My trip to Western Europe: Paris, Louvre
2023-05-16
Few people who go to Paris don't visit Louvre. Because it is not only a large-scale imperial palace, but also ruling center of Europe at a certain period, and, more importantly, it is a museum with richest cultural relics and largest artistic treasures in Europe.
The "final" of this trip to Italy, Switzerland and France is a visit to Louvre.
The Louvre is one of three largest museums in world. This is an old building with a long history.
The forerunner of Louvre was a castle built by King Auguste of France in 12th century. In second half of 14th century, Charles V turned it into a royal palace, and 50 French kings lived here.
During French Revolution, National Assembly ordered it to be turned into a museum. The collection of cultural relics began in 16th century, and today there are about 400,000 of them.
We arrived at underground parking of Louvre on time, at nine o'clock, followed guide to ticket office, and there were many tourists.
People lined up to get in in an organized manner, but it wasn't crowded.
Tourists queue to enter
An inverted glass pyramid is visible in lobby on -1 floor below.
The main entrance to Louvre is a glass pyramid designed by famous Chinese architect I.M. Drink in 1980s.
With this pyramid, visitors can go directly from here to their favorite exhibition halls, instead of going through other exhibition halls to go to one exhibition hall in past, and the visiting route is more reasonable.
The inverted pyramid on floor F1 has same proportions as above.
At first, Parisians categorically opposed such a plan. According to memoirs of I. M. Pei, they argued for about two years.
To convince everyone, I.M. Pei did not hesitate to build a 1:1 aspect ratio model in front of Louvre and invited 60,000 Parisians to visit and vote to express their opinion, and finally won support of majority.
Now it has become a famous scenic spot in Paris.
Before issuing ticket, guide repeatedly emphasized that Louvre is very large and has more than 400,000 works of art in its collection. focus is on three main treasures of city: "Venus de Milo", "Mona Lisa" and "Victory".
Once we got our tickets, we grabbed our guide map and trotted all way to showroom due to time constraints.
In front of exhibition hall, one after another, exquisite human statues and works of art stand right in front of our eyes, making people dizzy and admiring!
When we entered third floor, we first saw "Statue of Goddess of Victory", one of "Three Treasures of City Palace".
With outstretched arms, she stands heroically at bow of boat, riding wind and waves, but she has no head and no arms. I have not had an impression of this goddess before. I don’t know where she is and where is beauty?
According to investigation, statue was created around 200 BC. e. to commemorate victory in a naval battle.
At first, statue stood on a rock by sea, facing endless sea. In 1863, statue was found on island of Samochulak. Although it does not have a head and arms, spread wings and smooth lines are more noticeable.
The Goddess of Victory guides fleet in wind and waves forward at bow, which not only shows background of naval battle, but also expresses theme of victory.
I took a closer look, and I don’t understand anything else. Only carving lightness and grace of clothes with hard and cold texture of stone is enough to show mastery of author, not to mention fact that this is a work of BC!
The goddess spread her wings and flew through time for more than two thousand years, as if bringing joy of victory to everyone!
Using modern popular expressions, this sculpture is definitely full of positive energy that makes me feel good after seeing it.
Although exhibition hall is magnificent, skillfully carved and colorful, but for me, a layman in art, and annotations are all in English, time is short and there is no time to evaluate. shutter on go, leaving time for later. Learn to appreciate.
You can't even take a photo, hundreds of thousands of pieces... how many can you take! According to rules of headings, some photos cannot be posted, because. many of art statues are naked and can only be placed with clothing covering them.
We followed signs to find treasure of City Palace II: da Vinci's immortal masterpiece Mona Lisa, an oil painting exhibition hall.
Among all paintings, most outstanding and attention-grabbing, of course, is immortal masterpiece "Mona Lisa", created by Leonardo da Vinci in 1503.
"Mona Lisa" is located in hall in middle of second floor of Louvre. The size of painting is only 77x53 cm, which is very small compared to huge paintings on surrounding walls, but occupies a separate side wall to protect Mona Lisa oil painting, outside of painting is covered with anti-ultraviolet glass. Although photographing effect will not be good, painting oil is still crowded with visitors with cameras .
Mona Lisa is majestic and beautiful, with a thin veil thrown over curly hair, in luxurious clothes, with delicate lace embroidered on her chest, and with naturally folded arms. She had a deep and subtle smile on her face that at times made people feel tender and intoxicating.
The Mona Lisa, also known as The Eternal Smile, is first work in history of European painting to focus on psychological description. On screen, Mona Lisa is majestic and beautiful, with a deep and gentle smile on her face. In front of this picture, from whatever angle you look at it, its gentle eyes are always looking at you.
