2023-05-16
It is not enough to visit Louvre in one day. As the first of four largest museums in world, Louvre has collected hundreds of thousands of cultural relics and treasures from all over world. of world. A few of them. Thousands of rare treasures are scattered around corners of 198 exhibition halls of Louvre. Visiting Louvre is like wandering through a forest full of rare treasures that will make you dazed and forget to come back.
Glass pyramid at entrance to Louvre
When visiting Louvre, in addition to those treasures that are on permanent display, it is up to you to encounter other treasures. On Sunday (Monday and Wednesday) you can see only a third of treasures of Louvre. Most of collections in Louvre will inevitably be sealed for a long time, sorry for us tourists, but treasures themselves, perhaps for them this is most comfortable and indisputable way of existence.
To appreciate rare treasures of Louvre, let's start with Three Treasures of Louvre.
Mona Lisa
To talk about this painting, we must first briefly talk about past and present of Louvre. In France in fifteenth century, Louvre was originally a military fortress. In photo below, part of remains of 15th-century military installations that are still preserved underground in Louvre.
The Louvre was only a military facility in fifteenth century
The change in status of Louvre was facilitated by French King Francis I, a warrior who survived many battles, but also a monarch, a protector of culture and a love of art. At that time, he was strongly influenced by Renaissance trend and decided to finance reconstruction of Louvre. Since then, Louvre has evolved from a military fortress into a royal palace and a place to collect precious cultural relics and artistic treasures. . After renovation of Louvre, François I invited Leonardo da Vinci from Italy to Paris, who was no longer painting in his old age, and masterpiece that da Vinci brought was this Mona Lisa masterpiece. This painting was first work in royal collection of Louvre.
Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa smile, magic of this world famous smile is that different people will taste it differently. With a smile and a hundred emotions, "Mona Lisa" became a pioneer in creating a painting by interacting with viewer through paintings. King Francis I, who was very obsessed with this painting, also asked artist to create his own in same way. The self-portrait, pose and eyes of Francis I in picture are somewhat similar to those of Mona Lisa.
No matter what angle you're standing, Mona Lisa can always look at you
Venus with a broken arm
Venus with a broken arm (Ancient Greece)
This world famous sculpture was discovered in ancient Greece in first century BC. Author unknown. The sculpture depicts majestic and beautiful female pose of Venus, goddess of love and beauty. The sculptors of that time created many sculptures based on beauty of Venus, but Venus with Broken Arms is most beautiful recognized today. It took a lot of human resources to get this superb sculpture to Louvre. It is said that in order to move this statue from Ancient Greece back to Louvre, France did not hesitate to oppose Greek government and use warships for transportation. a broken arm at Louvre Venus was safely flown back to France.
In addition to this Venus with a broken arm, Louvre also houses statues of Venus with "healthy limbs". Statue of Venus.
Venus with "healthy limbs", discovered in ancient Rome in first century
Statue of Victory
Statue of Victory
The figure of this statue is goddess Nigi, symbolizing victory, daughter of titan Pallas and Styx in ancient Greek legend, and her counterpart in ancient Roman legend is goddess Victoria. In statue, goddess is majestic and her fabulous robes are elegant, and her two strong wings fly backwards, as if proclaiming some supreme passion and fearless spirit of forward movement, implying that when goddess arrives, she will be day of victory.
The author of this sculpture has not yet been identified. Like Venus with a broken arm, she is also an artistic treasure full of regrets. The head, arms and right wing of Statue of Victory were damaged by earthquake, so it is now on display. The right wing is a plaster imitation of left wing.
Canaanian wedding
Oil painting: Canaanite wedding
The Louvre houses countless pinnacle paintings by top artists, and this gigantic oil painting, The Wedding of Canaan, is best of them all. This picture is too big. She occupies a large wall in Louvre. At time, to take a panoramic shot of an oil painting, it was impossible to take care of some of most striking and meaningful details of that oil painting. , This is precisely most exciting part of this painting. If you are in Louvre, please take a close look at various expressions and behavior of everyone present at banquet in oil painting, as well as calmness and relief of Jesus and in middle of Virgin...
The origin of this painting is also worth mentioning. During time of Napoleon, France brought back from Italy thousands of precious works of art and cultural relics, including this originally St. houses of convent of Maggiore.Later French dynasty changed and these looted cultural relics had to be returned to Italy.Of this batch of cultural relics, France left only this "Canaan wedding".The public reason is that painting is too large to be transported, and there are rumors in market that France has made great sacrifices to preserve this treasure.
