Musée du Louvre (7/10/2016)

Sunday, July 10, 2016 (continued)
After checking in at the Hotel Flor Rivoli, it started to sprinkle rain, so we changed our plans and went to the Musée du Louvre. The premier art museum of France, it is said it would take at least three months to see everything. We had three hours! The Louvre generally covers art from the ancient to 1848.

Jérôme showed us this photo of when the artist JR covered the Pyramid
with a photo of Le Louvre, then painted himself and a fellow artist,
Liu Bolin of China, so that they too disappeared with the Pyramid;
can you see the two artists?

Pyramide du Louvre/Louvre Pyramid (1989)
designed by I M Pei as the new entrance to the museum

We headed for the Denon Wing, went through the Gallery of Statues, and reached the Daru Stairs.

Winged Victory of Samothrace (c. 190 BCE, discovered in 1863)
once stood on the prow of a ship on a hillside monument on the Greek
island of Samothrace, commemorating a naval battle; the folds of the skirt
show the effect of the wind: a masterpiece of Hellenic sculpture (KSS)

Winged Victory's hand was discovered in 1950 (KSS)

The plaque at the base of the dome explains that
the Revolutionary National Assembly founded the
museum in 1792, after wresting the palace from
royalty, and using it to display the royal collection and
other works of art confiscated from the noble class (KSS)

Galerie d'Apollon/Apollo Gallery really shows
that this was once home to French royalty (KSS)

A new addition to the Crown Jewels is the set
that once belonged to Empress Marie-Louise,
Napoléon's 2nd wife; purchased in 2004 (KSS)

The Crown Jewels including the crown worn by Charlemagne
and Louis XV, and in the center is the 140-carat Regent Diamond
that was once part of the crowns of Louis XV, XVI, and Napoléon,
then Louis XVIII, Charles X, and Napoléon III (KSS)

Salle 1: Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts,
(c. 1484) fresco by Sandro Botticelli (KSS)

Salle 3: Medieval World with Virgin & Child in
Majesty Surrounded by Six Angels (c. 1280)
by Cimabue of Florence, shows iconic faces,
stiff poses, and lack of perspective (KSS)

St Francis of Assisi Receives the Stigmata
(c. 1295-1300) by Giotto shows less stiff
figures and beginning perspective (KSS)

Some birds are shown in flight to show movement (KSS)

Coronation of the Virgin (c. 1430-1432) by Fra Angelico,
shows linear perspective (KSS)

Battle of San Romano (c. 1435) by Uccello, shows more
movement; the armor was once covered with gilt silver (KSS)

Grand Gallery of Italian Renaissance (KSS)

La belle ferronnière/Beautiful Metal Band
(c. 1495-1499) attributed to Leonardo da Vinci (KSS)

Virgin of the Rocks (c. 1483-1486) by
Leonardo da Vinci depicting the Christ Child
bestowing a blessing on John the Baptist, with
the Virgin Mary and the archangel Gabriel pointing (KSS)

Diana the Huntress (1880), a copy of a Roman
classical statue made for the mistress of Henry II,
Diane de Poitiers (KSS)

Diana sculpture detail (KSS)

Salle 8: Self-portrait with a Friend (c 1518) Raphael

La belle Jardinière (c. 1570) by Raphael,
is painted in a balanced triangle with a contropposto
(rotated) Christ, and the Greek ideal of beauty (KSS) 

Allegorical Heads of Autumn and Spring
(c. 1600-1620) by Giuseppe Arcimboldi (KSS)

Allegorical Heads of Winter and Summer
(c. 1600-1620) by Giuseppe Arcimboldi,
are unique in style (KSS)

Detail from Fishing (c. 1585-1588) by Annibale Carracci

Detail from the Abduction of Helen (1631) by Guido Reni (KSS)

A peek out the window of the Louvre Museum (KSS)

Salle 13: crowded with paintings (KSS)

Salle 14: Teatro Argentina (1647) by Giovanni Pannini

Gallery ceiling (KSS)

Salle 26: Young Beggar (c. 1645-1650) by
Bartolomé Estebán Murillo (KSS)

St Bonaventure Lying in State (c. 1629)
Francisco de Zurbaráns

Salle 6: Mona Lisa and friends (KSS)

Salle 7: Woman with Mirror (1512-1515) by Titiano (KSS)

Salle 75: The Coronation of Napoléon (1806-1807) by
Jacques-Louis David in French Neoclassism,
where Greek and Roman details were added to Notre Dame

Napoléon crowns himself!

