In 1790 a Commission was appointed by the National Assembly “to register and watch over all that was most valuable,” and on May 26, 1791 a decree was made that the Louvre should be thenceforward dedicated to the conservation of objects of science and of art. On August 26 of the same year a further Commission was appointed by the National Convention to inspect and gather together the treasures of art scattered through les maisons royales. The Convention decided that the “Museum of the Republic” should be officially opened in the Long Gallery of the Louvre on August 10, 1793, and from November 8 of the same year the Museum was open to the inspection of the public three days in every ten. This, the first public exhibition of art treasures in the Louvre, was the foundation of the present institution. The Catalogue of this date contains reference to only 537 pictures, the greater number of which came from Paris churches and national buildings. The inhabitants of Versailles now petitioned that their town should not be despoiled of its pictures, “and so be deprived of its last attraction in the eyes of the world”!
The Louvre was now destined to become for a few years the temple of the spolia opima which the victorious French army brought home. “This system of levying pictures, statues, and other objects by means of treaties, so called, in which the conqueror dictated terms to those incapable of refusing them, was a dishonourable novelty in the annals of modern warfare. Disdaining the usages of Christian nations and overleaping especially the traditions of French courtesy and chivalry, Buonaparte turned back to the ages of pagan history for a precedent for his measures of spoliation.” By the Treaty of Bologna of June 23, 1796, and the Treaty of Tolentino of February 19, 1797, he became possessed of twenty pictures from Modena, twenty from Parma, forty from Bologna, ten from Ferrara, while Rome, Piacenza, Cento, Ravenna, Rimini, Pesaro, Ancona, Loreto, and Perugia also had to yield up a portion of their treasures.
The first exhibition of this booty was held in the Louvre in January 1798. Here, during the next few years, were gathered together many of the world’s most famous pictures, including Raphael’s St. Cecilia, now in the Bologna Gallery; Correggio’s St. Jerome and his Madonna della Scodella, now in the Parma Gallery; Raphael’s Transfiguration, now in the Vatican, and his Madonna della Sedia, now in the Pitti Palace at Florence; Domenichino’s Last Communion of St. Jerome, now in the Vatican; Titian’s Martyrdom of St. Peter Martyr, destroyed by fire in 1867, and his Assumption, now in the Venice Gallery; Van Eyck’s Adoration of the Lamb, now dismembered and distributed between Ghent, Berlin, and Brussels; Paris Bordone’s Fisherman of St. Mark, now in the Venice Gallery; and Paul Potter’s Bull, now at The Hague. “Here was seen the unexampled sight of twenty-five Raphaels ranked together, the great master complete in every period and walk of his art. Here twenty-three Titians glowed in burning row. Here Rubens revelled in no less than fifty-three pictures and in almost as many classes of subject. Van Dyck followed his illustrious master with thirty-three works, while thirty-one specimens of Rembrandt’s brush shed a golden atmosphere upon the walls. The later Italians especially were magnificently represented—thirty-six pictures by Annibale Carracci, sixteen by Domenichino; twenty-three by Guido; including the largest altarpieces by each; and twenty-six by Guercino, were perhaps the most popular part of the wondrous show.”
However, in September 1815, the pictures and other valuable works of art which France had plundered from her foes had to be given back, and the spoliation of the Louvre began. In all, 5233 objects, of which 2065 were pictures, were taken away from the Royal Museum by the Allied Powers.
An event rare in the history of public galleries took place in 1813, when the Louvre received Carpaccio’s Preaching of St. Stephen (No. 1211), Boltraffio’s Madonna of the Casio Family (No. 1169), Marco d’Oggiono’s Holy Family (No. 1382), Moretto’s St. Bernardino of Siena and St. Louis of Toulouse (No. 1175), and the same artist’s St. Bonaventura and St. Anthony of Padua (No. 1176), in exchange for five pictures by Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and Jordaens.
