Fronton van een dakkapel van het Palais du Louvre door Leprête c. 1855 - 1857

This photograph by Edouard Baldus captures a stone relief from the Palais du Louvre. Baldus, working in the mid-19th century, was commissioned to document the "new Louvre" during its extensive renovations under Napoleon III. The relief features a crown, swords, and foliage, emblems of power and prestige. Originally adorning a dormer window, this fragment speaks to the grand, often exclusionary narratives of state and empire. The Louvre itself, transformed from royal palace to public museum, embodies shifting power dynamics. Baldus’s photographs, while documenting architectural achievement, also captured a moment of political and social transformation. Consider how Baldus’s photograph serves as a record, both celebrating and subtly questioning the authority embedded in these symbols. It invites us to reflect on the stories institutions like the Louvre choose to tell, and those they leave out.