Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and the Reformation

Louvre, the The national art gallery and museum of
France. Built on the right bank of the Seine in Paris on the
site of a former royal fortress and residence, the present
building was begun on the orders of FRANCIS I, who com-
missioned the French architect Pierre LESCOTto design
four wings around a square court in 1546. Noted as a great
collector of Renaissance art, Francis I gathered about him
many celebrated Italian artists, including LEONARDO DA
VINCI, ANDREA DEL SARTO, PRIMATICCIO, and Benvenuto
CELLINI, and established the basis of the royal collection to
be housed in the Louvre. After Lescot had completed the
west wing of the complex, with sculptures by Jean GOU-
JON, work on the Louvre and the adjoining TUILERIESwas
continued in the first place by Jean BULLANTand Philibert
DELORME and then in the 17th century by Jacques
Lemercier, Jacques II DUCERCEAU, and others, while the
decoration of the Grande Galerie was entrusted to Nicolas
Poussin and his assistants (1641). The court moved into
the Louvre in 1652, after which many alterations were
made to the original design by such noted artists as
Bernini and Claude Perrault before the building was ded-

icated as a museum in 1678. The overall complex was

completed in the 19th century during the reign of

Napoleon III.

Further reading: Nicholas D’Archimbaud, The Louvre:

Portrait of a Museum (New York: Abradale, 2001).

Loyola, St. Ignatius See IGNATIUS LOYOLA, ST

Lucas van Leyden (c. 1489–1533) Netherlands painter

and print maker

According to Carel van MANDER, Lucas was born in 1494,

although this seems unlikely in view of the evident matu-

rity of his earliest dated engraving, Muhammad and the

Murdered Monk (1508). Between 1514 and 1529 the artist

is repeatedly documented in his native Leyden, and in

1521 he met DÜRERin Antwerp. He is probably identical

with the “Lucas of Holland” listed as a visiting artist in the

registers of the Antwerp guild for 1522. According to van

Mander, he visited Zeeland, Flanders, and Brabant at age

33, a journey that presumably occurred in 1522, rather

than 1527. Although Lucas was apparently trained by his

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Lucas van LeydenAn engraving (1525)

by the artist of his own self-portrait.

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