Art, Art & More Art

The granddaddy of them all - the Louvre. 

More than 30,000 works of art. 

Thanks to Rick Steves we focused on the Denon wing with the Louvre's specialties: Greek sculpture, Italian painting and French painting. 

But don't forget this place is a Palace in and of itself, and where Louis XIV (and his predecessors) lived and governed France until he moved the show to Versailles. The original foundation dates back to the 12th century fortress of King Phillip Augustus and was significantly improved upon by Francois I in 1564 - he's the Chambord guy too! France's Revolutionary National Assembly (the same folks who brought France the guillotine) founded the museum in 1793 post Revolution. The first public museum in Europ - viola!

The controversial pyramid designed by a Chinese American, completed in 1989.

King Louis XIV guarding the entrance.

From inside the pyramid.

Here we go...

First stop - The Venus de Milo (late 2nd century B.C.)

Discovered in 1820 on the Greek island of Milos - right when Europe was going through a huge classical fad. Her pose is called "contrapposto" (counterpoise) which means she's balanced left to right - not symmetrical, but an S-curve - and she has generic, idealized Greek features. Lots of speculation about what her arms were doing.

Lots of Ceasars: Augustus, Tiberius, Domitia, Hadrid, Marcus Aurelius...

Also lots and lots of tourists taking photos with their iPads. Eye roll. 

This stone fragment decorated the exterior of the Parthenon in Athens. (The whole piece showed the Athenians crushing the Persians.)

Love this gal - The Winged Victory of Samothrace, 190 BC. Built during the Helenistic period after Alexander the Great spread Greek culture around the Mediterranean. Originally she stood (not sure exactly where) on an island hilltop to commemorate a naval victory - her clothes are windblown and wet.

The Apollo Gallery - aka the jewel room

The Regent Diamond (in the middle) -  this lead us down a Wikipedia rabit trail - crazy huge diamonds people have lived and died for. Once worn by Louis XVI and Napoleon. Only a mere 140 carats.

My birthstone is sapphire so if you're looking for something...

The Crown of Charlemagne - the only crown to escape the Revolution.

Now on to some Italian Renaissance goodies (1400-1600)

Veronese's The Marriage at Cana - this canvas is HUGE! You have to back up at least ten stops just to be able to really see it all. Can you find his very Venitian looking Jesus just right of center (red and blue)? Quite the party.

And now for some French Neoclassicism (1780-1850)

Jacques-Louis David - The Coronation of Emporer Napoleon (the one there is a copy of at Versailles). This is another HUGE one as well.

Napoleon has just crowned his wife Josephine the empress. Behind Napoleon (standing, holding the crown) is the Pope who came all the way from Rome to crown him, but Napoleon felt no one but himself was worthy of the task so he crowned himself. Also, he had stage sets built to make it look like a Roman/Greek scene but it actually took place in the Gothic Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Famous lounging lady - sorry I can't remember (or fine in my cheating book) who she is. I like her though.

And this fabulous lady with her extra vertebrae or two.

Fabulous ceilings abound.

Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People

This does not depict the the French Revolution - that's what I thought too - but rather the 1830 uprising against King Charles.

That teacher w/ her precious French school children wouldn't move so I could get a clear shot.

I almost just deleted this "random" naked guy statue but looked at my notes and its a Michaelangelo so I'll leave him.

All.The.People.

Lucky bore from Florence. Purple stone Remus/Romulus from Rome. It all comes full circle.

More Italian stuff. I do remember that the lefty is Bacchus the god of wine. Not sure about the lady and babies.

 Alright, here's to saving the best for last.

That's a big room for a tiny lady. Because of AllThePeople!

It took me a good 15 minutes to gently nudge my way up close enough to actually see her. Underwelling? Maybe. Boxed checked? Definitely. 

Who is she? 

Best we know she is Lisa del Gioncondo, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant. Leonardo brought this piece with him (and only a few others) when Francois I brought him to France. Remember Francois from the Chambord? It became his favorite and the centerpiece of the Italian masterpieces that would become the Lourve collection 300 years later. Her name comes from a contraction of the Italian for "my Lady Lisa."

Ya'll ready to move on? Me too (but not in the same day).

So Kyle really like the Lourve, but honestly I much prefer our next stop...

Musee d'Orsay
Housed in a former train station, it was saved form demolition in 1970 when somebody figured out it would be a great place to collect all the impressionist art scattered throughout the city - picking up pretty much where the Lourve leaves off (specifically 1848-1914).

Can you imagine catching a train here?

Alright, now from the art of the building to the art in the building.

Left: Famous naked lady - notice the contrapposto post? Ingres' The Source.

Right: And Degas' In a Cafe (in Montmarte)

Degas liked to take "snapshots" of life rather than posed portraits.

Millet's the Gleaners - important because it painted a real scene in a realistic way (aka realism) as opposed to impressionism.

The light/dark in this one are incredible.

Kyle loved this one.

Onto Monet! This scene was in several panels - really cool.

More from the father of Impressionism - called so because he had to paint quickly in the fading "golden hour" light so he said he merely painted impressions.

Monet's Parisian rooftops.

Can't place this one.

La Gare Saint-Lazare - the subway station we used a lot in Paris (back when it was a train station).

Vive le France!

I've always loved these impressions.

His series of the Rouen Cathedral. I was so tempted to take a little detour to Rouen when we were driving to the Loire Valley but it was a little too out of the way and we were a little too jet-lagged.

And of course scenes from the garden at Giverny (yet another day trip we'll have to make the next time).

 

Some fun close-ups of books from other Monet - the colors are awesome.

Now for some Van Gough. 

Random dude + self-portrait + other scenes

There was so much more - Manet, Renoir, Cezanne, Gauguin...but we have to stop somewhere. So we'll let Lady Liberty escort us out. 

 The Rodan Museum
aka: the one with the thinking man

Rodan actually did a bunch of incredible stuff - but...we're really only here to see one thing.
This guy. 

The Thinker (1906) - if you think you've seen it before there are 29 authorized copies at various spots in the world.

Rodan lived and worked in the mansion that now houses the museum (along with other renters like Matisse).

Side note: we recently learned that a friend who shall remain unnamed posed in the buff a la the Thinker Himself at the foot of the statue...Mind you - its in a garden - protected by shrubs, but not that protected. 

The Gates of Hell - a door that doesn't open which were meant to be in a museum that was never built, a piece he never finished. 

Based on Dante's Inferno - with a mini Thinker just below the guys on top - contemplating what's in store for them. Not exactly light and cheery. Can we go back to the Orangerie and stare at water lillies? 

Or at least some pretty flowers in the garden.

Yes, that's better.

Musee Orangerie
aka: The Water Lillies museum

This place was so nice and peaceful - partly due to the much smaller crowds, and smaller overall scale (just a few rooms) but I think it was mostly because of the giant curved canvases on giant curved white walls.

Really hard to capture the scale of these masterpieces. Monet was going blind when he made these huge canvases (6ft tall and over 50ft wide) so the scale is enormous and the details get bigger and bigger like he was zooming in.

And some detail shots - all that color!!!

Tired, happy, art lovers.