The Salon Carré is an iconic room of the

Louvre Palace The Louvre Palace (, ), often referred to simply as the Louvre, is an iconic French palace located on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, occupying a vast expanse of land between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxe ...

, created in its current dimensions during a reconstruction of that part of the palace following a fire in February 1661. It gave its name to the longstanding tradition of exhibitions of contemporary art in Paris which had its heyday there between 1725 and 1848. Since 1849, it has been permanently used by the

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, which currently uses it to display

Italian Renaissance painting Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian Peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political stat ...

History

When the

Grande Galerie The (), in the past also known as the Galerie du Bord de l'Eau (Waterside Gallery), is a wing of the Louvre Palace, perhaps more properly referred to as the Aile de la Grande Galerie (Grand Gallery Wing), since it houses the longest and largest ...

was built in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a separate room was created at its eastern end above the lavishly decorated on the ground floor. That upper room was known at the time as or . This room was destroyed together with the nearby by the fire of 6 February 1661.

Louis Le Vau Louis Le Vau (; c. 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 ...

rebuilt it on an expanded footprint, including further space to the north that gave it more width and its current name, even though its plan is rectangular and not square. In the 18th century the room was used for the , which led to the construction of successive dedicated staircases to provide it with a dedicated entrance. In the 1780s, its design was debated in the context of early plans to create a permanent museum in the room, leading to the creation in 1789 of a

skylight A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes. History O ...

in its roofing, designed by Charles-Axel Guillaumot and one of the first such examples for art exhibition purposes. On 2 April 1810,

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

and

Marie Louise of Austria Marie Louise (Maria Ludovica Leopoldina Franziska Theresia Josepha Lucia; 12 December 1791 – 17 December 1847) was Duchess of Parma from 11 April 1814 until her death in 1847. She was Napoleon's second wife and as such Empress of the French a ...

led a procession from the

Tuileries Palace The Tuileries Palace (, ) was a palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the Seine, directly in the west-front of the Louvre Palace. It was the Parisian residence of most French monarchs, from Henri IV to Napoleon III, until it was b ...

throughout the Grande Galerie on the occasion of their wedding, which was celebrated in the Salon Carré, temporarily converted into a chapel. In 1848, the Louvre's new director Philippe-Auguste Jeanron successfully advocated the relocation of the outside of the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, so that the Salon Carré would be devoted to permanent museum use. The room was subsequently redecorated by architect Félix Duban, with sculptor Pierre-Charles Simart creating a richly decorated ceiling of gilded stucco celebrating past French artists, still in place. The refurbished room was inaugurated on 5 June 1851, together with the renovated Grande Galerie, Galerie d’Apollon, and Salle des Sept-Cheminées. In 1972, the Salon Carré's museography was remade with lighting from a hung tubular case, designed by Louvre architect with assistance from designers ,

Joseph-André Motte Joseph-André Motte (6 January 1925 – 1 June 2013) was a French furniture designer and interior designer and ranks among the most influential and innovative figures of post-war French design. Joseph-André Motte was born in Saint-Bonnet-en- ...

and Pierre Paulin.

Gallery

File:Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin, Vue du Salon du Louvre en l'année 1753, 1753.jpg, The Salon in 1753, by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

) File:Gabriel-Jacques de Saint-Aubin, Vue du Salon de 1765 (1765).jpg, The Salon in 1753, by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (Louvre) File:Salon 1767.jpg, The Salon in 1767, by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin File:Richard Earlom d’après Charles Brandoin The Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Painting in the year 1771.jpg, The Salon in 1771, engraving after Charles Brandoin File:Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin - The Salon of 1779 - WGA20656.jpg, The Salon in 1779, by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (Louvre) File:Salon du Louvre 1787.jpg, The Salon in 1787, engraving by Pietro Antonio Martini File:Napoleon Marie Louise Marriage1.jpeg, '' The Wedding of Napoleon and Marie Louise'' by Georges Rouget, 1810 (

Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

) File:Charles X distribuant des récompenses aux artistes exposants du salon de 1824 au Louvre, le 15 Janvier 1825 (by François Joseph Heim).jpg, '' Charles X at the Salon of 1824'', by François Joseph Heim (Louvre) File:The Medusa shown at the Louvre, in color.jpg, The Salon in 1831 with

Théodore Géricault Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (; 26 September 1791 – 26 January 1824) was a French painter and lithographer, whose best-known painting is '' The Raft of the Medusa''. Despite his short life, he was one of the pioneers of the Romanti ...

's '' The Raft of the Medusa'', by (Louvre) File:Salon Carré Ceiling.jpg, Detail of the ceiling designed by Duban in 1849-1850 File:Giuseppe Castiglione - View of the Grand Salon Carré in the Louvre - WGA4552.jpg, The Salon Carré in 1861, by Giuseppe Castiglione (Louvre) File:Alexandre Brun - View of the Salon Carré at the Louvre.jpg, Salon Carré around 1880, by Alexandre Jean-Baptiste Brun (Louvre) File:Musée du Louvre - Mise en place d'un tableau dans le Salon carré, Les noces de Cana - Paris 01 - Médiathèque de l'architecture et du patrimoine - APZ0008054.jpg, Re-installation of

Veronese Veronese is the Italian word denoting someone or something from Verona, Italy and may refer to: * Veronese Riddle, a popular riddle in the Middle Ages * Veronese (moth), ''Veronese'' (moth), a moth genus in the family Crambidae * Monte Veronese, ...

's '' The Wedding at Cana'' in 1918 File:Louvre 1929 - le salon Carré.jpg, Salon Carré in 1929, in ''

L'Illustration ''L'Illustration'' (; 1843–1944) was a French language, French illustrated weekly newspaper published in Paris. It was founded by Édouard Charton with the first issue published on 4 March 1843, it became the first illustrated newspaper in ...

'' File:Salon Carré D201805 2.jpg, Marc Saltet's 1972 museography with seat designed in 1967 by Pierre Paulin

Notes

{{Louvre Louvre Palace Ancien Régime French architecture

History

Gallery

See also

Notes