Mona Lisa must’ve had the highway blues; you can tell by the way she smiles.
—Bob Dylan
The day after we arrived, we visited the Louvre briefly to buy “Amis du Louvre” passes that would allow us unlimited access to the museum and also discounted admission to several other museums in Paris. We spent some time getting oriented to the antiquities collections. We had lunch in a cafe on the Rue de Rivoli, and we observed scores of police vehicles heading west towards the Champs-Élysées in preparation for the ninth weekend of “Yellow Vest” protest marches.
If you haven’t seen it, it is difficult to imagine the size and grandeur of the Louvre, both inside and out. In the middle ages it was a fortress, and later Louis XIV enlarged it and it served as his royal place. After the French revolution of 1789, it was converted to an art museum. It’s vast galleries contain thousands of works of art from the dawn of western civilization to the 19th century, including famous works like the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. You couldn’t see it all in a day, a week, or even a month—the breath and depth of the collections are impressive.
In addition to paintings and sculpture, the museum has collections that include ceramics, jewelry, and furniture. The French crown jewels are on display. I got a picture of a lovely diamond and emerald necklace with matching earrings.
The building itself is an interesting study. In its role as a palace, it was lavishly decorated, and many of the rooms formerly served as salons and other meeting places for the king and his court.
Antiquities
We spent considerable time with the antiquities collections, especially Stephanie, who focused on the Mesopotamian antiquities. The museum displays extensive collections of Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman antiquities. On our last day in the Louvre, we devoted considerable time to the Egyptians.
The oldest work on display at the Louvre is this 9,000 year old sculpture, discovered in Jordan. Ain Ghazal (Spring of the Gazelles) was a city in the ancient Fertile Crescent region founded in the 8th millennium BC. This plaster statue and others were found there in 1985. The meaning and purpose of these statues remains unknown.
Middle Eastern Collection
Paris 2019 