Luxembourg Gardens - statues

The Statue of Liberty is back in the Luxembourg Gardens. Actually it’s a new copy. The previous original one (offered by the creator, F.A. Bartholdi) stood here until 2012, when it was transferred to the Orsay Museum (see also previous post).

   

This is not the first time I have posted (see here) about the Luxembourg Gardens, but I wanted to make a more complete post on all (?) the sculptures you may find in this great park. Originally the park was initiated, in the beginning of the 17^th century, by Marie de’ Medici, widow of King Henry IV, mother of Louis XIII and grandmother of Louis XIV. It surrounds the Luxembourg Palace (see previous posts here), now housing the French Senate.

But… maybe first some general pictures taken a rather cold day, early morning, with rather few people around.

Here is a view of the palace, the pond in front of it and some statues. 

This part of the park is surrounded by statues of a number of French Queens and some allegorical, symbolic figures. 

According to this detailed site created by the Senate, there are 106 statues around. I believe I found almost all of them. So, let's start with some more, the first one is called “Triomphe de Silène” by Jules Dalou (1838-1902) (see previous post) . We can also find a lion by Auguste Cain (1822-94) – a sculptor who is very present in the Tuileries Gardens (see here) -, an homage to the poet Paul Eluard by Ossip Zadkine (1890-1967)....  

I will not repeat what I previously wrote about the “Medici Fountain” (see here), which already has a number of decorative sculptures.

Many statues are dedicated to authors, composers, scientists, statesmen…

If you want to know more about these personalities, here are the links: Verlaine, Zweig, Baudelaire, Fabre, LePlay…

… Vicaire, Branly, Chopin, Massenet, Beethoven…

… Watteau, Sand, Ségur, Ratisbonne…

… De Heredia, Sainte Beuve, Mendes-France, Delacroix (another statue by Dalou)…

… Murger, Banville, Leconte de Lisle, Flaubert, Stendahl.

Many other personalities are portrayed on the facade of the Orangery.

Before leaving the park, maybe a look on what has been done for the future of the plants, the bees and other insects…

… and for the visually impaired.

At last, in the park you can also find a number of “Arago plates”, indicating the Paris meridian. (See previous post on the Paris Observatory.) 

Medici Fountain

I already posted about the Luxembourg Gardens, a long time ago (see here), but passing by the other day, I thought that the Medici Fountain was worth a new and specific post.

It dates from about 1630 and was created on the initiative of Maria de’ Medici, the widow of King Henry IV, regent of the young Louis XIII (and grandmother of Louis XIV). This was part of the decoration she wanted in the park that surrounded the Medici Palace (today Luxembourg Palace) which was built for her 1623-30. As a Medici, she was of course much influenced by and wanted things to have a resemblance with what she had known in Florence, the Pitti Palace, the Boboli Gardens….

What we today refer to as a fountain, was originally a “grotto” and it had no water basin in front of it. Different modifications took place during the centuries, but the major one, around 1860, when the Haussmannian major city plan modifications took place, including wider streets. The “grotto” had to be moved – some 30 meters (100 ft). On the plan from 1739 we can see where it originally stood and where it stands today.

When the “grotto” was displaced, some major modifications were also made. The beautiful basin was added.

Some statues in bad shape were replaced and especially, what we now see in the middle, a new group of statues, was created (by Auguste Ottin), representing the Cyclope Polyphemus, son of Poseidon (in bronze), discovering the lovers Acis and Galatea (in marble), possibly as a reference to the renaissance period, when this tale obviously was in fashion.

The 17th century composer Lully (and later Haendel) wrote music about the theme.

As the buildings which originally stood behind the grotto had disappeared, something had to be done to the empty back side. Another fountain, which originally stood in the corner of the nearby Rue Vaugirard and Rue du Regard, “Leda and the Swan”, had also to be removed because of the new large streets and avenues and it fitted quite well to the empty back side. So there it is now … in need of some restoration or cleaning.