Art Museums We Loved In Europe & Asia – The Louvre, Paris
67During our 55 years of International travel, Art Museums in Europe and Asia always attracted my wife and I.This week we end the series, where many vacationers going to Europe begin, in Paris, France. One thing most visitors plan to do in Paris is to see Mona Lisa. On average 8.5 million visitors each year see her. But Mona is just one of the Louvre's 35,000 items, making it the world’s largest art museum.
The Louvre
Mo Palais-Royal
75001 Paris, France
Phone 01 40 20 50 50
Open Mon,Thu,Sat-Sun 9am-6pm
Wed,Fri 9am-10pm
Subway Station: Palais Royal/Musee du Louvre
Buy tickets ahead of time and avoid ticket window lines. Advance tickets are available online through TicketWeb, Ticketnet and Fnac. Postage and handling fees are added to the price of the ticket, which is mailed to your home address. Tickets purchased through TicketWeb (payable in US dollars) can only be sent to addresses in North America.
In France, you can purchase tickets in advance at:Fnac, Carrefour, Continent, Leclerc, Auchan, Extrapole, Le Bon Marché, Printemps, Galeries Lafayette, BHV, Samaritaine and Virgin Mégastore.
Paris Museum Pass
2-day pass: €35
4-day pass: €50
6-day pass: €65
A Paris Museum Pass gives the holder entrance to more than sixty museums and monuments in and around Paris, including the Louvre. You can get one at the Louvre's membership center (Espace Adhésion, Allée du Grand Louvre, under the Pyramid), also at participating museums and monuments, in metro stations and at the various branches of the Paris Tourist Office, including the Espace du Tourisme at the Louvre.
The Louvre is one of the world's largest museums and the most visited art museum in the world. It’s nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited in the Louvre’s 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet).
The museum was originally built to be a fortress in the late 12th century with many of its remnants still visible. In 1682, when Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles as his home, the Louvre became the primary place to display the royal collection, including antique sculptures. In 1692, the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture moved in and in 1699 began the first of the salon art contests.
The Académie remained there for 100 years, until during the French Revolution when the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should become a museum to display the nation's masterpieces.
When it opened 10 August 1793, it had 537 paintings, the majority being royal and confiscated church property. Because of structural problems the building was closed for years while repairs were made, reopening in 1801. Under Napoleon the collection size increased and it was renamed Musée Napoléon. After his defeat many works he had seized were returned to their original owners. Those losses were more than compensated for during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X and the 2ndFrench Empire when the museum was infused with 20,000 new pieces.
In 1983, French President Francois Mitterand proposed there be a Grand Louvre innovation plan. Architect I.M. Pei won the award. He built the glass pyramid which stands over the entrance today. The pyramid and its underground lobby were opened to the public, 15 October 1988.
Of it’s many collections, the most popular are its Paintings with more than 6,000 works from the 1400-hundreds to 1848. Nearly two-thirds are French and more than 1,200 are Northern European. The Italian paintings from Francis I and Louis XIV's added such masters as Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.
When the French Revolution ended, the French Royal Collection moved there. With the opening of Musee d’Orsay in 1986, the collection was split with pieces completed after 1848 moving there.
The earliest French art includes the anonymous painting of King Jean le Bon, perhaps the oldest portrait in Western painting. Other early works include the Avignon Pieta by Enguerrand Quarton, Hyacinthe Rigaud’s Louis XIV, Jacques-Louis David’s The Coronation of Napoleon and Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading The People. Featured works from Northern European includes two by Vermeer’s The Lacemaker and The Astronomer as well as Rembrandt’s The Supper At Emmaus, Bathsheba At Her Bath and The Slaughtered Ox.
Department by Department
Egyptian antiquities
More than 50,000 pieces are in the Louvre’s Egyptian collection, including artifacts from the Nile civilizations which date from 4,000 BC. The origin of the department lies in the royal collection, augmented by Napoleon's 1798 expeditions to the African continent. After the Rosetta Stone was translated, the Egyptian Antiquities department was created. The purchase of three major collections added 7,000 works, with growth continuing through acquisitions made from the excavations at Memphis, highlighted by The Seated Scribe.
Guarded by the Large Sphinx, the Egyptian Antiquities collection is housed in more than 20 rooms. Included are papyrus scrolls, mummies, tools, clothing, jewelry, musical instruments and weapons. Other art from the Middle Kingdom, "known for its gold work and statues" is exemplified by the schist statue of Amenemhatankh and the wooden Offering Bearer. The statue of the goddess Nephthys and the limestone depiction of the goddess Hathor are regarded highly by Egyptianologists.
Near Eastern antiquities
This department dates from 1881 and presents early Near Eastern civilization that pre-date the arrival of Islam. It’s three sections exhibit work from the Levant, Mesopotamia and Persia, now Iran
Of its featured monuments are Prince of Lagash's Stele Of The Vultures from 2,500 BC and a Stele erected by the King of Akkad to celebrate an important war victory. A highly regarded main piece is the 7-1/2 foot Code of Hammurabi, discovered in 1901. It presents the Babylonia Laws “so that no man could plead their ignorance.”
