THE LOUVRE.
This splendid palace, which was planned in the reign of Francis I., at the commencement of the sixteenth century, is a quadrangular edifice, having a court in the center, and forming a square of about four hundred and sixteen English feet. The front was built in the reign of Louis XIV., and is one of the most beautiful monuments of his reign. A spacious gallery, fourteen hundred and fifty English feet in length, connects this palace with that of the Tuilleries. Here was displayed, under the title of the Musee Napoleon, that inestimable collection of paintings, one thousand and thirty in number, consisting of the chefs-d’œuvre of the great masters of antiquity, and constituting a treasury of human art and genius, far surpassing every other similar institution. The ante-room leading to the gallery contained several exquisite paintings, the fruits of the triumphs of Bonaparte, or which had been presented to him by the sovereigns who had cultivated his alliance. This apartment was styled by the Parisians the Nosegay of Bonaparte: its most costly pictures were from the gallery of the Grand Duke of Tuscany; and to these were added a selection from those procured at Venice, Naples, Turin and Bologna.
It would be impossible adequately to describe the first impressions made on the spectator on his entrance into the gallery, where such a galaxy of genius and art was offered to his contemplation. It was lined by the finest productions of the French, Flemish and Italian schools, and divided by a curious double painting upon slate, placed on a pedestal in the middle of the room, representing the front and back views of the same figures. From the Museum the visitor descends into the Salle des Antiques, containing the finest treasures of Grecian and Roman statuary. His notice is instantly attracted by the Belvidere Apollo, a statue surpassing, in the opinion of connoisseurs, all the others in the collection. This matchless statue is thus described by Sir John Carr, in his work entitled “The Stranger in France.” “All the divinity of a god beams through this unrivaled perfection of form. It is impossible to impart the impressions which it inspires: the riveted beholder is ready to exclaim with Adam, when he first discerns the approach of Raphael:
“‘Behold what glorious shape
Comes this way moving: seems another morn
Risen on mid-noon; some great behest from heaven.’
“The imagination can not form such an union of grace and strength. One of its many transcendent beauties consists in its aerial appearance and exquisite expression of motion.” The Medicean Venus, from the palace Pitti, at Florence, also formed a part of this magnificent collection of statues. The classic Addison, in speaking of this statue, which he saw at Florence, observes, that it appeared to him much less than life, in consequence of its being in the company of others of a larger size; but that it is, notwithstanding, as large as the ordinary size of women, as he concluded from the measure of the wrist; since, in a figure of such nice proportions, from the size of any one part it is easy to guess at that of the others. The fine polish of the marble, communicating to the touch a sensation of fleshy softness, the delicacy of the shape, air and posture, and the correctness of design, in this celebrated statue, are not to be expressed.
The Paris museum, and Salle des Antiques, although deprived, at the termination of the contest with France, of so many chefs-d’œuvre of art, still contain others which render them highly interesting. The finest productions of Le Brun, several of them on an immense scale, still remain; as do likewise the matchless marine paintings by Vernet; the truly sublime works of Poussin, consisting of the chief of his masterpieces; together with many choice paintings by Rubens, Wouvermans, De Witte, &c. Many of the statues remaining in the Salle des Antiques are likewise admirable specimens of sculpture. In the gallery of the Louvre a very curious collection of models, representing the fortresses of France and other countries, was once exhibited; but it was removed, that the paintings might be seen with greater effect. These models, executed in the reign of Louis XIV., and amounting to upward of one hundred and eighty, were wrought with the greatest accuracy, and so naturally, as to represent the several cities which they describe, with their streets, houses, squares and churches, together with the works, moats, bridges and rivers, not neglecting the adjacent territory, as consisting of plains, mountains, corn-lands, meadows, gardens, woods, &c. Several of these models were so contrived as to be taken in pieces, so that the curious observer might be better able to perceive their admirable construction.
