![Galerie d'Apollon du Louvre déserte 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Galerie_d%27Apollon_du_Louvre_d%C3%A9serte_2.jpg)
The Galerie d'Apollon is a large and iconic room of the
Louvre Palace
The Louvre Palace (french: link=no, Palais du Louvre, ), often referred to simply as the Louvre, is an iconic French palace located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, occupying a vast expanse of land between the Tuileries Ga ...
, on the first (upper) floor of a wing known as the
Petite Galerie. Its current setup was first designed in the 1660s. It has been part of the
Louvre Museum
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 ...
since the 1790s, was completed under the lead of
Félix Duban
Jacques Félix Duban () (14 October 1798, Paris – 8 October 1870, Bordeaux) was a French architect, the contemporary of Jacques Ignace Hittorff and Henri Labrouste.
Life and career
Duban won the Prix de Rome in 1823, the most prestigious aw ...
in the mid-19th century, and has housed the museum's collection of the
French Crown Jewels
The French Crown Jewels (french: Joyaux de la Couronne de France) comprise the crowns, orb, sceptres, diadems and jewels that were symbols of Royal power between 752 and 1825. These were worn by many Kings and Queens of France as well as Emper ...
since 1887.
History
The
Petite Galerie of the Louvre
The Petite Galerie is a wing of the Louvre Palace, which connects the buildings surrounding the Cour Carrée with the Grande Galerie bordering the River Seine. Begun in 1566, its current structures date mainly from the 17th and 19th centuries. Mos ...
was first built in the 16th century. A second storey with a long room for the display of art was added during the reign of
Henry IV. Known as the , it was decorated by artists of the Second
School of Fontainebleau
The School of Fontainbleau (french: École de Fontainebleau) (c. 1530 – c. 1610) refers to two periods of artistic production in France during the late Renaissance centered on the royal Palace of Fontainebleau that were crucial in forming the No ...
, including
Toussaint Dubreuil,
Jacob Bunel and his wife
Marguerite Bahuche, according to designs by
Martin Fréminet
Martin Fréminet (24 September 1567 – 18 June 1619) was a French painter.
Biography
Fréminet was born and died in Paris. According to the RKD he was a painter and engraver who is considered a member of the Second "School of Fontainebleau".< ...
.
After a fire in the small gallery destroyed much of it on 6 February 1661,
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Vers ...
ordered this part of the Louvre to be rebuilt.
[History of the Louvre]
on Monument Historique
''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...
website Architectural work was entrusted to
Louis Le Vau
Louis Le Vau (1612 – 11 October 1670) was a French Baroque architect, who worked for Louis XIV of France. He was an architect that helped develop the French Classical style in the 17th Century.''Encyclopedia of World Biography''"Louis Le Vau", ...
, who carried out reconstruction activities between 1661 and 1663, while
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 ...
was assigned responsibility for decorations by
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 countr ...
.
[ Le Brun's main theme for the room revolved around the movement of the sun through time and space, with the figure of ]Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
glorifying Louis as the sun king. The sculptor François Girardon
François Girardon (10 March 1628 – 1 September 1715) was a French sculptor of the Louis XIV style or French Baroque, best known for his statues and busts of Louis XIV and for his statuary in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles.
Biography ...
was responsible for the stucco sculptures. This was the first Royal Gallery for Louis, which served as a model for the Hall of Mirrors
The Hall of Mirrors (french: Grande Galerie, Galerie des Glaces, Galerie de Louis XIV) is a grand Baroque style gallery and one of the most emblematic rooms in the royal Palace of Versailles near Paris, France. The grandiose ensemble of the hal ...
of 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, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 19 ...
.
The gallery had not been completed by the time of Louis' death in 1715, and subsequent generations of artists continued to improve the room, such as Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy
The brothers Gaspard (born 1624 or 1625, died 10 December 1681) and Balthazar Marsy (baptised 6 January 1628, died May 1674) were French sculptors. Originally from Cambrai, they moved to Paris and were employed by King Louis XIV, particularly ...
, and Thomas Regnaudin
Thomas Regnaudin (baptised 18 February 1622 – 3 July 1706) was a French sculptor, affiliated with Northern Baroque. Some of Regnaudin's works were placed in the Apollo Gallery of the Louvre. A son of a stonemason
Stonemasonry or stonecraft i ...
