Friday, May 13, 2011

Musée du Louvre

The Louvre Museum is undoubtedly one of the world’s most renowned museums.  A former palace that sits on the site of a 12th century fortress (you can still see some of the earliest foundations down in the basement) it was first decreed to be a museum during the French Revolution.  The museum  first opened in 1793, on the first anniversary of King Louis XVI’s demise, and except for a couple of short periods of time along the way, notably World War I and II, it has been open to the public ever since!


The place is simply magnificent, and gigantic!  It is home to the Mona Lisa, and more than 6,000 other paintings, hundreds of sculptures (including the Venus de Milo), and close to 50,000 drawings, prints, and illustrated books!  This is not the type of place where you are going to see it all on a Sunday afternoon!

Because the Louvre houses so many famous pieces of art, you can imagine that it is a very popular place to visit.  We were blessed to avoid the crowds (for the most part) due to the time of year we were in Paris, but in the summer time, lines can be long!

This section of the blog is broken up into three different parts – pictures of the outside of the Louvre, the artwork inside the Louvre, and the ceilings of the Louvre (that’s right, the ceilings!)  While photography is allowed inside the Louvre, you cannot use a flash, or put your camera on a tripod.  Therefore a few of the photos may be slightly dark, or slightly blurry.  Overall however, you should be able to get a pretty good “picture” of one of the world’s most famous museums!  To enlarge any of the thumbnails, simply double-click it!

The third photograph in this section is a picture of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, a monument built to commemorate the military victories of Napoleon.  It sits in front on the Louvre, on the east end of the Champs-Élysées, and is essentially a smaller version of the Arc de Triomphe de l’Etoile which sits on the other end of the Champs-Élysées.

Because of the number of pictures in these posts, you may need to click on the the link that reads Older Posts at the bottom-right of the post, to see the pictures of the ceilings.






Squint your eyes and you can almost imagine life at the palace in the early 1700's.

Looking out, from inside the infamous glass pyramid.



The Artwork of the Louvre

The old saying goes that a picture is worth a 1000 words.  That could not be any more true than in the Louvre!  Where I could, I have included the name of the work and the artist.  Also, because some of these paintings are so large, I've included the size of the painting so you can better understand the scope of it.


Bonaparte Crossing the Alps
By Hippolyte Delarouche, 1850, 7 ¼ feet x 9 ½ feet



Cristo en la Cruz
  By Francisco de Zurbaran, 1627

Views of Modern Rome

Venus de Milo

Tourists!


Crucificion, Virgin, SS John the Evangelist and Dominic from the Convent of San Marco
  By Fra Angelico, 1442



Early Afros!
  From the Egyptian wing.


Le Portement de Croix
  By Biagio d’Antonio, 1480


Les Deux Soeurs
  By Theodore Chasseriau


Liberty Leading the People
  By Eugene Delacroix, 1830


Madonna and Child with Angels and Saint Rose and Catherine
  By Pietro Perugino





Marriage at Cana
By Paolo Veronese, 1563, 22 ¼ feet x 32 ½ feet


Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci
Started the painting in 1504 and finished in 1518
The painting sits behind some rather thick glass, hence the glare.

Napoleon


Napoleon on the Battle Field of Eylau
By Baron Antoine Jean Gros, 1808,  15 ½ feet x 23 ½ feet


Pandemonium
By John Martin, 1841


I believe plagiarism is a French word!


Portrait de Madame Recamier
By Jacques-Louis David, 1800




The Adoration of the Shepherds
By Jusepe de Ribera, 1650

More plagiarism !


The Coronation of Napoleon
By Jacques-Louis David, 1807, 32 feet x 20 feet


The Club Footed Boy
By Jusepe de Ribera, 1642


The Raft of the Medusa
By Theodore Gericault, 1818, 16 feet x 23 ½ feet

The Ceilings of the Louvre

Not hard to believe, but in a palatial place like the Louvre, even the ceilings look good!  No “popcorn” or swirled ceilings in this place.  Most of them are painted, carved, or sculpted in such a way that they almost rival the artwork hanging on the walls.  Flash photography is prohibited in the Louvre, and you cannot use a tripod either, so some of these photos may look slightly dark or blurred.  Double-click on a photo to enlarge it.