My Travelogues: The Louvre

Normal people would restrain from dedicating an entire post to the Louvre museum. This assumption can be justified by the fact that the most common adjective heard in my friend circles with respect to the Louvre has been: Bouncer!

Yet, for some reason, this museum seems to have taken my imagination by storm. Infact, my last vivid dream saw me transform into a world renowned artist who played with lights, shadows and shapes to create beautiful master pieces of a never-before-seen art style. This was the context of the dream. The details however, focussed on the fabulous masterpieces I fluently created in my dream world. [The reader may note that the key reason why this dream was so audaciously unearthly was because it was (legally) conceived in Amsterdam.]

Anyway, back to the main point. So why is the Louvre Museum “The” museum? I think that it ultimately boils down to one man – King Louis XIV. See, Louis, when once too young to be crowned King after his deceased father, was mistreated and made prisoner in his own palace by the French nobility during his long wait to the throne. When he finally gained power, fed up of his long drawn life of restraint, the king decided to build himself a palace so grand that it would exalt the concept of luxury to new levels and turn heads world over. It cost half of France’s GDP to construct this palace and its every corner was to be adorned by beautiful paintings, sculptures and tapestries. Commissions given to artists were attractive, the recognition accorded envious and work was plentiful. Besides artists had the freedom to be creative and didn’t have to report to work early in the mornings – so why wouldn’t anyone want to be in this profession? This, in my opinion, sparked off a new “art” boom.

With a large chunk of the country running on the arts during those times, appreciation for this field and its criticality to the economy rose. Subsequent French conquests always sought to cease works of arts from the defeated nations. No wonder that there was enough art to stock up a grand museum such as the Louvre.

In my opinion, the Louvre is most famous for its size and the centuries of culture and tradition it stores. But if you were just to appreciate talent, then perhaps the Orsay Museum (Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, etc) would be a more rewarding experience. The Louvre houses collections until the mid 18th century while the Orsay houses collections since then. Now Leonardo da Vinci may be the most towering art personality of all times, but I’m a firm believer of the fact that humanity progresses with time. People become more intelligent and better at what they do. (Besides I never liked the Mona Lisa much!) More on the Orsay Museum later after my visit tomorrow…

Plump Women

One of the most interesting things at the Louvre was discovering how the perception of beauty evolved over time…for example, in this painting dated sometime around the 15th century, plump women were considered to be beautiful. It’s quite unfortunate how they become slimmer in the paintings as the years progressed. I definitely would have had a less guilty conscience with my creme brulee and apple pie indulgences had I been born in 15th century in Europe.

Unnatural Beauty

Now the reason why this woman looks so beautiful is because her body is unnatural! She has a very elongated back, deliberately crafted by the artist to enhance her beauty. This subject of her back sparked off a huge controversy in France during the release of this piece…

The Moment before their Death

This is a painting which I would have never given a second glance to. Surprisingly,it is paintings like these which observers with a keen eye would appreciate the most. These two lads here, for example, are the 2 sons of Kind Edward the something, and this scene reflects the moment of terror in their eyes when their uncle is knocking wildly at their bedroom door, only to subsequently break it down to execute them, so as to gain power over the throne instead of them rightfully inheriting it. The surroundings in the painting have deliberately been darkened, so that the observer’s attention immediately goes to terrorised expression on their faces, the main object of this painting. The expressions on their faces is somewhat restrained and not dramatic, representing the artist’s attempt to be realistic in his art.

Funery Art

As I mentioned earlier, art had become “the” thing in France. Rich people commissioned paintings and sculptures to be made for all sorts of reasons. This once for instance, was comminssioned by a Knight (while he was alive) to represent his peaceful corpse body being carried by weepers upon his death. The intention was to have this piece honor him once he died.

This is another such piece which would not draw a second glance. However, the history behind this piece is quite fascinating. This sculpture was commissioned to be made by a queen on the death of her husband and held his heart in the spherical casket held by the white ladies.

Germans are really tall!

sometimes you can just make out the origin of the art by observing its dimensions…like these HUGE figures here are definitely from Germany!

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