PenAndCo blog

The spirit of the age of the mightiest rulers of France and the architectural beauty of centuries come together in what is arguably the greatest museum in the world: the Louvre, built at theend of the 12th century as a royal fortress on the banks of the Seine. By the time of the French king and patron of the arts Francis I., the Louvre was already home to an extensive art collection. In 1515, he commissioned the rebuilding of the Louvre into a grand royal residence and almost every one of his successors continued his work in the Renaissance and Classical Baroque styles. In 1682, the work came to an abrupt end when the court was suddenly moved to Versailles, and it was to be more than 120 years before Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte resumed the building work.

In 1793, the National Assembly decreed that the royal treasures should be made accessible to the public for the first time. The removal of the French government to the Elysée Palace in 1873 finally ended the Louvre’s role as the centre of political power in France, and it became the most famous gallery of art and culture of our time The “Grands Projets” initiative begun by President Mitterrand in the early 1980s was intended to give Paris a more modern face and to take the capital into the 21st century. Alongside the Grande Arche in the district of La Défense and the new National Library, the Louvre is far and away the greatest testament to Mitterrand’s bold plan. As the result of his vision of a “Grand Louvre”, what had been a classic art gallery has become a completely new “universal lyceum”.

The reconstruction of the Richelieu wing saw its exhibition space doubled in size to 60,000 square metres, and a modern conference and shopping complex was created beneath the Place du Carrousel. From then on, the new underground entrance hall of the Louvre would be covered by a glass pyramid 22 metres high, a structure which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2009. Controversially disputed by Parisians at its official opening in 1989, the pyramid – designed by visionary architect Ieoh Ming Pei – with its 793 glass segments soon became the new symbol of the “Grand Louvre”. Every year, more than 8 million visitors pass through its glass doors to marvel at major works of art from ancient times, theRenaissance and the modern era, including the Venus de Milo, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”,the Winged Victory of Samothrace and AlbrechtDürer’s self-portrait. However, it is also the Louvre building itself whose magic attracts people from all over the world: a present-day witness, carved in stone, of times long past; a cultural monument that intertwines the beauty of centuries-old buildings with the visionary architecture of modernity.

            Click to enlarge, thank you.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the iconic symbol of the Louvre, the glass pyramid by stellar architect Ieoh Ming Pei, Montblanc is honouring the famous museum in the heart of Paris with a precious skeleton fountain pen made of 750 solid white gold. The design entrances the beholder with its unique interplay of elements from both classical and modern architecture; the filigree skeleton cap reflects the glass segments of the breathtaking pyramid. The barrel, the rings and the top of the cap are decorated with patterns from the Renaissance and Classical Baroque. The name of the edition is engraved on the rhodium-plated 18 K gold nib,accompanied by designs modelled on motifs taken from the Louvre’s outer façade. The shape of the black hematite on the clip echoes the pyramid, and the Montblanc emblem in mother-of-pearl rounds off a unique Limited Edition that expresses in every detail the allure of the most magnificent museum in the world: the Musée du Louvre.