A day at the Louvre. We spent the day exploring the Denon Wing of the Louvre, home to the Louvre's amazing collection of Italian painting; Italian, Greek and Roman sculpture; and large format French paintings. While massive crowds invaded as the day wore on, we did hustle in to see the Mona Lisa before the hoards enveloped her. She is small and subtle so it is ironic that she generates gargantuan attention. Nearby are four other da Vinci's that deserve as much attention but are often overlooked, such as The Virgin and Infant with St. Anne shown here. The large format French paintings include the acclaimed works of neoclassicist Jacque Louis David, represented here by the Coronation of Napoleon (he invited the Pope to do the honors and then decided to crown himself, humble guy that he was), and Oath of the Horatii. The size of these paintings is amazing to those of us who learned about them from illustrations in books or slides projected on a wall. I like to include people to show scale so you can get some idea of this. These were in effect the "blockbuster movies" of their time, created by the artist with the help of assistants in his studio. Not that different from Spielberg if you will.
Sometimes the smallest things are easy to overlook, like the Egyptian gold pendant above.
Tomorrow we head to the Richileu and Sully wings of the Louvre to study the history of French painting and Northern European painting. We'll see a whole room full of Rubens, the Flemish Baroque painter, and compare with Poussin, the French Baroque painter. Also a room full of Rembrandts and two exquisite Vermeer's, as well as the history of French sculpture.
au revoir!
Mick Luehrman
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