Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
At the end of the Rue de Seine, on the left bank of the river, is the Institut de
France. The building was constructed by Louis XIV's architect, Louis Le Vau
(1663-1691). The Institut de France was formed in 1795 by the Revolutionary
government from an amalgamation of three Académies of the
ancien régime
,
namely the Académie des Sciences, the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
(historical documents) and the Académie Française. Later additions included the
Académie des Beaux-Arts and the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. It
has 325 members who, among other things, take the responsibility to study and
define the French language. The Institut is often mocked for its conservatism
and purism in doing this, as it erects defences to protect the language against
outside change and the impact of modern times. Yet one can only admire some of
its inventions, such as the charming word
balladeur
as a translation for a “walkman.”
A
balladeur
was originally a wandering minstrel, and “walkman” is an exciting but
rather ungracious trademark. Medallion number 72 is on the Quai de Conti.
1st Arrondissement
The meridian crosses the Seine along the line of the Pont des Arts footbridge.
The Louvre
The Louvre was founded as a royal palace in the 12
th
century and enlarged by a
succession of kings to its present grand form as a renaissance palace, which dates
back to the 1540's. The Louvre is built around a magnificent open courtyard, the
Court Carrée, and looks outwards to the Jardin des Tuileries. At the center of the
courtyard is the artistically controversial modern glass pyramid commissioned from
the architect I.M. Pei by former French president François Mitterrand. The merid-
ian cuts across the palace and the courtyard and almost through the glass pyramid
itself. The Louvre houses possibly the finest art collection in the world, including
three Arago medallions which traverse the museum's Denon Wing (in the Roman
Antiquities section, on a staircase and in a corridor). Five others run across the Cour
Carrée behind the glass pyramid.
There are representations of several astronomers in the Louvre collection.
Pierre-Jean David's bust of
François Arago
is in the Richelieu Wing, in the Puget
Court. Jan Vermeer's
L'Astronome
(Richelieu Wing, Second floor, Room 38) is a
fictional and rather fanciful astronomer who refers to a globe of the constellations
while studying an open topic. In addition,
Nicolas Kratzer
in Hans Holbein's por-
trait was a real person, as can be seen by his cool gaze. He is shown with some of
the sundials that he invented or made (Richelieu Wing, Second floor, Room 8). One
of the sundials is identical to one that Holbein inserted into his portrait of
The
Ambassadors
, which hangs in London's National Gallery (Holbein presumably put
