Nyet

Hi there! Can anyone tell me wht is that statue in front of the Pyramid entrance at the Louvre Museum courtyard. Is it Louis XIV or XVI?? <BR> <BR>I've been searching all over the guide/travel books and no one mention the statue. Problem is that I took a picture there and I need to name it. <BR> <BR>Thanks.

Mary

According to the Blue Guide it's Louis XIV--a lead copy of 1988 after Bernini's original at Versailles.

john g

Mary, are you sure??? I have always thought that the statue was of Karl Lagerfeld. Isn't that a fan he is holding??

Mary

Are you kidding? Karl wouldn't be caught dead in that outfit!

Michael

Hi. As Mary has already said, it is a copy in lead of a marble original by the great Italian baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Bernini had been invited to Paris by Louis XIV's minister Colbert to work on projected architectural improvements of the Louvre. Bernini's plans were rejected, but as a sort of consolation, he was given a commission for an equestrian statue in marble of the "Sun-King". The king didn't like the statue much and it was placed out of site at the end of the piece d'eau des Swisses at Versailles. <BR>When the renovations of the Louvre, designed by the modern architect I.M.Pei (an Asian American) were planned in the 1980s, Pei insisted that a lead copy of the Bernini sculpture be placed at the end of the great perspective of the Louvre-Carrousel-Etoile. <BR>Hope that this added info will be of further help to you. <BR>Sincerely, <BR>Michael