Madame Juliet Récamier (1800) by David; by dressing her
in classical style, he influenced fashion in Paris

La Grand Odalisque (1814) by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres;
he is considered to have painted Venus de Milo's backside (KSS)

Salle 76: Gift shop (KSS)

Salle 77: Detail from Napoléon on the Battlefield of Eylau (1808) by
Antoine-Jean Gros; French Romanticism (KSS)

The Wreck of the Medusa (1819) by Théodore Géricault,
stresses motion and emotion of shipwreck survivors of 12 days
spotting a ship on the horizon (KSS)

La Liberté Guidant le Peuple/Liberty Leads the People (1831)
by Eugène Delacroix, using only red, white, and blue paints

Several works of art we wanted to see were missing in action. It used to be they were being restored, but more often now they are traveling to exhibitions.

Gallery detail (KSS)

Ground Floor Salle 4: The Rebellious Slave
(1513-1515) by Michelangelo, with major
contropposto/rotation (KSS)

The Dying Slave (1513-1515) by Michelangelo,
his most sensual nude (KSS)

Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss (c. 1797) by Antonio Canova (KSS)

The Nymph and the Scorpion (c. 1845) by Lorenzo Bartolini (KSS)

Part of the lower ground floor was closed because of the recent flooding.

Greek female figures (c. 2500 BCE)

Lady of Auxerre (c. 640-630 BCE),
probably from Crete (KSS)

Greek vase? (KSS)

Salle 16: Venus de Milo (late 2C BCE,
discovered in 1820 on the Greek island of Melos),
shows contropposto/rotation and is made from
two pieces of stone, a rare Greek original (KSS)

Plumber Venus

Everywoman idealized face

Frieze from the Parthenon (mid 5C BCE) (KSS)

Salle 17: Sleeping Hermaphrodite (found 1608 near the Baths of
Diocletian in Rome), with bed by Bernini (KSS);
we assume we don't have to show you the other side...

Boy Strangling Goose (500-530 CE),
Roman copy of Greek original (KSS)

Caryatides (1550) by Jean Goujon, part of the Louvre palace (KSS)

Taniko with Greek funerary Vase of Pergamon (2C BCE) (KSS)

Salle 12: Athena or Pallas of Velletri (c. 1C CE, discovered
1797 in Velletri, Italy), a Roman copy of a Greek original

Salle 1: The Great Sphinx of Tanis (found 1825) (KSS)

By now they were making announcements that the museum was closing, so we headed towards the exit, which took us through the Sully Wing.

The remains of the fortress of Philippe-Auguste,
the first incarnation of Le Louvre palace

From the Louvre, we headed to the Carrousel du Louvre, an underground shopping mall!

The Inverted Pyramid brings in light

We found the  sidewalk Café de l'Epoque to have a light dinner.

Portugal soccer supporters (KSS)

Kent and Tamiko at the café
(photo by a friendly Parisian)

Five-cheese plate

Croque Monsieur (toasted cheese on bread) and a salad

Back at the hotel, which did not have air-conditioning, it was noisy with the window open, especially because tonight was the final of the European Soccer Championship, with France vs. Portugal. There was constant cheering and chanting, but things began to quiet down, and then the crowd at the bar below us politely clapped. Obviously France had lost, but enough Portugal fans were in town for lots of screaming and horn honking into the early morning.
Next: Place de la Concorde & Musée de l'Orangerie.