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.”