Loving the Louvre: Statues vs Paintings

 
The paintings were great. Some hung by themselves  in small rooms with dramatic lighting and others clustered by the hundreds in grand galleries lit by translucent, arched ceilings. Many of the paintings you know from art books and courses were there.

But there's just so many of them. And they're flat. And we'd already seen so many wonderful paintings at so many museums. And there were no Impressionist works because they were too radical to include in the collection.

Michelangelo's Dying Slave

So the statues win because of their monumentality, scarcity and three-dimensionality: the Winged Victory, Venus de Milo,  Michelangelo's slaves, naked Greek hunks and Assyrian monsters.

Winged Victory

When you visit the Winged Victory, look for a small glass case to her left as you face her from the staircase. It contains part of her hand and finger. Most people miss that.