The figure in painting is said to be banker's wife. Then banker asked da Vinci to paint a portrait of his wife. After da Vinci finished painting, he realized that he could not do without it, so he painted another one and gave it to banker, who kept this painting for his collection.
In 1575, da Vinci lived in France at invitation of French King Francis I. After da Vinci's death, painting remained in France and became one of most important collections of Louvre.
I used to see many reproductions of this famous painting, but now I see real face and feel indescribable delight and good luck in my heart.
After admiring Mona Lisa, we walked, looked and took pictures in exhibition hall of painting.
There are so many exquisite works of art that people are overwhelmed and shocked, constantly affecting my vision.
Wedding in Cana
From opposite side of Mona Lisa, entire wall of exhibition hall is completely occupied by a huge oil painting (I found out when I checked it back) "The Wedding at Cana". In terms of area, this painting is probably largest oil painting in Louvre.
This picture is a biblical story about Jesus. There are many characters and live scenes. It was painted for dining room of a monastery in Venice. The costumes of characters are fully consistent with customs of Venice at that time. time. The painter is equivalent to depicting realistic characters and secular life on feast of Holy Family.
I don't have time to carefully evaluate it, so I can only take pictures and slowly evaluate. Below are some photos taken with him.
Copy
Our attention was drawn to copyist in room, and opportunity and honor to be able to copy original work of masters in this huge art room.
Being in this art palace, her beautiful figure and serious demeanor are also like an artistic statue, extremely beautiful.
I discreetly photographed her as a keepsake. I wish her best of luck!
Secretly take a picture with future artist.
From time to time, looking up to see ceiling of hall is also a magnificent and magnificent picture, whole hall is not too big to be described as magnificence.
Time passes, but Venus, one of treasures of palace, was never visited. 0 floor.
The goddess Venus in hearts of people of world is alone in exhibition hall, standing high on a marble foundation, her beautiful aura is enough to captivate hearts of world.
“Venus with a broken arm” is a world-famous statue of goddess of youth and beauty. , height 204 cm. According to legend, it was carved by Alexander of Ancient Greece in period from 150 to 50 BC.
His statue was discovered in February 1820 next to an ancient tomb on Greek island of Milos in Aegean Sea. This is a marble sculpture with a broken arm. This is a full-length semi-nude portrait, with a beautiful face and a slender figure. The clothes have slipped down to thigh, and right arm is incomplete. It still shows unique curvaceous beauty of women, looking dignified and charming.
According to investigation, "Venus with a Broken Arm" is also known as "Aphrodite de Milo". In Greek mythology, Aphrodite is goddess of love and beauty. In Roman mythology, she is called Venus. Xi, responsible for human love, marriage, fertility, growth and reproduction of all animals and plants, originated in sea and is famous for its beauty.
It is said that after she was born in foam of sea, she ended up on Mount Olympus, where gods were attracted by her beauty and looked after her one by one.
After Zeus rejected her, he married her off to ugly and lame god of fire, Hephaestus, but she fell in love with Ares, god of war, and gave birth to little god of love, Eros.
After purchasing heavy gold in France, it was exhibited in special exhibition hall of Louvre, which shocked world with its incomparable charm. A symbol of love and beauty.
Teachers and students lecture at Louvre
From time to time in exhibition hall, I saw a teacher leading students to teach art knowledge in hall. The children did not disturb tourists coming and going, and listened carefully to teacher's story.
Teachers and students lecture at Louvre
Encountering thousands of years old works of art, listening to teacher's eloquent lectures, they breathe in this atmosphere atmosphere of art, and since childhood they have been deeply rooted in soil of art.
The Louvre is an art palace with an extremely rich content and a collection of over 400,000 items. We just did a short tour and had a short tour. Although we are sorry, there is nothing we can do.
However, world-famous Three Treasures of City Palace is worth appreciating!
Street view of Paris
On way back to your hotel, take a photo of a street scene in Paris.
Street view of Paris
On streets of foreign countries, we often see local residents who go out for a walk with their dogs, but without exception, they all lead dogs on a leash. It is estimated that every country has rules for walking dogs on a leash, and locals follow rules and keep dogs in a civilized manner.
Think of domestic dog breeding, which contrasts sharply with dogs running free without leashes and defecating all over place.
Street view of Paris
Street view of Paris
Night falls, Paris gradually shrouds night, a busy day comes to an end, but we are still immersed in excitement of visiting the Louvre.
Having taken a few photos in a hurry, I will enjoy them when I have nothing to do. Farewell, Palace of Arts - Louvre!