking about the building as a museum the addition of names and portraits of artists creates an emphasis on the objects that are housed in the Louvre that I think is pretty nifty.