The Louvre is one of the most famous museums in the world with an expansive collection of some of the greatest masterpieces ever created. Interestingly, it did not start out that way. The building actually started as a medieval fortress. It had a moat, walls and a fortified tower in the center. Of course as Paris expanded, the fortifications moved to the exterior of the city and the Louvre was converted to a royal residence in the 14th century. The fortress was mostly demolished and extensive renovations were underway but people got distracted with the whole hundred years war going on and the Louvre basically was dormant for some time. In 1527, King Francois changed all that. He was a poet, a patron of the arts and he built up quite the collection. He acquired the Mona Lisa among other works and he is said to have hung the iconic masterpiece in his bathroom. Of course his bathroom was a little nicer than the average outhouse. His sprawling residence housed numerous works of art and eventually he started to display these works making them accessible to the public.


 


This will be the final new episode for this season of Who ARTed. I will rebroadcast either the Georgia O'Keeffe, or Yayoi Kusama episode on Monday depending on who wins the Arts Madness tournament, but then I will be taking a break for a while. I may do a run of a few mini episodes if I have time over the summer, but otherwise look for new episodes in your podcast feed when Season 3 starts in the fall. 

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