Sun and Gold The Galerie d’Apollon

A Political Project

In 1594, Henri IV made the Louvre his main residence. This entailed extensive construction and decoration works. A gallery was built to link the southeast corner of the Cour Carrée to the ancient fortified wall of the medieval Louvre, near the banks of the Seine. Adjacent to the king’s apartments, the Petite Galerie, as it was then known, came to symbolise his authority. Decorated by painters Toussaint Dubreuil (1561–1602) and Jacob Bunel (1558–1614), alongside sculptor Pierre Biard (1559–1609), it served to legitimise the king’s lineage and political power. 

A Gallery Fit for a Sun King…

On 6 February 1661, a fire destroyed the Petite Galerie. A worse catastrophe was, however, avoided: the fire did not spread to the nearby Grande Galerie. In the immediate aftermath, in 1662, architect Louis Le Vau (1661–1670) and painter Charles Le Brun (1619–1690) were commissioned to reconstruct the ruined building. Le Brun dedicated its decoration to Apollo, whom Louis XIV had just chosen for a symbol. The sun god Apollo ruled over the order of the elements, the parts of the day, the course of the planets and the cycle of months and seasons – manifesting the king’s good government. Bringing many art forms into a single space, the sculpted and painted décor alternates different architectural elements – compartments, medallions and covings – adorned with stuccos by François Girardon (1628–1715), Thomas Regnaudin (1622–1701) and brothers Gaspard and Balthasar Marsy. It prefigured Versailles’ renowned Hall of Mirrors.

… Completed by Eugène Delacroix

Construction came to an abrupt halt in 1671, when the king and his court moved to Versailles, and the gallery remained unfinished. Nearly a century later, between 1769 and 1781, the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture commissioned artists to complete the painted ceiling, adding Spring, by Antoine-François Callet (1741–1823), Autumn, by Jean-Hugues Taraval (1729–1785), Summer, by Louis Jacques Durameau (1733–1796), and Winter, by Jean-Jacques Lagrenée (1739–1821), as well as Castor or the Morning Star by Antoine Renou (1731–1806).

In 1848, construction resumed under the direction of architect Félix Duban (1798–1870). Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) was put in charge of the ceiling’s central compartment, representing Apollo Slaying the Serpent Python.

The French Crown Jewels

The Louvre palace became the Muséum Central des Arts in 1793. Sculptures, drawings and objets d’art were then displayed in the Galerie d’Apollon, including the Bayeux Tapestry in 1803. Display cases in sculpted and gilt wood were made to match the gallery’s décor in 1861. Among the works they presented were jewels, gems and lacquerware from the former French royal collection, as well as masterpieces from the treasuries of the abbey of Saint-Denis and of the Order of the Holy Spirit.

A Self-Contained Work of Art

On 19 October 2025, two burglars broke into the Galerie d’Apollon and stole eight 19th-century jewels. After being closed for several months, the gallery, itself designed as an artwork in the 17th century, returned to its primary function on its reopening in the summer of 2026. It is now a place to wander and contemplate freely at the heart of the museum, linking the Rotonde d’Apollon to the Salon Carré, opening onto the Grande Galerie.