. In 1819, Louvre architect Pierre Fontaine closed it with a wrought iron
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...
gate that had been seized in early 1797 from the Château de Maisons
The Château de Maisons (now Château de Maisons-Laffitte), designed by François Mansart from 1630 to 1651, is a prime example of French baroque architecture and a reference point in the history of French architecture. The château is located in M ...
, still in place. But the gallery was left unfinished and in disrepair, however, and it had to be propped up in 1826. It was eventually restored and completed in the mid-19th century under architect Félix Duban
Jacques Félix Duban () (14 October 1798, Paris – 8 October 1870, Bordeaux) was a French architect, the contemporary of Jacques Ignace Hittorff and Henri Labrouste.
Life and career
Duban won the Prix de Rome in 1823, the most prestigious aw ...
, with painter Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...
contributing ''Apollo Slays the Python'' for the center of the ceiling, Joseph Guichard
Joseph Benoît Guichard (14 November 1806, Lyon - 31 May 1880, Lyon) was a French painter and art teacher who worked in a variety of styles.
Biography
His parents were the owners of a wallpaper shop. Around 1818, he began to study drawing at ...
painting ''Triumph of the Earth or Cybele'', and Charles Louis Müller
Charles Louis Müller (also known as Müller de Paris) (Paris 22 December 1815 – 10 January 1892 Paris) was a French painter.
Biography
He was the pupil of Léon Cogniet, Baron Gros and others in the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1837 he exhib ...
supplying ''Aurore.'' The newly completed gallery was inaugurated by President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte on 5 June 1851.
Having seen the Gallery in 1856, a 13-year-old Henry James
Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
wrote:
As part of the Louvre, the Galerie d'Apollon is both a national and World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
. It was comprehensively renovated between 2001 and 2004, and again cleaned up in 2019.
Displays
Besides the sumptuous decoration of the room itself, the gallery's main attractions are the remaining pieces of the French Crown Jewels
The French Crown Jewels (french: Joyaux de la Couronne de France) comprise the crowns, orb, sceptres, diadems and jewels that were symbols of Royal power between 752 and 1825. These were worn by many Kings and Queens of France as well as Emper ...
. In 1887, the Third French Republic
The French Third Republic (french: Troisième République, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940 ...
sold most crown jewels to quell fears of a royalist ''coup d'état'', from which only jewels of historic significance were exempted. That same year, the 23 remaining pieces of jewelry were exhibited in the Galerie d'Apollon, and presented in display cases designed by Louvre architect , together with other precious objects from the Louvre's collections. More display cases were added in 1985 (designed by Daniel Pasgrimaud) and in 2020 (designed by Juan Felipe Alarcon).[ Some of the most significant pieces include:
* crowns made for ]Louis XV
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...
and Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
;
* the Hortensia diamond, an orange-pink 20-carat diamond purchased by Louis XIV;
* the Regent Diamond
The Regent Diamond is a diamond owned by the French state and on display in the Louvre, worth £48,000,000.
History
Discovery
According to legend, the diamond was discovered by an enslaved man in the Kollur Mine near the Krishna River a ...
, a white 140-carat diamond widely considered one the purest diamonds ever created;
* the Sancy
The Sancy, a pale yellow diamond of , was once reputed to have belonged to the Mughals of antiquity, but it is more likely of Indian origin owing to its cut, which is unusual by Western standards. The stone has been owned by a number of important ...
, a pale yellow 55-carat diamond formerly part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom
The Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom, originally the Crown Jewels of England, are a collection of royal ceremonial objects kept in the Tower of London which include the Coronation of the British monarch, coronation regalia and vestments worn ...
.
See also
* Galerie des Glaces
The Hall of Mirrors (french: Grande Galerie, Galerie des Glaces, Galerie de Louis XIV) is a grand Baroque style gallery and one of the most emblematic rooms in the royal Palace of Versailles near Paris, France. The grandiose ensemble of the h ...
*
References
External links
A tour of the Gallery (in French)
{{Louvre
Louvre
Louvre Palace
1660s architecture
Painted ceilings