Of this splendid building and gallery, Silliman, in his late tour, says, “A mere catalogue of the objects in the Louvre, with the most brief description, would swell to a volume. The building forms part of a vast unfinished quadrangle, upon the usual plan of ancient castles and palaces. In various stages of its progress, during many centuries, it has been used both as a castle and a palace. From its windows, or from the windows of a building occupying the same place, the infamous Charles IX. fired upon his Protestant subjects during the massacre of St. Bartholomew, August twenty-fourth, 1572, crying, with the voice of a fiend, ‘Kill! kill!!’
“The Louvre, as a grand museum of the arts, is indebted chiefly to Napoleon and Louis Philippe. Even as late as the reign of Louis XVI., the greater part of the Louvre remained without a roof. The magnificent bronze gates are due to Napoleon. He and Louis Philippe did more for the embellishment of Paris than any monarch, except Louis XIV. Had we seen the Louvre when we were first in Paris, it would have made a much stronger impression than now; and this remark can be, in a degree, extended to all its various contents, whether statues, ancient or modern, antiquities of various ages and nations, Egyptian, Assyrian, Etruscan, Grecian, Roman, Mexican, or Peruvian, or of whatever name. Exquisite objects, in curious arts, may be included—cameos, gems, crystal vessels, and ornaments. Even at this late period of our tour, the Louvre has, however, made a very strong impression. It is a glorious spectacle: there is no museum that can compare with it, except that of the Vatican. The British museum is not a fair subject of comparison with either of these, as its plan and main objects are different. The Louvre is strictly a museum of the fine arts and of antiquities. Libraries it has not, nor does it include natural history, which is so abundantly illustrated at the Garden of Plants, and in the other excellent institutions in Paris. That hall of the Louvre which is called the long gallery is thirteen hundred and thirty-two feet in length, over a quarter of a mile, and forty-two feet wide, all seen in one view. The walls are entirely covered by pictures, amounting in the aggregate to fourteen hundred and eight, of which three hundred and eighty are French, five hundred and forty are Flemish and German, four hundred and eighty are Italian, and eight are modern copies of ancient pictures. Only the works of deceased artists are admitted into this museum, which was formed principally by Napoleon, and enriched with most of the chefs-d’œuvre of Europe. The greater part of those foreign pictures were claimed and removed by the allies in 1815; but they are hardly missed; for, even now, this gallery is one of the finest in the world.
“I have already had occasion to remark that in our tour we have seen a number of pictures and statues in various cities, particularly in Italy, which, having traveled to Paris, were restored after the Russian campaign and the battle of Waterloo. There were, however, so many fine things left behind in the different galleries from which those pictures had been taken, that the omission would hardly be noticed there, any more than their absence from the Louvre is observed now, except by a few scrutinizing artists and connoisseurs. In despair of making any progress in this vast collection, I shall not even attempt to describe any particular pictures, and thus I must pass by the grandest gallery perhaps in the world, because I can not do it any justice, and for a still worse reason, because so many galleries of less importance have been visited first. The room called Salle de Bijoux is very rich in the rare and costly things which kings are wont to collect, and which are here so numerous and beautiful that they surpass the similar collections in the Pitti palace in Florence, but they are inferior in splendor and magnificence to those we had lately seen at Dresden. There is here, however, a profusion of gems, diamonds, sapphires, rubies, &c.; and the vessels fabricated from rock crystal are numerous, large and splendid. The Egyptian museum is particularly rich in everything which illustrates the history and manners of that country. The gallery of ancient statuary, and of modern copies, is so similar to what we have seen in Italy, that I will not enter into particulars. There is nothing here more surprising than the stupendous sculptured stones from Nineveh, sent out by M. Botta, the French consul. They are not so numerous as in the collection which we saw in the British museum, but there are figures here which surpass in magnitude any that are there; at least such is my recollection. The winged bulls, with a lion’s head, and the figures on the reverse of the stone panels, are of such vast size, that we are astonished that they could have been transported without injury from the other side of the world. A tall man is a dwarf by their side.”