The old gallery of this name, first called _La petite galérie du
Louvre_, was constructed under the reign of Henry IV, and, from its
origin, ornamented with paintings. This gallery having been consumed
by fire in 1661, owing to the negligence of a workman employed in
preparing a theatre for a grand ballet, in which the king was to
dance with all his court, Lewis XIV immediately ordered it to be
rebuilt and magnificently decorated.
LE BRUN, who then directed works of this description in France,
furnished the designs of all the paintings, sculpture, and ornaments,
which are partly executed. He divided the vault of the roof into
eleven principal compartments; in that which is in the centre, he
intended to represent _Apollo_ in his car, with all the attributes
peculiar to the Sun, which was the king's device. The _Seasons_ were
to have occupied the four nearest compartments; in the others, were
to have been _Evening_ and _Morning_, _Night_ and _Day-break_, the
_Waking of the Waters_, and that of the _Earth at Sun-rise_.
Unfortunately for his fame, this vast project of LE BRUN was never
completed. Lewis XIV, captivated by Versailles, soon turned all his
thoughts towards the embellishment of that palace. The works of the
GALLERY OF APOLLO were entirely abandoned, and, of all this grand
composition, LE BRUN was enabled to execute no more than the
following subjects:
1. _Evening_, represented by Morpheus, lying on a bed of poppies, and
buried in a profound sleep.
2. _Night_ succeeding to day, and lighted by the silvery disk of the
Moon, which, under the figure of Diana, appears in a car drawn by
hinds.
3. _The Waking of the Waters_. Neptune and Amphitrite on a car drawn
by sea-horses, and accompanied by Tritons, Nereïds, and other
divinities of the waters, seem to be paying homage to the rising sun,
whose first rays dispel the Winds and Tempests, figured by a group to
the left; while, to the right, Polyphemus, seated on a rock, is
calling with his loud instrument to his Galatea.
The other compartments, which LE BRUN could not paint, on account of
the cessation of the works, remained a long time vacant, and would
have been so at this day, had not the _ci-devant_ Academy of
Painting, to whom the king, in 1764, granted the use of the GALLERY
OF APOLLO, resolved that, in future, the historical painters who
might be admitted members, should be bound to paint for their
reception one of the subjects which were still wanting for the
completion of the ceiling. In this manner, five of the compartments,
which remained to be filled, were successively decorated, namely: