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The Musee du Louvre shaped art history by changing the way people thought about art.

Most early museums existed solely for the benefit of the bourgeouis. Museums acted as another wedge between the upper and middle classes and the lower and working classes. The upper classes did not want their museum experiences disrupted by the lower classes whom they envisioned as dirty and noisy. Museum trips were considered spiritual experiences and, by restricting lower class access to art, the upper classes were able to create religious-like reverence for museums in the lower classes.

Museums limited access to the art collections by enforcing dress codes and restricting hours to times when the lower classes would be working. These early museums hung their collections in cluttered clusters of paintings and did not use identification cards to help educate viewers about the artwork.

In 1803, acting on a decree from the king, the Louvre became the first museum to try to educate the masses. Dress codes and hours of operations were no longer manipulated to restrict the lower classes, and the paintings were arranged into meaningful exhibits. The Louvre began using identification cards with its artwork and the pieces were separated into four distinguishable schools of art: Dutch, French, Flemish, and Italian.

The Louvre shaped the history of art by making it available to the masses and open to their scrutiny. The move toward the museum as an educational tool did diminish the spirituality of visits, but, as anyone who has ever stood in the Sistine Chapel (now part of the Vatican Museums) knows, some art will always awe its viewers.

Learn more about this author, Emily Ser.
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