The unique Louvre, whose paintings are the cultural heritage of mankind

The Louvre, built as a castle-fortress, was transformed from 1317 into the residence of French kings by the decision of Charles V. Accumulated over the centuries in its walls of value allowed the Provisional Government of the French Republic to open in 1793 the doors of the palace for the people, initiating the creation of one of the largest museums in the world.

The Louvre, whose paintings have brought him worldwide fame, occupies a worthy place among the treasures of painting, such as the Prado, the Hermitage, and the London National Gallery. The Louvre occupies the third place in the world in terms of space occupied, which hosts about 400,000 exhibits. But the value of the museum is characterized not only by the total number of paintings, but also by the presence in the collection of world masterpieces.

The Louvre Museum, whose paintings made it the most popular museum, is primarily due to this "Gioconda" by Leonardo da Vinci, who is considered a magician, a superman, a genius because of the power of talent in many fields of science, culture, art. He created only 14 paintings (authorship of the 15th is contested), but this did not stop him from becoming a genius of painting.

The mecca of fine art "The Louvre" (paintings by Leonardo da Vinci are presented here in the number of four priceless copies - "Gioconda", "John the Baptist", "Madonna in the grotto," "Mary with the Child and St. Anne") is known to any more or less educated person on the ground. And there is no connoisseur who does not know what the Louvre museum is like, the pictures that are in it.

"Gioconda", fanned by unprecedented glory, enveloped in legends, which does not allow to sleep dozens of professionals who have been arguing about it for hundreds of years, which, like no other canvas in the world, was stolen and attempted, was created by the master during 1514-1515. She is considered the founder of all subsequent development of painting.

The three following paintings are written in biblical stories and refer to the later period of Leonardo's work. "Mary with the Child and Saint Anna", written during 1483-1487, is the prototype of the painting "Maria in the Rocks", which was created by two. One of them is in the Louvre, the other - in the London National Gallery.

An extraordinary surge of interest to this artist and his canvases was the publication in 2003 of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, followed by its adaptation to the world screens in 2006. There are few people in the civilized world who have not read this book or Not watching the movie. Thus, the modern bestseller promoted the popularization of genius among contemporaries, slaves of pop culture. In this it is impossible not to discern the peculiar continuity of generations. Famous paintings of the Louvre brush by Leonardo da Vinci have found a second life, although, in fact, they are immortal.

Repeatedly asserted the fact that the modern youth name "Leonardo" connects only with "turtles of Ninja". And you can only rejoice that the Louvre, whose paintings have always had millions of fans, at times increased the number of those who want to look at the places where the novel is unfolding, with your own eyes. This is a very effective method of attracting various sections of the population to high art.