East facade of Louvre, Paris September 2013

The Louvre Colonnade is the easternmost façade of the Palais du Louvre in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

. It has been celebrated as the foremost masterpiece of French Architectural Classicism since its construction, mostly between 1667 and 1674. The design, dominated by two loggias with trabeated

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...

s of

coupled ''Coupled'' is an American dating game show that aired on Fox from May 17 to August 2, 2016. It was hosted by television personality, Terrence J and created by Mark Burnett, of '' Survivor'', ''The Apprentice'', '' Are You Smarter Than a 5th G ...

giant columns, was created by a committee of three, the Petit Conseil, consisting of Louis Le Vau,

Charles Le Brun Charles Le Brun (baptised 24 February 1619 – 12 February 1690) was a French painter, physiognomist, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. As court painter to Louis XIV, who declared him "the greatest French artist of ...

, and

Claude Perrault Claude Perrault (25 September 1613 – 9 October 1688) was a French physician and an amateur architect, best known for his participation in the design of the east façade of the Louvre in Paris.François Le Vau, also contributed. Cast in a restrained classicizing baroque manner, it interprets rules laid down by the ancient Roman architect

Vitruvius Vitruvius (; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled '' De architectura''. He originated the idea that all buildings should have three attribut ...

, whose works Perrault translated into French (1673).Neumann 2013, pp. 296–297. Its flat-roofline design, previously associated with Italy and unprecedented in France, was immensely influential.

Description

Little that could be called

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

can be identified in the Colonnade's cool classicism that looks back to the 16th century. The use of one central and two terminal pavilions is typically French, while the main entrance, a

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...

ed ''

avant-corps An ''avant-corps'' ( it, avancorpo or , plural , german: Risalit, pl, ryzalit), a French term literally meaning "fore-body", is a part of a building, such as a porch or pavilion, that juts out from the ''corps de logis'', often taller than oth ...

'', resembles a

triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, cr ...

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

front. The simple character of the ground floor basement sets off the paired

Corinthian column The Corinthian order ( Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

s, modeled strictly according to Vitruvius, against a shadowed void. This scheme of coupled columns on a high podium goes back as far as

Bramante Donato Bramante ( , , ; 1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance st ...

House of Raphael Palazzo Caprini was a Renaissance palazzo in Rome, Italy, in the Borgo rione between Piazza Scossacavalli and via Alessandrina (also named Borgo Nuovo). It was designed by Donato Bramante around 1510, or a few years before. It was also known ...

(1512). The effect of the Colonnade has been likened to that of an

ancient Roman temple Ancient Roman temples were among the most important buildings in Roman culture, and some of the richest buildings in Roman architecture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete state. Today they remain "the most obvious symbol of Ro ...

whose elevations have "been flattened, as it were, into a single plane." Crowned by an uncompromising Italian

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its c ...

along its distinctly non-French flat roof, the whole ensemble represents a ground-breaking departure in French architecture. File:Louvre-facade-est.jpg, The 183-metre long east facade in 2005

History of the design

Louis Le Vau, the King's First Architect at the time of the death of

Cardinal Mazarin Cardinal Jules Mazarin (, also , , ; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino () or Mazarini, was an Italian cardinal, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis X ...

in 1661, completed the south wing of the Louvre's

Cour Carrée The Cour Carrée (Square Court) is one of the main courtyards of the Louvre Palace in Paris. The wings surrounding it were built gradually, as the walls of the medieval Louvre were progressively demolished in favour of a Renaissance palace. Const ...

in 1663. He had already started designing the east wing around 1659 and by late 1663 began laying the foundation. On 1 January 1664,

Jean-Baptiste Colbert Jean-Baptiste Colbert (; 29 August 1619 – 6 September 1683) was a French statesman who served as First Minister of State from 1661 until his death in 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His lasting impact on the organization of the country ...

purchased the post of Surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi from

Antoine de Ratabon Antoine eRatabon (1617 – 12 March 1670) was a French aristocrat, who was an arts and architecture administrator during the reign of Louis XIV.

and suddenly halted all work on the east wing. He invited other French architects to submit designs, in effect starting a competition. He later extended his invitation to four Roman architects, including

Pietro da Cortona Pietro da Cortona (; 1 November 1596 or 159716 May 1669) was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman ...

and

Gian Lorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, , ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 159828 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his ...

, and sent them Le Vau's designs. Among the French projects submitted at that time were two of special interest: one (lost) shown anonymously by Claude Perrault, a physician and scientist, and one by François Le Vau, Louis Le Vau's younger brother and an accomplished architect in his own right. Nevertheless, Colbert selected Bernini based on two preliminary projects and invited him to Paris to further revise and complete his designs. Bernini arrived in June 1665 and stayed until late October. During his stay he sculpted a portrait bust of Louis XIV, which is now in the Salon of Diana at the

Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

. Bernini's design for the Louvre was very Italianate and ambitious, encompassing the entire building rather than just the east wing. The foundation cornerstone was laid at a royal ceremony a few days before Bernini left for Rome. File:François Le Vau Louvre project drawing – Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.jpg, Drawing by François Le Vau, which may be his proposal of 1664 File:Bernini.jpg, Bernini's first project (1664), drawing,

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

File:L'Architecture française (Marot) BnF RES-V-371 167v-f357 Louvre, Principale Entrée du côté de Saint-Germain du dessein du Cavalier Bernin (adjusted).jpg, Bernini's third project (1665), engraved by

Jean Marot Jean Marot (Mathieu, near Caen, 1463 – c. 1526) was a French poet of the late 15th and early 16 century and the father of the French Renaissance poet Clément Marot. He is often grouped with the "Grands Rhétoriqueurs". Jean Marot seems to h ...

