and works of art gave a lesser degree of information, although the latter
conferred prestige once moved to a contemporary building. Antiquities
were obtained through the antiquities market, through the seizure of other
nations’ antiquities during military warfare, and also through excavation.
The French Revolution brought initial institutionalization to archaeology.
Appropriating a previous Enlightenment project of a public museum (that of
the royal Luxembourg Gallery opened from 1750 to 1779), a decree was issued
in 1792, the year in which the monarchy collapsed, ordering the creation of
the Museum of the Louvre.
This museum must demonstrate the nation’s great riches...France must extend its
glory through the ages and to all peoples: the national museum will embrace know-
ledge in all its manifold beauty and will be the admiration of the universe. By
embodying these grand ideas, worthy of a free people... the museum... will become
among the most powerful illustrations of the French Republic.
(McClelland 1994: 91–2).The Louvre received several oYcial and unoYcial names during the revolution:
Muse ́e Franc ̧ais, Muse ́edelaRe ́publique, Muse ́e Central des Arts and Muse ́e
Napole ́on. It opened on 10 August 1793, as part of the celebrations and
charades organized for theWrst anniversary of the birth of the Republic.
Free admission reinforced its character as communal and as the property of
the nation (McClelland 1994: 94–9). One of the members of the Museum
Commission explained that the arrangement of the collections tried to
demonstrate ‘the spirit of art in its infancy, during its rise and in its most recent
period’ (McClelland 1994: 107). In 1800, one year after his appointment as
Keeper of Antiquities, the exiled Italian, Ennio Quirino Visconti (1751–1818),
made possible the opening to the public of six rooms of ancient sculpture
(McClelland 1994: 152–3). The Louvre signalled the initial institutionalization
of archaeology, but the events which occurred during the revolution demon-
strated the limited success of this institutionalization. More than a museum of
archaeology, the Louvre was an institution for the arts. If ancient statues,
together with plaster casts (Haskell & Penny 1981; Marchand 1996a: 166),
and other objects were included in the display it was primarily because of
their artistic value (which was partly acquired through the prestige conferred
by their age). In the same way that museums of natural history and arts and
crafts already existed or were being planned, the need to create a separate
museum of antiquities was recognized as early as 1794, but did not come to
fruition until many decades later. When a year later it was necessary to decide
which antiquities should go to the Louvre, it was determined that only those
considered of artistic merit deserved to be there. Other ancient objects of
erudite interest were consigned to the National Library (McClelland 1994: 149).
The French Revolution 69