On visiting the Louvre

It’s taken three visits to Paris, but finally I’ve made it into the Louvre

My first impression is that it’s huge. The National Gallery seems rather small and paltry beside it. The next issue is how do you find your way around it? Thankfully, the plans and the directions are pretty good (though I do get lost at one point in early French painting).

I’m pleased that we don’t really have to queue for very long. Like so many others, we head for the Italian Renaissance, and the Mona Lisa, first, on the basis that it will only get busier as the day goes on.

On the stairs, we find the Winged Victory of Samothrace. In the galleries, crowds gather round the famous Leonardo’s, whilst other pictures have no one. In the Mona Lisa room, it’s all a little crazy. Hordes of tourists, all trying to get the best camera angle. You can’t get close, she’s behind both a barrier and glass. More of an icon than a painting these days.

I don’t linger. I prefer David’s Coronation of Napoleon. I also love the Botticelli’s, the Titian’s, Caravaggio’s and Canaletto’s. Generally, I realise, I prefer Italian art to French, though there is gallery after gallery of paintings by artists I’ve never heard of, practically deserted, because so many of the visitors do only the edited highlights (or, worse, the Da Vinci Code trail*).

There’s a whole room of paintings by Rubens telling the (fantasised) life story of Marie de Medici. I’m fascinated by this, as not only does is sum up the Ancien Regime, but the coronation picture is almost an exact fore-runner of the David picture from almost 200 years later.

Before we leave, I have to find the Venus de Milo. On my last visit, I climbed on a stone bench, and caught a glimpse of her through the window. It’s quite a trek, and we pass many antique sculptures, and also many of Napoleon as a Roman Emperor. He wasn’t a man who went in for modesty, I’m guessing.

Finally, we find her. Even incomplete, she’s impressive, and it’s quite incredible to think how ancient she is.

*Useless to me, as I’ve never read it, and am not likely to now, as I know the ending!