Bernini's plans were not well received by French architects, who objected and eventually won the upper hand. In April 1667, Colbert, with the king's approval, appointed Louis Le Vau, Charles Le Brun, and Claude Perrault to a committee, the Petit Conseil, to prepare new designs.

Charles Perrault Charles Perrault ( , also , ; 12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) was an iconic French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tale ...

, Claude Perrault's younger brother and Colbert's chief assistant, acted as the secretary of the committee and probably wrote the ''Registre ou Journal des déliberations...'', which records the activities of the committee during April and May 1667.Berger 1993, p. 26. The ''Registre'' begins by describing Colbert's dissatisfaction with the French and Italian projects and his decision to create a committee "to allow for mutual consultation." Le Vau, Le Brun, and Perrault are instructed to work together "unanimously and conjointly on all designs for the construction of the Palais du Louvre, so the designs will be regarded as the work of the three equally, and for conservation of good collaboration, none should spoil by claiming to be the particular author to the detriment of the others." After several meetings, the Petit Conseil drew up two schemes, and, according to the ''Registre'', "one was adorned with an order of columns forming a peristyle or gallery above the first floor .e., the ground floor and the other was simpler and more unified, without an order of columns". The architects of the designs were not identified.Berger 1993, p. 27. On 14 May, at the royal

Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a former royal palace in the commune of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in the ''département'' of Yvelines, about 19 km west of Paris, France. Today, it houses the '' musée d'Archéologie nationale'' (N ...

, two paintings of the proposals were shown to Louis XIV, who chose the design with the colonnade. In July 1667 Colbert finally informed Bernini that his plans had been abandoned. The new façade was begun that summer and was mostly complete in 1674, when the stones of the central pediment were hoisted into place. The authorship of the Colonnade's design has remained controversial ever since. Le Vau may have been responsible for the use of the colonnade, possibly based on the 1664 design of his brother François, which employed paired, free-standing columns. A change in the order from

Composite Composite or compositing may refer to: Materials * Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances ** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts ** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic materials ...

to Corinthian may have been due to the influence of

Roland Fréart de Chambray Roland Fréart, sieur de Chambray (13 July 1606 – 11 December 1676)Asfour 1996. was a French writer, collector, and a theorist of architecture and the arts. Though not a practitioner himself, his two major publications, ''Parallèle de l'archite ...

, who was called to Paris to become a member of the Petit Conseil in 1668. At some point that same year the decision was made to double the width of the south wing. This resulted in the widening and redesign of both the south and north pavilions of the east facade. Perrault probably became the main designer in 1668 and was responsible for the final design. The severely designed colonnade overlooking the Place du Louvre — for which buildings including the

Hôtel du Petit-Bourbon The Hôtel du Petit-Bourbon, a former Parisian town house of the House of Bourbon, royal family of Bourbon, was located on the Rive Droite, right bank of the Seine on the rue d'Autriche, between the :en:Louvre Palace, Louvre to the west and the ...

were demolished to provide the necessary urban space — became widely celebrated. The pediment sculpture of 'Minerva surrounded by the Muses of Victory crowning the bust of Napoleon' is by François-Frédéric Lemot (1808-1810). Napoleon was later replaced by Louis XIV, although the face was kept. File:Louvre - Élévation de la principale facade au côté de Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois - Architecture françoise Tome4 Livre6 Pl7.jpg, Engraving of the east facade from Blondel's ''Architecture françoise'', 1756

Interior

Between 1807 and 1811, Percier and Fontaine created monumental staircases at the southern and northern ends of the wing behind the Colonnade, and projected a suite of prestige rooms between the two staircases on the first floor. The architectural sculpture of the southern staircase (Escalier du Midi) were created in the early 1810s by François Gérard,

Auguste Marie Taunay Auguste-Marie Taunay (1768–1824) was a French sculptor. Early years Auguste-Marie Taunay was born in Paris in 1768. He studied sculpture under Jean Guillaume Moitte (1746–1810) at the '' École des Beaux-Arts'' in Paris. At the age of 24 he ...

, Augustin Félix Fortin, and .

Digging out of the moat

Lifting of the Louvre pediment stones 1674 by Le Clerc - Berger 1993 fig86

In 1964, the French Minister of Culture,

André Malraux Georges André Malraux ( , ; 3 November 1901 – 23 November 1976) was a French novelist, art theorist, and Minister of Culture (France), minister of cultural affairs. Malraux's novel ''La Condition Humaine'' (Man's Fate) (1933) won the Prix Go ...