There are also many giant oil paintings that are priceless in Louvre. The most famous of these is "Napoleon I and Empress Josephine" by David, first painter of Napoleon's royal family and most controversial artist at time. time. Coronation" and oil painting "The Raft of Medusa", which vividly reflects various performances of people in face of death during shipwreck of Medusa, etc. ., come visit When you are in Louvre, these are amazing paintings that are definitely worth looking for and carefully savoring.
Coronation of Napoleon I and Empress Josephine
Dying slaves and bonded slaves
This is work of Three Renaissance Michelangelos (the other two are Da Vinci and Raphael). The work of Italian sculptor Michelangelo is rarely distributed outside of Italy. The Louvre can collect these two sculptures by Michelangelo, which is also a merit of King Francis I of France. The Italian church received two sculptures by Michelangelo. Two sculptures, The Dying Slave and The Bound Slave, are said to have originally been intended to decorate Pope's tomb in Italy.
Michelangelo: The Dying Slave
Michelangelo: The Bound Slave
Enos teasing a centaur
Enos teasing a centaur
I guess you don't know who Ernos is, but if you call him Cupid, you'll immediately smile. Passing by this time, I just walked around sculpture several times, and I was very attracted by unique concept and perfect shape of sculpture. The cute and mischievous look of Cupid on horseback and helpless pleading face of a strong centaur. expressions contrast sharply, which makes one admire deep skill of this sculptor.
Sleeping Haile Mafdit
Sleeping Hellmafdite
Helmaphdite is a beautiful male god in ancient Greek mythology. Because he rejected love and desire for water fairy, Zeus, main god, united him and water fairy into one. The special became a hermaphrodite fairy. This is a very characteristic sculpture. You can walk around sculpture several times as you pass by. You will find that feminine features of this sculpture are very obvious, but masculine features on other side are also very clear. Sculptures The attraction of this sculpture lies in fact that it embodies beauty of femininity and majesty on both sides.
Other side of sculpture
Column Hall
Goddess Pillar
This is a group of large-scale sculptures at entrance to exhibition hall of Louvre "Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece" by famous French Renaissance sculptor Jean Goujon. Due to fact that sculpture is too large, pictures may not look good, but when you walk by, especially when you look at goddess and see her calm and elegant eyes, you will have an unparalleled visual beauty, so this longing is thus expected. .
Sarcophagus of Ramses III
I've always been obsessed with ancient Egyptian culture, so I spend most of my time visiting Museum of Egyptian Art in Louvre.
This sarcophagus is in Museum of Ancient Egyptian Art in Louvre. This is sarcophagus of Pharaoh Ramses III, who was killed by a queen in 12th century BC Seated goddess with wings The goddess of motherly love Aisida corresponds to her seated goddess, on other side of coffin is her sister, goddess Naphthys. This drawing shows Ramses III's ideal of eternal life coexisting with gods. The content of pattern and text around sarcophagus They are all passages from Book of Dead, Book of Secret Rooms, and Book of Hell, basically telling story of sun god defeating evil and darkness in order to gain daytime rebirth.
Sarcophagus of Ramses III
The "Book of Dead", often found in the tombs and sarcophagi of ancient Egyptian pharaohs
The coffin of pharaoh is on display in Egyptian Pavilion of Louvre
There are too many exhibits in Louvre, and it is absolutely impossible to express all connotations of Louvre in one travelogue. My point visit, based on popularity of cultural relics and personal preferences, is more like being in an ocean of treasures. At best, these treasures can only be considered as a drop in ocean in Louvre collection.
The memories are not over yet, I hope I can visit old place again in future, and I will definitely present you with another, more detailed and more shocking story about Louvre treasures. If you can't say goodbye to Louvre, let's end today's travelogue with a set of Louvre rare treasure maps.
Squat statue of Aphrodite
The famous painting "Liberty Leading People" by famous French painter Delacroix of the 19th century
Wood painting: Madonna and Child
Hold card and look carefully one by one
Nice
Ancient Greek sculpture: Macias during execution
Statue of Sphinx (Sphinx) over 4000 years ago
Ancient Greece: goddess Athena wearing a hat