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.

Loving the Louvre: Mona vs Jesus

Introducing the Mona Lisa:

• It is NOT the size of a postage stamp. The picture measures about 20-inches wide by 30-inches high -- about the size of an average portrait. However, it was dwarfed by the free-standing wall on which it hung by itself. It's also guarded by a glass case, a permanent wooden barrier about two feet away and a temporary stanchion rope that is an additional six-to-ten feet away. Add to that about three rows of people, and what you see is much smaller than its press. Just like a man.
• Why do the eyes follow you wherever you go? Because all portraits do that. It's your eyes that are following its eyes, and not vice-versa.
• The painting is dark, just like all of Leonardo's paintings. You can't really make out any of his revolutionary improvements: the hazy, three-dimensional background; the slight veil over her head; the smoothness of her lower face as it melts into the slight smile. You can see all this only in close-up pictures on the Internet.

Introducing Jesus:

• People spend far too much time pretending to admire the Mona Lisa while ignoring the dozens of other paintings in the large gallery. The most impressive of these is the Marriage at Cana, on the opposite wall by Veronese, painted in 1563, about 50 years after the Mona Lisa.
• For those unfamiliar with Christian theology, this depicts Christ living it up at a post-wedding party where the hosts ran out of food. He took the remaining bread and fish, and turned it into a feast for all the guests.
• How big is this painting? The foreground figures are life-size.
• You can spend hours admiring every detail. Check out the colorful Renaissance drag, the 120 or so figures, the pets, the food, the classical architecture and the musicians. Veronese himself is fiddling on the left, while Titian is on base.
• While not as bright in real life as in this picture, the work is much more colorful than the Mona Lisa. And you can get close enough to lick the wine pouring off the jar in the lower right.

Loving the Louvre: Introduction

The glass pyramid leads into an underground entrance.

November 4: A few statistics about the Louvre from the GoParoo Travel Guide - 10 miles of galleries, 30,000 of 380,000 works of art on display, 645,000 square feet of exhibition space, four floors of corridors that aren't always logically arranged and 11 centuries of art.

And still people try to see it all in one day. Madness.

It's far better to spend two hours to tour the museum's highlights. Travel books of Paris typically have them. We used the one by Rick Steves. His Paris book is available under My Favorites in the right column. Then you can spend the next few days concentrating on individual galleries of interest. The Louvre website boasts several resources for exploring galleries virtually, setting up thematic tours and creating a list of favorite artworks.

At the very least, you need to go to the website to find out when galleries are open. Because the museum is so big, they do not have the staff to guard every room. So only particular galleries are open on particular nights. In our case, we visited Wednesday night (their late nights are generally quiet) to view biggies from the French, Italian, Dutch and Flemish galleries, before going on our highlights tour on Thursday, and finishing up with leftover works today (Sunday).

Despite it being a rainy day during the low season, today revealed the longest line ever for ticket buying. I'm estimating at least one or two hours to buy tickets under the pyramid. And then another 30-minute to one-hour line to get through security.

Our Museum Pass not only allowed us to skip all these lines but saved money for such multi-day excursions. Those waiting patiently in the rain could've avoided the wait by visiting the Louvre website to buy tickets, or by using the automated ticket machine at the Le Carrousel du Louvre, a mall right under the museum.

The food court at the mall is also the best place for lunch. And yes, they have a McDonald's as well as the most beautifully-designed Apple Store that I've seen, with a transparent spiral staircase joining two levels.

Apple Store at the mall under the Louvre