Design for the Grande Galerie in the Louvre

Hubert Robert painted many views, both real and imaginary, of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre. His imaginary vies really constitute a set of designs for an ideal museum. When he painted this picture (the finest in the series) in 1796, the Galley was nothing but an interminably long corridor, lit only by side windows, which linked the Louvre to the Tuileries. The architects who were later responsible for the lighting and redecoration of the Grande Galerie were merely executing the original ideas of Hubert Robert. In this painting several of the masterpieces of the Museum Central can be recognized, notably Raphael’s Holy Family of Fran�ois I and Titian’s Entombment.