Re-visiting the Louvre and Raphael’s Madonna.

The Ann(e)s visit the Louvre.

Since the fall of the monarchy on Friday, August 10^th, 1792 The Louvre was a palace turned public museum and its grand opening occurred a year later on Saturday, August 10^th 1793.¹, three months prior to the ‘Feast of Reason’ held 10 November, 1793 at Notre Dame. Anne takes an early interest in these events noting them at some length as excerpts in the Journals

[1816.11.25, Mon] “an interesting account of the breaking up of the Louvre – the work of retributive justice / begun 23. September. 1815 [Vid HR 1815.09.23, Sat]. p.324. / ‘when the French gallery was thoroughly cleared of the property of other nations, I reckoned / ‘the no [number] of pictures which constituted their magnificent collection – was 274! The / ‘Italian division comprehended about 85 specimens : there were now divided to 12 :- / ‘in the small no [number] however there are some very exquisite pictures by Raphael, and / ‘other great masters. Their Titans are much reduced – but they keep the Entombment, / ‘as belonging to the King of Francis old collection which is one of the finest by that artist p.337. / Mr Scott warmly approves the breaking up of the Louvre – vid. pp.368 and seq. / ‘* the catalogues do not give so many; but there were many pictures not entered in the / ‘catalogue from one cause or other’”

Many changes occurred by the time the Ann(e)’s visited Thursday, 19^th June 1834, after the July Revolution and under King Louis Philippe I²Interestingly, the King had been tutored by Caroline-Stéphanie-Félicité, Comtesse de Genlis at the Palais-Royal.:

“Drove to the Louvre – there at 11 40 – 40 minutes in the halls of statuary – then 1/2 hour in the gallery – just looked at the La Belle jardinière (virgin and saviour and Saint John) and the beggar boy by Murillo and 1 or 2 others without stopping to straining our eyes over things of less value.” ~ Journal of Anne Lister, 1834.06.19, Thurs (WYAS: SH:7/ML/E/17/0044)

“June 19^th. Went to the Louvre, 20 halls of statuary. / saw the celebrated statue of Diana a la Biche / in Parian marble habited as a huntress / holding in her left hand the bow bent down whilst with her right she seeks an arrow in the quiver suspended on her shoulder by a thong. It seems that this statue has been in France since the reign of Henry 4^th. The gallery of paintings / is a quarter of a mile long, we walked to the / end & back again, the only picture we had time / really to stop & look at, was a Madonna, our / Saviour, & St. John by Raphael.” ~ Journal of Ann Walker, 1834.06.19, Thurs. (WYC:1525/7/1/5/1/0007)

That’s approximately 1/2 a mile of the finest paintings in 1/2 an hour! The Grand Gallery, which took 12 years to complete (1595-1607), was initiated by Henry IV to join the Louvre Palace with the Tuileries Palace with a 460 metre addition culminating at the celebrated Salon Carré. Anne knew how to schedule this joint visit as on Saturday, May 29th 1819 on vacation with her Aunt Anne Lister, and her 3rd visit to the Louvre in ten days, it was calculated that it took:

“Just ¼ hour in walking pretty quickly from one end to the other and back of the gallery.” ~ Journal of Anne Lister, 1819.05.29, Sat (WYAS: SH:7/ML/E/3/0042)

During this first trip to Paris Anne spent considerably more time at the Louvre, on her visit on Wednesday 19th May, 1819 she recounts:

“Through the palais royal, and, just walked through the church of Saint Germain-l’Auxerrois, / where the king sometimes goes³ In 1819 France was experiencing the Second Restoration and the rule of King Louis XVIII (1815-1824)., in our way to the Louvre gallery – 3 1/2 hours among / the statues, and 2 1/4 among the pictures, and about 1/4 hour in the little gallery, or hall of Apollo, / among the pencil sketches miniature and enamel likenesses, etc – Bought 3 guide books – /one for each department of this wonderful museum –” ~ Journal of Anne Lister, 1819.05.19, Wed (WYAS: SH:7/ML/E/3/0028)

Anne had fifteen years to reflect on the masterpieces and chose to highlight specific and important artworks in 1834, offering Ann an impressive tour at a staggering pace.

La Belle Jardiniere

The Madonna was ‘La Vierge à l’Enfant avec le petit saint Jean Baptiste’ (La Belle Jardinière), c. 1507-1508 by Raffaello Santi (dit Raphaël, finished by Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio). Very much influenced by Leonardo Da Vinci, in particular The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist, it depicts St. John the Baptist kneeling just to the right of Mary’s right foot and in front of some chiselled stones on which Mary sits, his left hand rests on his left knee and his right hand holds the reed cross which rests behind his neck on his right shoulder, his expression is directed toward Christ in adoration. Christ rests on Mary’s left foot, his right hand cradling Mary’s right knee and his left arm outstretched so that his curled index finger just touches a book resting on Mary’s left arm, the shadow of which falls towards St. John the Baptists head, halo, and cross. Mary supports Christs back with her right hand and his left forearm with her left hand, their exchange is more telling than that of the petit Saint, it conveys the love, knowledge, and weight of the contents of the book which is said to foretell Christ’s fate and thus alludes to their own.

The Young Beggar

‘The Young Beggar’, by Bartolome Estaban Murillo was painted circa 1645-50, and depicts an orphan delousing after a meal, sitting counter a jug, cast in the light of a window and sitting between a basket of apples and some shrimp carcass. One interpretation is that “The act of delousing oneself can be seen as a way of being in control of one’s own mind and body, a hygienic act.⁴Michelle Perrot, A History of Women in the West: Renaissance and Enlightenment paradoxes. Michelle Perrot, 1992.”  (To forget for a moment Anne’s fate.)

The Diana

And the Diane à la biche, or Diana of which Ann fully describes sans the deer, is considered to be a Roman copy from the time of Hadrian itself after a lost Greek original attributed to the Athenian sculptor Leochares, c. 325 BC:

All these artworks can be found within Samuel F. B. Morse’s (1791-1872) ‘The Gallery of the Louvre,’ a fantasy in which he has highlighted masterpieces from within the Grand Gallery and situated them in a fictional Salon Carré – all of the Ann(e)s selections are present.

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Sidenote: Today (2022.07.27) I was reminded of the delightful and charming artist and medievalist Kay (Bell) Kinsman (Canadian, 1909-1998) – a force to be reckoned with. The passage from one of her undergrad essays comments on one of Raphael’s Madonna and was going to be posted on a work blog for some fun but I recalled the Ann(e)s had seen one of Raphael’s Madonna when on honeymoon in Paris and took a detour (2022.08.11) to re-visit some old notes (vid. Finding of AW’s Journal 2020).

Footnotes

• 1
  , three months prior to the ‘Feast of Reason’ held 10 November, 1793 at Notre Dame.
• 2
  Interestingly, the King had been tutored by Caroline-Stéphanie-Félicité, Comtesse de Genlis at the Palais-Royal.
• 3
  In 1819 France was experiencing the Second Restoration and the rule of King Louis XVIII (1815-1824).
• 4
  Michelle Perrot, A History of Women in the West: Renaissance and Enlightenment paradoxes. Michelle Perrot, 1992.