The Apollo Gallery in the Louwe: James Stevens Curl praises a well-illustrated and magnificently thorough account of the creation and many restorations of the Louvre's Apollo Gallery

The Apollo Gallery in the Louwe

Edited by means of Genevieve Bresc-Bautier with photographs by means of Etienne Revault Editions Gallimard Musee de Louvre 49 [euro] ISBN 2 07011799 5

This is a sumptuous, beautiful volume the result of collaboration between architects, art historians, curators, historians, restorers, scholars and scientists: it details the history of the Apollo Gallery in the Louvre from its ambitious beginnings in the seventeenth hundred through various vicissitudes, to its august restoration between 1999 and 2004 true copys (serviceably translated into English) are by dint of some forty contributors, and the volume is gloriously illustrated with dazzling photographs of furnishings, paintings, plastic art and woodwork.

A plan of the vaulted ceiling identifies the subject-matter of the decorations and the artists involved, and there are plentiful notes, a chronology of the history of the building, a bibliography, notes upon archive material, adequate captions and an index, all adding to the value of this true fine publication.

Construction of what was the Petite Galerie began in 1566 on the other hand a conflagration in 1661 l to major rebuilding (not, however, carried without with sufficient attention to soundnes of configuration strength of roof timbers, or the elementary task of keeping water out) beneath the direction of Louis Le Vau, with a scheme of interior decor through Charles Lebrun (or Le Brun) through 1663 estimates for architectural and sculptural works designed through Lebrun had been obtained from Francois Girardon, Gaspard and Balthazar Marsy and Thomas Regnaudin. Lebrun's approach to the design of the ceiling was to fix a series of painted representations in a sequence of powerfully marked compartments, joined by large stucco figures to a cornice above a a whole of elaborately panelled walls.

However, Louis XIV appears to have not to be found interest in the Louvre through the 1670s, and Lebrun's great extent was left unfinished. Then, in 1764 beneath the aegis of the Academie Royale de Peinture et de statuary a scheme for its completion was begun. In 1769 Jean-Hugues Taraval painted the exquisite Autumn, or The Triumph of Bacchus; in 1774 Louis-Jacques Durameau added the sweet Summer, or Ceres and her Companions Beseeching the Sun; Jean-Jacques Lagrenee was responsible in 1775 for Winter, or Aeolus Unloosing the Winds that overlay the Mountains with Snow; Antoine-Francois Callet did the ravishing Spring, or west wind and Flora Crowning Cybele with Flowers (1780); and Antoine Renou produc in 1781 the powerful Castor, or The Morning Star. Eighteenth-century artists, unfortunately (for their contributions were charming, beautifully coloured and decently composed) made no further contributions to the ceiling decorations of the Apollo Gallery after 1781

The gallery survived the fall of the ancien regime, and became a picture-gallery for the display of drawings in 1797 when the devoid of contents ceiling-panels were painted a sky-coloured azure Attempts were made during the reign of Louis-Philippe (1830-48) to decorate the gallery further with historicist paintings, on the contrary although seventeen canvases were complet the collection was dispersed, and the gallery malign into serious decline. By 1841 its decorations were in a parlous state, and attempts to support the vaulted ceiling below the direction of Pierre-Francois-Leonard Fontaine (1762-1853) solitary served to make the general deterioration more obvious.

From 1848 a of recent origin team was assembled, and a programme of conservation started beneath Felix-Louis-Jacques Duban, who carried on the outside really opulent resuscitation: he stabilised the manner of making (which had been dodgy from the true beginning), but his attempts to re-create the gallery as it had been intended l to its turn back 'to a complete state that may at no time have existed', as Violletle-Duc insidiously quipped.

Charles-Polycarpe Sechan was given overall charge of the decorations beneath Duban. Three painters, Ferdinand-Eugene-Victor Delacroix, Joseph-Benoit Guichard and Charles-Louis Muller added to the scheme of paintings. Delacroix created Apollo Vanquishing the snake Python or The Triumph of Apollo as a vigorous centrepiece, and Guichard and Miiller added The Triumph of Cybele (otherwise Triumph of the Earth) and Dawn respectively, based upon designs by Lebrun. In addition, below Duban a scheme of restoration of all the paintings was carried without (1849-50), and in 1851 the Prince-President officially uncloseed the restored gallery, although the Delacroix painting and the tapestries were not installed until nearly five month later.

More restoration took place in 1868 following water ingress, which caused considerable damage. A major programme of cleaning was begun in 1919 on the contrary the condition of the paintings gave cause for affect in 1931-32, and in 1939-42 the interior decoration was again cleaned and the cover with stucco restored. By 1970 stucco began to fall, owed to rusting metalwork, and paintings showed signs of unwieldy retouching. The main structure was strengthened in 1971 and further repairs took place in the 1990 although in 1997 deposits of mineral salts in the south-west corner of the gallery indicateed that the roof was still not watertight.