{"product_id":"the-louvre-the-many-lives-of-the-worlds-most-famous-museum-9780802148780","title":"The Louvre: The Many Lives of the World's Most Famous Museum","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe fascinating and little-known story of the Louvre, from its inception as a humble fortress to its transformation into the palatial residence of the kings of France and then into the world's greatest art museum.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSome ten million people from all over the world flock to the Louvre each year to enjoy its incomparable art collection. Yet few of them are aware of the remarkable history of that place and of the buildings themselves―a fascinating story that historian James Gardner elegantly chronicles in the first full-length history of the Louvre in English.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMore than 7,000 years ago, men and women camped on a spot called le Louvre for reasons unknown; a clay quarry and a vineyard supported a society there in the first centuries AD. A thousand years later, King Philippe Auguste of France constructed a fortress there in 1191, just outside the walls of a city far smaller than the Paris we know today. Intended to protect the capital against English soldiers stationed in Normandy, the fortress became a royal residence under Charles V two centuries later, and then the monarchy's principal residence under the great Renaissance king François I in 1546. It remained so until 1682, when Louis XIV moved his entire court to Versailles. Thereafter the fortunes of the Louvre languished until the tumultuous days of the French Revolution when, during the Reign of Terror in 1793, it first opened its doors to display the nation's treasures. Ever since―through the Napoleonic era, the Commune, two World Wars, to the present―the Louvre has been a witness to French history, and expanded to become home to a legendary collection, including such masterpieces as the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo, whose often-complicated and mysterious origins form a spectacular narrative that rivals the building's grand stature.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eIncludes a 16-page full-color insert, featuring images illustrating the history of the Louvre, a full-color endpaper map detailing the Louvre's evolution from fortress to museum, and black-and-white images throughout the narrative.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJames Gardner\u003c\/b\u003e is an American art critic and literary critic based in New York and Buenos Aires and the author, most recently, of \u003ci\u003eBuenos Aires: The Biography of a City\u003c\/i\u003e. His writings have appeared in the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eNew Republic\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \u003ci\u003eBritish Spectator\u003c\/i\u003e. He was the art critic at the \u003ci\u003eNew York Post\u003c\/i\u003e and wrote architecture criticism for the \u003ci\u003eNew York Observer\u003c\/i\u003e, before serving as the architecture critic at the \u003ci\u003eNew York Sun\u003c\/i\u003e. He is now a contributing editor at \u003ci\u003eThe Magazine Antiques\u003c\/i\u003e. This is his sixth book.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Atlantic Monthly Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50525466165522,"sku":"9780802148780","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_84689b9f-60b3-452f-b5dc-1c9bfc330990.jpg?v=1756201154","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-louvre-the-many-lives-of-the-worlds-most-famous-museum-9780802148780","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}