Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3: France and the Netherlands, Part 1
History
Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3: France and the Netherlands, Part 1
France -- Description and travel; Netherlands -- Description and travel
Now, continue westward, pass the Monument of Gambetta, and take a seat
on the steps at the base, near the fine figure of Truth. In front of
you opens the third square of the Louvre, known as the Place du
Carrousel, and formerly enclosed on its west side by the Palace of the
Tuileries, which was unfortunately burned down in 1871, during the
conflict between the Municipal and National authorities. Its place is
now occupied by a garden terrace, the view from which in all directions
is magnificent. Fronting you, as you sit, is the Arc de Triomphe du
Carrousel, erected under Napoleon I., by Percier and Fontaine, in
imitation of the Arch of Septimius Severus at Rome, and once crowned by
the famous bronze Roman horses from St. Mark's at Venice. The arch,
designed as an approach to the Tuileries during the period of the
classical mania, is too small for its present surroundings, since the
removal of the Palace. The north wing, visible to your right, is purely
modern, of the age of the First and Second Empire and the Third
Republic. The meretricious character of the reliefs in its extreme west
portion, erected under the Emperor Napoleon III., and restored after
the Commune, is redolent of the spirit of that gaudy period. The south
wing, to your left, forms part of the connecting gallery erected by
Henri IV., but its architecture is largely obscured by considerable
alterations under Napoleon III. Its west pavilion-known as the Pavilion
de Flore--is well worth notice.
Having thus gained a first idea of the courtyard fronts of the
building, continue your walk, still westward, along the south wing as
far as the Pavilion de Flore, a remaining portion of the corner edifice
which ran into one line with the Palace of the Tuileries. Turn round
the corner of the Pavilion to examine the south or river front of the
connecting gallery--one of the finest parts of the whole building, but
far less known to ordinary visitors than the cold and uninteresting
northern line along the Rue de Rivoli. The first portion, as far as the
gateways, belongs originally to the age of Henry IV., but it was
entirely reconstructed under Napoleon III., whose obtrusive N appears
in many places on the gateways and elsewhere.
Nevertheless, it still preserves, on the whole, some reminiscence of
its graceful Renaissance architecture. Beyond the main gateway (with
modern bronze Charioteer of the Sun), flanked by the Pavilions de la
Trémoille and de Lesdiguières, we come upon the long Southern Gallery
erected by Catherine de Médici, which still preserves almost intact its
splendid early French Renaissance decoration. This is one of the
noblest portions of the entire building. The N here gives place to H's,
and the Renaissance scroll-work and reliefs almost equal those in that
portion of the old Louvre which was erected under François I. Sit on a
seat on the Quay and examine the sculpture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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