Greek, Etruscan, and Roman
This collection exhibits pieces from the Mediterranean Basin, spanning from the Cycladic period to the decline of the Roman Empire. This is one of the museum's oldest departments and is highlighted by the marble sculpture of Venus de Milo.
Other attractions are jewelry, including the limestone Lady of Auxerre from 640 BC and the cylindrical Hera of Samos, circa 570 BC. Later, when art from the period begin to focus on the human form, they were exemplified by statues such as the Borghese Gladiator, The Winged Victory of Samothrace and Venus de Milo.
Islamic art
Islamic art is the museum’s newest collection, encompasssing 13 centuries and 3 continents. Included are works in ceramics, glass, metal-ware, wood, ivory, carpet and textiles, more than 5,000 works and 1,000 shards in total. Among them are the Pyxide d’al-Mughira, a 10th century ivory box, the Baptistery of Saint-Louis, an engraved brass basin from the 13th or 14 century and the Iranian 10th century Shroud of Josse, plus 3 pages of Persian Poems from the Shahnameh.
Sculpture
The sculpture collection began just 100. The collection remained small until 1847 when the Louvre docents began to make acquisitions. When the d’Orsay opened, post-1850 works were relocated there. The remaining sculptures are in 2 sections, French sculptures in the Richelieu wing and foreign works in the Denon wing.
Prominent French sculpture includes the 11th century Daniel In The Lion’s Den, the 12th century Virgin Of Auvernge and from the 17th and 18th century, Falconet’s Woman Bathing and Amour Menacant, Anguier’s Obelisks and Canova’s Psyche Revived By Cupid’s Kiss.
Decorative Arts
This collection includes works from the Middle Ages to the mid-19th century. Its most prized works are Pietre Dure vases and bronzes. When it received the Durand collection is 1825 plus 800 other donated pieces, its collection of ceramics, enamels, and stained glass grew manifold. It’s next leap began with the return of the Romantic Period, when donations expanded the department by 1,500 works, including gold jewelry mainly from the 15th and 16th centuries.[
In the Richelieu Wing's first floor and in the Apollo Gallery, you can see the coronation crown of Louis XIV, a striking 12th century, Giambologna’s bronze Nessus and Deianira and the famed tapestry, Maximillian's Hunt.
During September 2000, a gallery was dedicated to Gilbert Chagoury and Rose-Marie Chagoury, displaying work donated by them including a 16th century six-part tapestry, sewn with gold and silver threads.
Prints and drawings
8,600 pieces given to this gallery were made available by the state and through purchases. Today the collection has 14,000 royal copper printing-plates and 40,000 prints, 3,000 drawings, and 5,000 illustrated books donated by Edmond de Rothschild. These are in the Pavillon de Flore.
Painting
As noted earlier, nearly two-thirds of the Louvre paintings are from French artists, with Italian painters including Mantegna, Bellini, da Vinci, Caraveggio and Titian composing the others.
The largest bequest of paintings by any single person in the history of the Louvre were 584 paintings donated by Louis La Caze in 1869.
Hint, Hint, Hint: The Louvre has many entrances. Normally, the longest lines are at the courtyard Pyramid. To avoid that crowd use the Galerie du Carrousel entrance in the shopping center west of the Louvre. Inside the Louvre, use the end of floor restrooms and elevator. Visitors in the know, usually start on Level 4 and work their way down, rather than starting on the ground level and working their way up.
Finally, here she is, the painting everyone coming to the Louvre wants to see. Unless you get there first thing in the morning or just before closing it’s always crowded and you only get a few crowded seconds in front of Mona. I got this close and while being shoved along shot this photo.
A GOOD THOUGHT AND IT’S FREE: If you want to see Mona without the crowd take a virtual tour of the Louvre. If you’re going it will orient you, so you can get what you want to see. But, going or not, it’s free and it’s wonderful. The tour begins on their Website. A version 5 or later QuickTime plugin is needed.
This brings to an end our 28 weeks of visiting Art Museums in Europe and Asia We Loved. If you enjoyed the museums, you can continue on your own. Almost every city in the world has an art museum or other museums worth exploring. Today, most offer virtual tours.
My wife has been a docent at the Los Angeles County Art Museum for the past dozen years; she tours elementary and middle school classes. Many of youngsters who visit are in a museum for the first time in their lives. As they tour, they learn a bit about the art. Even simple learnings such as being able to differentiate between what is a foreground and what is a background, or what is a painting and what is a sculpture gets them excited. Do plan to take the youngster in your life to a museum; you both will be rewarded by the experience. If you are able to take a docent led tour, it will enrich the experience. They may even ask you to bring them back again.
