louvre
the louvre was pretty darn incredible. it was my first stop in paris. i went right after i dropped my luggage off at the hostel, the first hostel i have ever stayed in! i took the metro there and got off conveniently at the louvre station.
the lobby of the louvre is chaos. i wish i had taken a moment to review the layout of the museum, but i decided to just follow the signs for the mona lisa by leonardo da vinci. i assumed (and it was correct) that i would not have the patience to deal with the crowded around mona lisa later in the visit. the route to the mona lisa is very well marked and you cannot miss it. take a look at the chaos surrounding the mona lisa! the other important painting in the room was basically ignored even though it is the large the wedding feast at cana by veronese, which dwarfs the mona lisa. the picture didn't merge as well as i would have liked, but you get the point. in the first picture below, that is the mona lisa as the tiny square in the middle. in the second picture, you can compare the size of the wedding feast at cana. i am about the same distance away from each of the paintings.
after the mona lisa, i checked out the rest of the italian paintings, which were beautiful. the grand hall they are hung in is just magnificent and is the perfect setting.
i wandered through the temporary exhibits near the italian art and saw this painting (aaand, i cannot remember its name) that felt like i had seen it before. sure enough, i had! it was on loan from the national gallery in london!
the louvre also had another exhibit that looked familiar! it was the belles heures of jean de france, duc de berry that i have seen at their original home at the cloisters as well as at the getty in los angeles!
i blew through this museum. i particularly wanted to try to see as many of the paintings as i could (for my list)! some of the paintings i saw that i particularly liked:
the outside of the museum was just as beautiful as the inside. the pyramid is a bit odd in my opinion completing juxtaposing the beautiful classical architecture with something that appears so sleek and high tech. according to wikipedia, though, it was added to give light to the new and improved lobby. if the old lobby was any worse than the current one, i could see how an improvement was required! here are a few pictures of what i could discern from the inside of the outside:
the louvre was very challenging to switch from the wing-to-wing and occasionally from floor-to-floor. certain installations and repairs blocked the typical passageways, which made traveling around the museum even more difficult. i did appreciate that the museum did seem to put around as many chairs as possible around to ease tired feet!
the louvre is the closest museum i have ever seen to the met. with its combination of types of art and range of eras, it rivals the met. it rivals the difficulty of getting around and how vast the collections (and the time to review them fully) of the met as well. i was also able to make a huge jump in the number of the '1001 paintings' list! the louvre had over 20 of the paintings in it!
time in museum: 2 hrs
times visited: 1
overall: A
the lobby of the louvre is chaos. i wish i had taken a moment to review the layout of the museum, but i decided to just follow the signs for the mona lisa by leonardo da vinci. i assumed (and it was correct) that i would not have the patience to deal with the crowded around mona lisa later in the visit. the route to the mona lisa is very well marked and you cannot miss it. take a look at the chaos surrounding the mona lisa! the other important painting in the room was basically ignored even though it is the large the wedding feast at cana by veronese, which dwarfs the mona lisa. the picture didn't merge as well as i would have liked, but you get the point. in the first picture below, that is the mona lisa as the tiny square in the middle. in the second picture, you can compare the size of the wedding feast at cana. i am about the same distance away from each of the paintings.
i wandered through the temporary exhibits near the italian art and saw this painting (aaand, i cannot remember its name) that felt like i had seen it before. sure enough, i had! it was on loan from the national gallery in london!
the louvre also had another exhibit that looked familiar! it was the belles heures of jean de france, duc de berry that i have seen at their original home at the cloisters as well as at the getty in los angeles!
i blew through this museum. i particularly wanted to try to see as many of the paintings as i could (for my list)! some of the paintings i saw that i particularly liked:
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| i loved the tiger fur on top of the horse |
 |
| i am pretty sure that my harpist of a sister has the exact same picture! glad to see that some things have not changed! |
 |
| just sweet and pretty |
the outside of the museum was just as beautiful as the inside. the pyramid is a bit odd in my opinion completing juxtaposing the beautiful classical architecture with something that appears so sleek and high tech. according to wikipedia, though, it was added to give light to the new and improved lobby. if the old lobby was any worse than the current one, i could see how an improvement was required! here are a few pictures of what i could discern from the inside of the outside:
the louvre was very challenging to switch from the wing-to-wing and occasionally from floor-to-floor. certain installations and repairs blocked the typical passageways, which made traveling around the museum even more difficult. i did appreciate that the museum did seem to put around as many chairs as possible around to ease tired feet!
the louvre is the closest museum i have ever seen to the met. with its combination of types of art and range of eras, it rivals the met. it rivals the difficulty of getting around and how vast the collections (and the time to review them fully) of the met as well. i was also able to make a huge jump in the number of the '1001 paintings' list! the louvre had over 20 of the paintings in it!
time in museum: 2 hrs
times visited: 1
overall: A
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