Treasures of the Louvre Page #3

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Henri's own life also came to

an abrupt end,

on the streets of Paris

on the 14th of May, 1610.

One of his greatest achievements

was to have guaranteed

the religious liberties

of Protestant Huguenots.

But for such tolerance, he would

never be forgiven by those who saw

themselves as holy

warriors for the true faith of Rome.

The fun-loving Henri came to a gory

and violent end.

It was here,

on the Rue de la Ferronerie.

This was where a religious

fanatic called Francois Ravaillac

pulled back the blinds of the

carriage the King was travelling in

and plunged a long knife, three

times, deep into his chest.

The assassination of Henri

left uncertainty

over who would now rule France.

Here's the story in paint

of the woman who did.

Here in the Louvre

are 24 canvases devoted to the life

of Marie de Medici,

Henri's second wife.

As regent,

the Queen had many enemies.

She needed to legitimise

her grip on power.

So she turned to the weapon of art

and the greatest painter of the day,

Peter Paul Rubens.

I talked to curator Blaise Ducos

about the biggest painting here

showing the Queen's coronation.

TRANSLATION:
'Here, the first big

impression is one of a great movement

'over towards the main focus

of the painting, which is, of course,

'Marie de Medici in the process

of being crowned

'in the Saint-Denis Basilica

'the day before the assassination

of Henri IV.

'You can even see him

in the background,

'but very much recognisable,

watching the Queen.

'And in the process, giving her

the sense of legitimacy that without,

'she wouldn't have been able to

govern and rule as regent.'

This is painting

on the grandest of scales.

This the art of the Baroque,

with its extravagant use of

movement and colour

and its feeling of sensuality.

And all of this simply leaps out

here.

SPEAKS FRENCH:

TRANSLATOR:
'It's a piece

of theatre in many senses,

'and you have to look at it that way.

'They're very theatrical paintings,

very...Baroque.

'And, of course, Rubens was

the great Baroque painter.'

And it was the sheer ornamentality

of the Baroque

that fired the imagination

of the next ruler Of France

to mould the Louvre

in his own image.

This is the famous portrait

of Louis XIV by Hyacinthe Rigaud.

He was the Sun King,

the L'Etate C'est Moi -

champion of bling.

He was the Bourbon who brought

new levels of pomp and grandeur

to the Louvre.

But to my mind there's

something over-the-top,

even desperately camp

about this painting.

Have a look at the big hair,

the shoes, the clothes,

the rich, rich colours.

All of it seems to be screaming

luxury and power,

but, after all, that was what

it was all about.

During the early years

of Louis' reign,

the Louvre echoed to the sounds

of thousands of labourers,

masons and joiners,

working to create new facades -

stuccos, elaborately carved ceilings

and wood panelling.

Work started on an opposing facade

on the outside of the Cour Carree.

This colonnade would look out.

A Parisian would look up to the

palace with due deference and awe.

Here, in the Cour Carree,

Louis completed the building work

begun by his father.

He quadrupled the size of this

courtyard

to the dimensions you see today.

And with one express aim -

to make the Louvre a bigger

and more imposing place.

And inside a royal waiting room was

built - the Rotonde d'Apollon -

to wow impressionable visitors

to the palace.

Just off the Rotonde,

a spectacular gallery was built -

the Galerie d'Apollon, designed by

the King's architect, Louis Le Vau.

I'm looking around because

everything here

has a kind of mystical

or allegorical meaning,

and all of that is literally

revolving around the King himself.

And just look at this place!

It's splendid, it's glittering

with all this gold glory -

it really is the personification

of what it means to be the Sun King.

Every image here reinforces

the assertion that the King

was god-like -

the centre of the universe.

Looking down from high,

on a country where he, and he alone,

had absolute power.

With a rule over France,

that could never ever be

questioned by mere mortals.

And like his illustrious predecessor

Francois,

Louis was not only a builder,

but someone with a huge appetite

for collecting art -

the Charles Saatchi,

if you like, of the 17th century.

During his reign,

the size of the royal collection

expanded from 150 to

exactly 2,376 paintings.

He bought the best French art

of his time -

32 Poussin, 11 Claude,

26 Le Brun and 17 Mignard.

And foreign masterpieces like this

lovely but sombre painting,

The Death of the Virgin

by Caravaggio.

All now hang here in what

was HIS Louvre.

The Louvre was a luxurious

plaything for Louis XIV,

but there was one big problem -

it was in Paris, and he hated Paris.

But, funny enough,

the Parisians also hated him.

So what happened in 1670 was that

Louis XIV left Paris for Versailles

in a great, big, splendid,

royal huff.

And he hardly ever set foot

in the place again.

But he didn't leave empty-handed -

he took all of his artworks

with him.

With the exit of Louis XIV

to Versailles,

the Grand Dessein was put on hold.

Much of the building work

remained unfinished.

The colonnade was left

without a roof.

Throughout the 18th century,

the Louvre had a much more

ramshackle feel to it.

And it echoed to a more plebeian

cacophony of sounds and voices.

The Grande Galerie changed from the

preserve of royals and aristocrats,

and became instead the centre

for artistic hustling in Paris.

This is where you'd find engravers

hard at work, furniture-makers,

makers of the very finest hats -

it was a place of great energy,

bustle and commerce.

But the most important thing

that happened here,

was that by royal warrant, artists

were allowed to come and live here,

and they copied paintings,

and then they made their own art.

And this was the moment when

the Louvre properly became

a centre of cultural exchange in the

endless carnival of Parisian life.

As the palace began to open

its doors to vulgar outsiders,

the presence of the Royal Academy

of Painting and Sculpture

in the King's former apartments,

still preserved a sense of decorum

and gravitas in the Louvre.

First in the Grande Galerie,

and here in the Salle Carree,

the Academy held an annual,

then biennial, exhibition.

Starting on St Louis' day

25th of August,

the Salon was open to the public.

The idea of showing art to all

who wish to come was novel,

and proved fantastically popular.

Events at the Salon were something

to be argued about

in another institution,

for ever dear to all Parisians.

This was the first-ever coffee house

in Paris,

opening to customers in 1686.

From the word go, the Cafe Procope

attracted intellectuals.

In the 18th century, the philosophes

of the Enlightenment came here -

and amongst them was someone

very important to our story.

Behind me here -

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