# Transcript

NARRATION:
How was the collection formed and to what extent was its nature conditioned by royal patronage. Some of the most famous paintings in the Louvre were collected by Francis I.
He commissioned this portrait of himself from the Venetian artist Titian in 1537. Now was it just that Francis had a good eye. He also acquired Raphael’s La Belle Jardiniere painted in 1508, now generally considered one of the most important works in the Louvre. He kept his faith with paintings in an intimate part of Fontainebleu, the bathrooms, where he could enjoy them in the company of his mistresses, and closest courtiers.
Once in the collection however, paintings like these became a valuable asset which could be shown off to visiting dignitaries as a sign of the kings culture.
This painting by Andrea Del Sarto, the Italian painter, was done in France in 1518 for the king. The subject is an allegory of charity, a virtue which wealthy kings could hope to acquire. Paintings could flatter a king and make him seem powerful.
Across the Grande Gallery a painting of St. Michael and the Dragon by Raphael was commissioned by the Pope as a gift for Francis I. Now, as grand master of the order of St. Michael, Francis had a particular interest in this warlike angel.
Leonardo da Vinci also came from Italy to France, where the king gave him his own chateau, and is thought to have brought with him the most famous painting in the Louvre, the Mona Lisa. It’s popularly said that Leonardo died in Francis’s arms. Raphael, Titian, Leonardo, these were among the most famous living artists in Europe.
In other words, what Francis was collecting, was at the time modern art.
It’s a remarkable thing that Francis’s judgement has held up, and these works have been valued as central to the canon of art, not only by subsequent royal patrons, but also by their revolutionary and republican successors.
The paintings collected by Francis I formed the core of the most prized selection of works, which were displayed in the Salon Carré from 1840 onwards. In the Salon Carré were also paintings that had originally belonged to Charles I of England, and had been acquired by Louis XIV.
With their secular subject matter and sensuous treatment, some of these works were specifically designed to wet the tastes of secular patrons. Titian’s Fète Champêtre had originally been in the court of the Gonzaga, in Mantua, when in 1627 a large part of the Gonzaga collection came to England.
Here is another one that came by the same route, Correggio’s Venus, Satyr and Cupid, often wrongly called the Sleep of Antiope. Painted in 1524, it passed through Charles I collection and then via Cardinal Mazarin to Louis XIV.
Francis I was also a keen collector of antique sculpture. He had this antique statue of Diana repaired. We can see that Diana was originally holding a bow, but the restorer added a deer, to make associations with Francis’s favourite sport - hunting - even more obvious.
In the next century, Louis XIV’s wealth and power allowed him to extend the royal collection of antique sculptures. An antique type much favoured by the court, was the Crouching Aphrodite. This is one that was discovered in Vienne in France in the seventeenth century.
The kings collection of antique sculptures provided models for his artists. This sculpture was commissioned by the king for Versailles in 1685 and was signed by Coysevox, with the signature in imitation of Phidias, written in Greek lettering.