Inventing the Louvre
Subtitle: art, politics, and the origins of the modern museum in eighteenth-century Paris
By: Andrew McClellan.
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Berkeley, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 302
Subjects: Musée du Louvre; Art and state -- France -- History -- 18th century
Description: "The Louvre, founded in the final years of the Enlightenment--with the greatest collection of Old Master paintings and antique sculpture assembled under one roof--became the model for all state art museums subsequently established. Andrew McClellan chronicles the formation of this great museum from its origins in the French royal picture collections to its apotheosis during the Revolution and Napoleonic Empire. More than a narrative history, McClellan's account explores the ideological underpinnings, pedagogic aims, and aesthetic criteria of the Louvre. Drawing on new archival materials, McClellan also illuminates the art world of 18th-century Paris. Book jacket."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Originally published: Cambridge, England ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1994.