Paris - Grande Louvre - 1er

Plate XI - The Grande Louvre...

The Louvre became a royal residence in Paris in the fourteenth century when Charles V converted the original fortress buildings into a royal home. Its french Renaissance appearance is attributed to Francis 1. Here the court remained until the move to the adjacent Tuileries Palace, with Louis XIV finally relocating to his new construction in Versailles.

Today the Louvre is arguably the most famous art gallery and museum in the world. It is, to be smart about it, the Louvre of art galleries. If I were to hazard a guess at the whereabouts of almost any well-known classical work of art, my first choice would default to the Louvre. Since the 1990s the courtyard area of the old palace has been undergoing a major transformation in a scheme simply known as the Grand Louvre.
One of the more controversial aspects of this transformation was the construction of the Pyramids designed by the architect I. M. Pei. Unquestionably in a modern idiom both in terms of design and materials used I believe they greatly enhance the area. In truth, all the buildings of the Grand Louvre are not a unified single construction, in a single architectural style. In that regard Pei’s Grande Pyramid (an obvious reference to the nearby Place des Pyramides celebrating Napoleon’s Egyptian victories) adds a twentieth century element to the area. I believe time will bring full acceptance to the decreasing number of critics of its placement. In the gallery below this entrance the well-known electronics giant recently opened an Apple Store. Unquestionably this is the grandest entrance to any flagship store anywhere.