An arch before a vanished palace

Look at the three archways and the reddish marble columns beside them. Then look up at the chariot with four horses. Reliefs and soldiers appear in different places. You can follow the decoration from the ground without passing beneath the arch or stopping in the flow of people. The monument was built between 1806 and 1808 on the orders of Napoleon I, the soldier who became emperor of France. It celebrated military victories and took an ancient Roman arch as its model. Battle scenes and soldiers make that intention part of the building. Its scale allows people to pass through it and also read it as a front filled with images. Another palace stood here, the Tuileries. The arch served as its monumental entrance. The palace burned in 1871 during the Paris Commune, an uprising that briefly governed the city. Its ruins were removed in 1883. The open space between Louvre and gardens occupies part of that vanished ensemble. The horses originally crowning the arch had come from Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice after the French campaigns. They were returned in 1815. The group above you is a later work by François-Joseph Bosio, a nineteenth-century sculptor. The monument also changed with the political situation. Stand to one side where you can see the arch and gardens together. The opening towards the Tuileries now makes it seem like an entrance to a walk. Turn back and the Louvre fills the distance with its long wings. The arch keeps its place although the palace it once led to has disappeared.