, ordered the digging out of the dry moat in front of the Colonnade. A characteristic feature of pre-classical French architecture, it is shown in nearly every project and early drawing of the east facade, and its reexcavation revealed the original ''soubassement'', or podium (see the engraving from Blondel's book). The moat may have been filled in around 1674 to facilitate construction (see the engraving by Sébastien Leclerc) and not restored due to lack of funds to build the ''contrescarpe'' after Louis XIV's attention shifted to the

. However, in 1981 Germain Bazin argued that the reconstruction of the moat was misguided, since for aesthetic reasons Louis XIV had never wanted it.

Influence

For centuries, the Colonnade has provided a model for many grand edifices in Europe and America: * In Paris, Ange-Jacques Gabriel's buildings on the

Place de la Concorde The Place de la Concorde () is one of the major public squares in Paris, France. Measuring in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées. ...

(1755–1775) and the principal façade of Charles Garnier's Opéra (1860–1875) * The central part of the East and West Fronts of the

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...

(1792–1811) in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morg ...

*The Raczyński Library (1822–1828) in

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...

*The

Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

(1874) in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

*The original Pennsylvania Station (1910) in New York City * War Memorial Opera House (1932),

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, USA

Notes

Bibliography

* Ayers, Andrew (2004). ''The Architecture of Paris''. Stuttgart; London: Edition Axel Menges. . * Bazin, Germain (1981). "L'erreur du fossé du Louvre". ''Le Monde'', 20 August 1981, p. 2. * Berger, Robert W. (1993). ''The Palace of the Sun: The Louvre of Louis XIV''. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press. . * Berger, Robert W. (1994). ''A Royal Passion: Louis XIV as Patron of Architecture''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . *

Blunt, Anthony Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), styled Sir Anthony Blunt KCVO from 1956 to November 1979, was a leading British art historian and Soviet spy. Blunt was professor of art history at the University of London, dire ...

(1953). ''Art and Architecture in France 1500 to 1700''. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books. . * Blunt, Anthony (1999). ''Art and Architecture in France, 1500–1700'', fifth edition revised by Richard Beresford. New Haven: Yale University Press. . (paperback). * Bottineau-Fuchs, Yves (1996)
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The Dictionary of Art ''Grove Art Online'' is the online edition of ''The Dictionary of Art'', often referred to as the ''Grove Dictionary of Art'', and part of Oxford Art Online, an internet gateway to online art reference publications of Oxford University Press ...

'', edited by Jane Turner, reprinted with minor corrections in 1998. New York: Grove. . * Burchard, Wolf (2016). ''The Sovereign Artist: Charles Le Brun and the Image of Louis XIV''. London: Paul Holbertonn Publishing. . * Cojannot, Alexandre (2003). "Claude Perrault et le Louvre de Louis XIV. À propos de deux livres récents," ''Bulletin Monumental'', vol. 161, no. 3, pp. 231–239. * Feldmann, Dietrich (1996). "Le Vau: (2) François Le Vau", vol. 19, pp. 267–268, in ''

'', 34 volumes, edited by Jane Turner. New York: Grove. . * Gargiani, Roberto (1998). ''Idea e costruzione del Louvre. Parigi cruciale nella storia dell'architettura moderna europea''. Florence: Alinea. . * Laprade, Albert (1960). ''François d'Orbay: Architecte de Louis XIV''. Paris: Éditions Vincent, Fréal. . * Neuman, Robert (2013). ''Baroque and Rococo Art and Architecture''. Boston: Pearson. . * Pérouse de Montclos, Jean-Marie (1989). ''Histoire de l'architecture française. De la Renaissance à la Révolution''. Paris: Mengès. . * Petzet, Michael (2000). ''Claude Perrault und die Architektur des Sonnenkönigs. Der Louvre König Ludwigs XIV. und das Werk Claude Perraults''. Munich/Berlin:

Deutscher Kunstverlag The Deutscher Kunstverlag (DKV) is an educational publishing house with offices in Berlin and Munich. The publisher specializes in books about art, cultural history, architecture, and historic preservation. History Deutscher Kunstverlag w ...

. . * Summerson, John (1963). ''The Classical Language of Architecture''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. . * Sutcliffe, Anthony (1993). ''Paris: An Architectural History''. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. . * Tadgell, Christopher (1980). "Claude Perrault, François Le Vau and the Louvre Colonnade", ''The Burlington Magazine'', vol. 122, no. 926 (May 1980), pp. 326–337. * Whiteley, Mary; Braham, Allan (1969). "Les soubassements de l'aile orientale du Louvre". ''Revue de l'art'', vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 30–43. * Wischermann, Heinfried (1997). ''Paris: An Architectural Guide''. Venice: Arsenale Editrice. . {{coord, 48, 51, 36.59, N, 2, 20, 22.71, E, type:landmark, display=title Louvre Palace French art Classicism Colonnades Ancien Régime French architecture Neoclassical architecture in Paris