Tea at Trianon: The Louvre Is Undergoing a Major Renovation

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, March 8, 2021

The Louvre Is Undergoing a Major Renovation

From Travel and Leisure:

Since Oct. 30, 2020, the museum has been shut down to the public as part of the nation's efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus. While its doors are shuttered, the Associated Press (AP) reported, those once overwhelmed museum workers are getting to do something they never thought they'd be able to do: renovate.

"We're taking advantage of the museum's closure to carry out a number of major works, speed up maintenance operations, and start repair works that are difficult to schedule when the museum is operating normally," Laurent le Guedart, the Louvre's Architectural Heritage and Gardens Director, told the AP.

As the AP noted, some 250 museum employees are hard at work adding new security systems, cleaning sculptures, checking inventories, checking over artifacts, reorganizing entrances, and conducting other necessary restorations to areas like the Egyptian Wing and the Grande Galerie. This way, when the museum does finally reopen, it will be like a brand-new experience for visitors. (Read more.)