Art Essay

Brisa Morales

France, Paris, Louvre Museum

Grand Louvre, national museum and art gallery of France. It is the world’s
most-visited art museum, with a collection that spans work from ancient civilizations
to the mid-19th century.

In 1546 Francis I, who was a great art collector, had this old castle razed and began to
build on its site another royal residence, the Louvre. But that later then would be
adding the magnitude of its architecture by different architects. In the 17th century,
major additions were made to the building complex by Louis XIII and Louis XIV.
Cardinal de Richelieu, the chief minister of Louis XIII, acquired great works of art for
the king. The Louvre ceased to be a royal residence when Louis XIV moved his court
to Versailles in 1682. The idea of using the Louvre as a public museum originated in
the 18th century. Finally, in 1993, on the museum’s 200th anniversary, the rebuilt was
opened; for the first time, the entire Louvre was devoted to museum purposes

The Louvre building complex underwent a major remodeling in the 1980s and ’90s in
order to make the old museum more accessible and accommodating to its visitors. To
this end, a vast underground complex of offices, shops, exhibition spaces, storage
areas, and parking areas, as well as an auditorium, a tourist bus depot, and a cafeteria,
was constructed underneath the Louvre.

Among the famous collections and artist under the Louvre, this museum has many
masterpieces by Italian Renaissance painters, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona
Lisa (c. 1503–19), and works by Flemish and Dutch painters of the Baroque period.
 Jacques-Louis David, The Intervention of the Sabine Women

The Abduction of the Sabine Women is an episode in the legendary history of Rome,
traditionally said to have taken place in 750 BC, in which the first generation of Roman men
acquired wives for themselves from the neighboring Sabine families.
Fearing the emergence of a rival society, the Sabines refused to allow their women to marry the
Romans. Consequently, the Romans planned to abduct Sabine women, during a festival of
Neptune Equester and proclaimed the festival among Rome's neighbors. At the festival Romulus
gave a signal, at which the Romans grabbed the Sabine women and fought off the Sabine men. In
the ensuing war, once Rome gained the upper hand, the Sabine women intervened and implored
the two warring parties to reconcile.

Jacques-Louis David
Born August 30, 1748, Paris, France—died December 29, 1825, Brussels, Belgium,
the most celebrated French artist of his day, David won wide acclaim with his huge
canvases on classical themes.
He got married to a woman named Marguerite-Charlotte Pécoul. She was a humble
Royalist who didn’t appreciate her husband’s radicalization during the early phase of
the French Revolution. The fact that David had voted in favor of the execution of
King Louis XVI was enough, and she filed for divorce in 1793.
His political views didn’t change his personal feelings for his wife, though. She
visited him in jail and inspired him to start working on this painting. This means that
it was painted in honor of his wife and to emphasize that love prevails over war and
political conflict. They remarried in 1796 and stayed together for the rest of the
artist’s life.