RESTORATION OF THE FACADE OF THE LOUVRE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 179, 16 November 1876, Page 3

RESTORATION OF THE FACADE OF THE LOUVRE.

Visitors to Paris during the last twelve months will doubtless have remarked the restoration of the faqad* of the Louvre. ft was found that the columns were not only bronzed bjr age, hot that the stonework was to a certain extent wearing away. The work of restoration—now drawing to a close—has been executed with so much care that the columns have not been made to assume that brand new appearance which is as objectionable in buildings as in leather \ ortmanteaits ; and when a winter has passed over it the fagade will be as magnificent as ever. Few, perhaps, remember the story of its erection. W\ten Louis XIV. conceived the idea of completing the work commenced by Hemi 11., he gave Colbert ■ cittie Manehc to employ all the "talent" available. The eminent Minister requested the Doc de Creqoy, Ambassador of France at Ro=e, to induce the Chevalier Bernin, who had been engaged on the restoration of St. Peter, to come to Paris. The Chevalier, though sixty-eight years of age, : consented to do so, and as he approached the capital he was met by an escort, : which the King had sent out to greet ! him. When presented to Louis XIV. at ; St. Germain, the Grand Monarque put ■ out both hands and said, " I am proud to grasp the hand of the modern Michael I Angtlo." Notwithstanding these fine compliments, his designs wwre not approved of, and he returned toMtome in disgust. Eventually Colbert, asked different architects to send in designs, selected those submitted by Claude Perrault, who, strangely enough, was an engineer by taste and a doctor by profession. The first stone of the facade was laid by Louis XIV., upon the 17th of October, 1663, and a picture may be seen in trie Versailles ' galleries representing this ceremony. Alj tnougti it ts more than six hundred feet long and a hundred h : gh, with tifty-two ; pairs of columns and pilasters, the work : was completed in five years. It stood the teat of tune for 135 years, and a restoration similar to that being carried out now | was effected in the beginning of the preI sent century.