It is curious to notice that at this period very little importance was attached to Italian primitives, which were, indeed, deemed “barbarous.” Many beautiful works of the very early Italian schools were actually not considered worth the trouble and expense of transport, and were therefore left for the lasting glory of the Louvre. Among them may be mentioned Fra Angelico’s Coronation of the Virgin (No. 1290); the Madonna and Child and Two Saints, (No. 1114), now officially ascribed to Albertinelli; Bronzino’s Christ and the Magdalene (No. 1183); the Madonna and Angels (No. 1260), which passes under the name of Cimabue; Gentile da Fabriano’s Presentation in the Temple (No. 1278); the Coronation of the Virgin (No. 1303), still officially ascribed to Raffaellino del Garbo; St. Francis of Assisi receiving the Stigmata (No. 1312), which still passes under the name of Giotto; Benozzo Gozzoli’s Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas (No. 1319); Fra Filippo Lippi’s Madonna and Child between Two Saints (No. 1344); Pesellino’s two small predella pictures (No. 1414); Piero di Cosimo’s Coronation of the Virgin (No. 1416); The Madonna in Glory between St. Bernard and St. Mary Magdalene (No. 1482), which is still assigned to Cosimo Rosselli; Lorenzo di Credi’s Madonna and Child with St. Julian and St. Nicholas (No. 1263); Cima’s Madonna and Child (No. 1259); Vasari’s Annunciation (No. 1575), which is now in one of the storerooms of the Louvre; the Ferrarese Madonna and Child with St. Quentin and St. Benedict (No. 1167), which is still assigned to Bianchi; Andrea Mantegna’s Calvary (No. 1373) and Virgin of Victory (No. 1374); Domenico Ghirlandaio’s Visitation (No. 1321); and Perugino’s St. Paul (No. 1566). Further proof of the slight regard in which certain pictures that we cherish to-day were then held is afforded by the readiness with which the authorities sent two panels of Mantegna’s altarpiece, the centre-part of which is now in the Church of San Zeno at Verona, to the Museum at Tours, and parted with Perugino’s altarpieces to the public galleries of Lyons and Marseilles.
Under Louis xviii. (died 1824) 111 pictures were purchased for the national collection at a cost of £26,730, but during the reign of Charles x. (1824–30) only 30 were acquired, £2511 being expended on them. An outlay of £2965 by Louis Philippe (reigned 1830–48) enriched the Louvre with 33 more pictures, but that king concentrated his efforts on the restoration and decoration of the Château of Versailles, on which he spent £440,000.
In the early years of the Second Republic a large number of improvements were effected in the Louvre, and in 1848 £8000 was spent on restoring several of the rooms now hung with pictures, which were first systematically arranged three years later. Although the Museum had at that period an annual grant of £2000 for the purchase of pictures, special grants in aid were made from time to time, notably on the occasion of the sale of Marshal Soult, pictures from whose collection were acquired in 1852 for £24,612. In this way Murillo’s Immaculate Conception (No. 1709, [Plate XXVI.]) passed to the Louvre from the “Plunder-master-General” of the Spanish campaign.
During the Second Empire the Musée du Louvre acquired about 200 Italian primitives from the Campana collection, while seven years later it was further enriched by the important bequest by Dr. La Caze of 275 paintings of different schools. Since 1870, when the Palace of the Tuileries was destroyed, the permanent collection has been increased by the purchase in 1883 for £8000 of the Morris Moore “Raphael” (No. 1509), which has since come to be universally regarded as a work by Perugino; while about 300 other paintings of varying importance have also been acquired from time to time with Government funds. In recent years the national collection has benefited largely by the generosity of private donors, among whom we may mention MM. Duchâtel, Gatteaux, His de la Salle, Lallemant, Maciet, Rodolphe Kann, Sedelmeyer, Grandidier, Vandeul, and several members of the Rothschild family.
In 1896, by the sale of a large proportion of the Crown jewels, a Caisse des Musées was organised, and the annual income devoted to the purchase of pictures notably increased. A year later the Société des Amis du Louvre, which corresponds to the National Art-Collections Fund in England, was founded to assist in securing pictures and other works of art for the nation; by that means the Madonna and Child (No. 1300a or 1300b) which passes under the name of Piero dei Franceschi was acquired by the Louvre.