The thread: 708 → 710 → 711 → 712
Stay on level 1 of the Denon wing. This route does not try to summarise all Italian painting at the Louvre; it connects four rooms and four shifts of scale, from medieval tempera to Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro.
Begin in the Salon Carré, room 708, then follow the Grande Galerie through rooms 710, 711 and 712.
1. Room 708 — Cimabue before the Renaissance
Cimabue’s Maestà is tempera on gold ground and poplar, dated 1275–1300. At 4.27 metres high, it retains its original frame with twenty-six painted medallions.
It was at San Francesco in Pisa before entering the Louvre in 1812. Look at the frame as closely as the central panel: it is part of the work.
2. Room 710 — The Grande Galerie and Raphael
Room 710 is the Grande Galerie, built at the end of the 16th century to link the Louvre with the Tuileries. It now holds a major collection of Italian paintings.
Raphael’s Saint Michael is on view here. The Louvre record names Francis I as its commissioner in 1518, a useful marker of how the French royal collection was shaped by Italian art.
3. Room 711 — Venetian colour
The Salle des États is famous for the Mona Lisa, but its walls also belong to Venetian masters. Opposite Leonardo, Veronese’s Wedding Feast at Cana turns a biblical episode into a contemporary Venetian banquet.
At over six metres high and almost ten metres wide, it is the Louvre’s largest painting. It was made for the refectory of San Giorgio Maggiore, then confiscated by Napoleon’s troops and sent to Paris.
4. Room 712 — Caravaggio, rejection and crown
The Death of the Virgin hangs in room 712. The Louvre dates it to around 1601–06 and records that it was commissioned for Santa Maria della Scala in Rome, then rejected by that church’s clergy.
Its route is a collection history in miniature: Ferdinand Gonzaga acquired it in 1607, Charles I in 1627, and Louis XIV bought it in 1671.
Sources and verification
The rooms, dates, dimensions and histories cited here were checked against Louvre records.
- Louvre Collections: Cimabue’s Maestà
- Louvre: the Grande Galerie
- Louvre Collections: Raphael’s Saint Michael
- Louvre: Salle des États and The Wedding Feast at Cana
- Louvre Collections: The Death of the Virgin
Displays and room openings can change. Check the Louvre website on the day of your visit before following a route.
Listen to the commentary in the gallery
This route gives you a thread to follow. In front of an artwork, CulturAll adds the audio commentary: photograph the work or its label, listen, then ask your questions.
