Editing Louvre (section)

=== Before the museum ===
[[File:Donjon chateau louvre.JPG|thumb|Below-ground portions of the medieval Louvre are still visible.<ref name=Mignot>{{cite book| author=Claude Mignot |title=The Pocket Louvre: A Visitor's Guide to 500 Works |publisher=Abbeville Press |location=New York |isbn=0-7892-0578-5 |year=1999 |oclc=40762767 |url=https://archive.org/details/pocketlouvrevisi00mign}}</ref>{{rp|32}}]]
{{Main|Louvre Palace}}
The [[Louvre Palace]], which houses the museum, was begun by [[Philip II of France|King Philip II]] in the late 12th century to protect the city from the attack from the West, as the [[Kingdom of England]] still held [[Duchy of Normandy|Normandy]] at the time. Remnants of the [[Medieval Louvre]] are still visible in the crypt.{{R|Mignot|page=32}} Whether this was the first building on that spot is not known, and it is possible that Philip modified an existing tower.<ref name="Edwards" />

The origins of the name "Louvre" are somewhat disputed. According to the authoritative ''[[Grand Larousse encyclopédique]]'', the name derives from an association with a [[wolf hunting]] den (via Latin: ''lupus'', lower Empire: ''lupara'').<ref name="Edwards">Edwards,&nbsp;pp.&nbsp;193–94</ref><ref>In Larousse ''Nouveau Dictionnaire étymologique et historique'', Librairie Larousse, Paris, 1971, p. 430: ***'''loup''' 1080, Roland (''leu'', forme conservée dans ''à la queue leu leu'', ''Saint Leu'', etc.); du lat. lupus; loup est refait sur le fém. louve, où le *v* a empêché le passage du *ou* à *eu* (cf. Louvre, du lat. pop. lupara)*** the etymology of the word ''louvre'' is from ''lupara'', feminine (pop. Latin) form of ''lupus''.</ref> In the 7th century, [[Burgundofara]] (also known as Saint Fare), abbess in Meaux, is said to have given part of her "Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris" to a monastery,<ref>In Lebeuf (Abbé), Fernand Bournon, ''Histoire de la ville et de tout le diocèse de Paris par l'abbé Lebeuf'', Vol. 2, Paris: Féchoz et Letouzey, 1883, p. 296: "Louvre".</ref> even though it is doubtful that this land corresponded exactly to the present site of the Louvre.

The Louvre Palace has been subject to numerous renovations since its construction. In the 14th&nbsp;century, [[Charles V of France|Charles&nbsp;V]] converted the building from its military role into a residence. In 1546, [[Francis I of France|Francis&nbsp;I]] started its rebuilding in [[French Renaissance architecture|French Renaissance]] style.<ref name="Edwards198">Edwards,&nbsp;p.&nbsp;198</ref> After Louis&nbsp;XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, construction works slowed to a halt. The royal move away from Paris resulted in the Louvre being used as a residence for artists, under Royal patronage.<ref name="Edwards198" />{{R|Mignot|page=42}}<ref>Nore,&nbsp;p.&nbsp;274</ref> For example, four generations of craftsmen-artists from the Boulle family were granted Royal patronage and resided in the Louvre.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jean Philippe Boulle, Son of André-Charles Boulle |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O185910/design-for-a-boulle-jean-philippe/ |date=21 July 2019 |publisher=V&A}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Death of André-Charles Boulle |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k63480935/f148.image.r=Boulle?rk=128756;0 |date=March 1732 |publisher=Mercure de France}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Masters of marquetry in the 17th century: Boulle |url=https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/getty-museum/getty-decorative-arts/a/masters-of-marquetry-in-the-17th-century-boulle |publisher=Khanacademy |access-date=30 November 2017 |archive-date=8 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200308163544/https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/getty-museum/getty-decorative-arts/a/masters-of-marquetry-in-the-17th-century-boulle |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Meanwhile, the collections of the Louvre originated in the acquisitions of paintings and other artworks by the monarchs of the [[House of France]]. At the [[Palace of Fontainebleau]], Francis collected art that would later be part of the Louvre's art collections, including [[Leonardo da Vinci]]'s ''[[Mona Lisa]]''.<ref>{{cite news|author=Chaundy, Bob|title=Faces of the Week|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5392000.stm|publisher=[[BBC]]|date=29 September 2006|access-date=5 October 2007}}</ref>

The Cabinet du Roi consisted of seven rooms west of the Galerie d'Apollon on the upper floor of the remodeled Petite Galerie. Many of the king's paintings were placed in these rooms in 1673, when it became an art gallery, accessible to certain art lovers as a kind of museum. In 1681, after the court moved to Versailles, 26 of the paintings were transferred there, somewhat diminishing the collection, but it is mentioned in Paris guide books from 1684 on, and was shown to ambassadors from [[Siam]] in 1686.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert W. Berger |date=1999 |title=Public Access to Art in Paris: A Documentary History from the Middle Ages to 1800 |location=University Park |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |pages=83–86}}</ref>

By the mid-18th&nbsp;century there were an increasing number of proposals to create a public gallery in the Louvre. Art critic [[Étienne La Font de Saint-Yenne]] in 1747 published a call for a display of the royal collection. On 14 October 1750, [[Louis XV]] decided on a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the [[Luxembourg Palace]]. A hall was opened by [[Charles François Paul Le Normant de Tournehem|Le Normant de Tournehem]] and the [[Abel François Poisson|Marquis de Marigny]] for public viewing of the "king's paintings" (''Tableaux du Roy'') on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Luxembourg gallery included [[Andrea del Sarto]]'s ''Charity'' and works by [[Raphael]]; [[Titian]]; [[Paolo Veronese|Veronese]]; [[Rembrandt]]; [[Nicolas Poussin|Poussin]] or [[Anthony van Dyck|Van Dyck]]. It closed in 1780 as a result of the royal gift of the Luxembourg palace to the [[Louis XVIII of France|Count of Provence]] (the future king, Louis XVIII) by the king in 1778.<ref name="Nora 278" /> Under [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]], the idea of a royal museum in the Louvre came closer to fruition.<ref name="Carb 56">Carbonell, p.&nbsp;56</ref> The [[Charles-Claude Flahaut de la Billaderie, comte d'Angiviller|comte d'Angiviller]] broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed to convert the {{lang|fr|[[Grande Galerie]]|italic=no}} of the Louvre – which at that time contained the ''[[Musée des Plans-Reliefs|plans-reliefs]]'' or 3D models of key fortified sites in and around France – into the "French Museum". Many design proposals were offered for the Louvre's renovation into a museum, without a final decision being made on them. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution.<ref name="Nora 278" />
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