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French Masters |
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There is only one thing that interests man, it's man. Blaise Pascal. A medieval fortress, the palace of the kings of France, and a museum for the last two centuries, the architecture of the Louvre Palace bears witness to more than 800 years of history. Established in 1793 by the French Republic, the Louvre Museum is one of the earliest European museums. Tip: Point on the stamps with the mouse index for more information about the works of art displayed and about the stamps. |
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The Louvre was not in any way originally intended to become a museum. The "salle des antiques" which Henri VI set up on the ground floor of the Grande Galerie was not accessible to the general public, nor was the king's cabinet of drawings, created in 1671, or the king's cabinet of paintings, to which access was reserved for a privileged few.
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From the date when, under Louis XIV, most of its occupants left the Louvre, its vocation as a "palace of the arts" appeared a quite natural progression in the eyes of the resident artists and the academies. The idea of a Palace of the Muses or "Muséum", where one could view the royal collections, was born in 1747. The museum concept, which was quite new at the time, ran along the same lines as the Encyclopedia and the philosophy of the Enlightenment. From 1779, purchases and museographical projects demonstrate the imminence of its realization.
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Divided into 7 departments, the Louvre collections incorporate works dating from the birth of the great antique civilizations right up to the first half of the 19th century, thereby confirming its encyclopedic vocation.
All stamps on this page were issued in 1993, in order to commemorate the Bicentennial of the Louvre Museum.
Link: The Louvre Museum
| Published: 3/23/2000. Revised: 07/23/00. Copyright © 2000 by Victor Manta, Switzerland. All rights reserved worldwide. |
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