How do I fit the entire Louvre into one post? What's even funnier is how did I fit visiting the entire Louvre into 4 hours :) Craig would have hated me had he been along for this ride, but at least I got to see everything that was open that day. My feet were very sore at the end and I really didn't spend enough time admiring the paintings (they were on the top floor and the later part of my tour, so I was tired).
Oh the iconic entrance! Actually, I was kind of lost when I got here because I couldn't find the pyramid. It turns out that I had come in the other side and just saw the courtyard (behind me in this picture). Don't get me wrong, the courtyard was cool too, it was just that when I got to this point I knew I was at the Louvre.
So, to get into the Louvre, you actually walk into that glass pyramid and come down some escalators (or that cool pneumatic elavator you see here). Here is where you can buy your tickets (which are good all day, whether you leave or not) and the entrances to the 3 wings of the Louvre (Richlieu, Sully, and Denton I believe). Each section has different things in it, and there are 4 floors total that make sort of a capital A shape. At this point you're in the lower right leg of the A.
Oh how I love statues. This is a picture of one of their hallways. They've just put statuary everywhere. And the building itself is really beautiful as well.
Here we have the Venus de Milo.
They also have some non European/Greek/Roman things to show here too. There are galleries for Egyptian stuff ...
Babylonian stuff ...
Even the actual Code of Hammurabi. This is soo cool! I remember learning about this in middle school. I didn't realize that the actual code was still around. I was very excited when I saw this on the map, I would have missed it for sure if they hadn't written down it was here.
They had a whole wing reserved for two French sculptors (I can't remember their names right now, but they were named on the map). Did I mention I really liked all the sculptures?
This was one of my favorite pieces (the other was a painting). The girl just seems so sad. Her eyes caught mine from across the room, I was drawn to her. I've never had a sculpture affect me like this before. They've always seemed cool, but this was different. I really felt for the girl and wasn't just impressed by the skill of the artist.
Sculpture, sculpture, and more sculpture.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is the only marble sculpture I've ever seen of someone wearing armor. Maybe there are some of people on horses, but of just the person?
Even the building itself is art. This is the ceiling of the stairs going from the second to first floors.
This is what I would call, the warden's office. It has paintings of all the people who ran the Louvre (I think). It was just really ostentatiously decorated. I love the ceiling.
The famous Nike of Samothrace. Thank you Art-History class and teacher (who's name I forget right now :( )
A picture of DaVinci's painting of the Madonna on the Rocks. It's Mary along with Jesus, Elizabeth, and John (I think).
Then there's all the paintings housed here. This is where I probably was going way too fast for my own good. I did at least glance at all of the paintings, but there's no way I really looked at any of them. I did notice a few groups of people sitting for hours with a guide in front of a single painting (at least they were there when I passed the first time and when I came back again an hour or so later). I don't think I could ever do that. The paintings were all very nice though.
And the piece-de-resistance... le Jaconde (or the Mona-Lisa as we call it). I was very surprised how many people were there on a cold saturday afternoon (it was like 35 degrees outside) in November to see this. Apparently it's always at least this busy. I'd hate to see what it was like in the middle of high season.
I did get another picture of the painting itself, but it didn't come out very well as I had to take it over the heads of 20 other people. I think it would be nice to come see this one after everything was closed and I could look at it all by myself.
Just another random ceiling in some other corner of the Louvre. Why don't we decorate ceilings anymore?
Raphael's painting of Madonna, Jesus, and John again. Didn't know why I was attracted to this one at first, until I realized it was Raphael's. I must have studied it in high school.
This was my other favorite thing at the Louvre. I think it's the first time I've seen an old painting where I was actually attracted to the girl in the painting. Usually I'm distracted by who painted it, or what the historical significance of the period was. But with this one, it was just "wow, she's cute". I wonder if this is what artists are really going for when they paint something. Not that you appreciate their work, but that you feel something from it.
Buh-bye Louvre! I know that I probably missed a whole lot of the experience by rushing through it, but I'm really glad I can now say that I've seen the entire Louvre. If I hadn't, I'd always be wondering what was it that I had missed. Now at least I have a good overview of what's going on there.
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