The inside of the Louvre is VERY overwhelming. Accoriding to the Louvre's official website, the museum houses 35,000 works of art. I did the math and this means that if you were to look at each painting for exactly 5 seconds, it would take you 2 full days and nights (without sleep) to see every single piece of art - and this doesn't include the time it would take you to walk from one painting to the next or to get to each department. The museum has over 60,000 square meters of exhibition space. That's a lot of walking!
Case in point: I didn't see everything. Before I went, I decided on my few favorite pieces that I learned about in my high school art history class and saw only those.
Actually, I ended up seeing less than I had intended...
There were a few things on my list that I never got to, such as the Seated Scribe (left) and the Steele with the law code of Hammurabi (right). The Seated Scribe is a famous piece of Ancient Egyptian Art made of painted limestone. It is revered for two main reasons:
1) It has very realistic facial features, in particular, the eyes which are made out of magnesium carbonate and rock crystal.
2) Most of the artwork depicting monks during this time showed them reading, not writing.
The steele is one of the oldest and most extensive law records from ancient Babylon. (I say one of the oldest because I know laws were recorded before this but I'm not sure if they're still intact - it may very well be the oldest law record... I just can't find enough information to verify that.) The top of the steele is a relief showing a sun god bestowing the power to rule on Hammurabi; the bottom is the notorious "Code of Hammurabi."
Hopefully, I will get to see these two another time.
Here are the things that I did see:
Satyres en Atlante. Date Sculpted: 2nd century A.D.
Medium: marble
I just liked these statues. They used to be the supports for a fountain. Other than that, the little description card didn't give that much information on them. Apparently the French word "satyres" translates to "satyrs" in English and is the name of a group of figures in Greek Mythology. Personally, I had never heard of them. Thanks to google, I have read info on various websites and have learned that they are half-man, half-goat and that they are the followers of Dionysus, the god of wine.
There was a guy in the way of the other picture so I took a close up. That, and I thought that they looked funny. They really need to have the fountain on their backs to make this not look so awkward haha.
Vieux pêcheur, dit Sénèque mourant (Old Fisherman, also Seneca Dying)Date Sculpted: 2nd century A.D.
Medium: black marble and alabaster
Umm, basically this guy is supposed to be committing suicide because he was ordered to by some king. I actually don't remember anything else that I learned about this in my art history class.
**It sucks that Wikipedia isn't a reliable source!! I wanted to post something so you could all learn about why he has to kill himself but I can't find anything good! Here's one website that explains a little bit about Seneca: http://www.egs.edu/resources/seneca.html
I'm not sure if it's a viable source, but it seems to say the same thing that I remember my teacher telling me.
This is my dad making fun of the "Statue de l'empereur Titus." (because I told him too lol)Date Sculpted: end of the first century A.D.
My dad picking the Lions nose.This is one of the Lions from the collection of Alessandro (a wealthy Italian cardinal)
Date Sculpted: end of the first century A.D.
Medium: green basanite for the lion, golden marble for the ball.
Nike of Samorthrace. MY FAVORITE THING AT THE LOUVRE. I love how they have it at the top of a stairwell too. It's so beautiful walking up to it.Style: Hellenistic
Date: 190 BC
Medium: Marble
Size: 8'1"
- she is supposed to be standing on the bow of a boat (possibly a warship)
- Found within a Fountain (the image of a boat really floating with water splashing on the rocks)
- Clothes are supposed to look like they're sticking to her because of the water
A side view - I like how the lovebirds are in this pic.
A close up so you can see how the artist made the cloth look like it's sticking to her.
Madonna of the Rocks (also Virgin of the Rocks), By Leonardo DiVinci.He made two different paintings on this subject; the other one's in London. Personally, I like the one in London better because it's less dreary.
Here's a better look at the two of them:
Painting at the Louvre (Left), Painting at the National Gallery, London (Right).
The Mona Lisa!! I wanted to put into perspective how small it is... You can barely see it in the background.
The Mona Lisa (Again).I took about 25 shots of it using various settings on my camera, and this is the best that I got. It's extremely well protected because it was stolen once in 1911. The story is actually quite funny - they had NO idea who stole it so the police accused a bunch of people and even asked Pablo Picasso in for questioning. You can read more about it here.
This is the Great Hall that is mentioned in Dan Brown's, The Da Vinci Code. I'm not sure if it's shown in the movie or not.
This the Venus de Milo.Style: Hellenistic
Date: 150-125 BC
Artist: Alexandros of Antioch-on-the-Meander
Medium: Marble
Size: 6' 7"
- once had an inscribed base signed by the sculptor (now lost)
- left hand held apple that Paris awarded Venus (when she was determined to be most beautiful)
- right hand may have grasped her drapery
The Discus Thrower
Again.
My SECOND favorite thing at the Louvre.So that is the end of my commentary about my trip to the Louvre.
If you want to see more of the Louvre, you can take a virtual tour courtesy of the Louvre's official website. Here's the link.
I'm not a big fan of it because the screen spins too much and it makes me feel nauseous. I figured I'd let you know that it's out there though haha.
When we were done at the Louvre, we headed through le Jardin des Tuileries (the Tuileries Gardens) and over to the Champs-Élysées.
There, our cameras died. We only got two pictures. Luckily, they were good ones:
Champs-Élysées street sign.
The Arc de Triumphe.
1 comment:
Great tour!
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