Wow, the Louvre! We're really here, and we're really going to see it! Okay, well not all of it. We read that if you saw everything on display in the museum, you'd have walked twelve miles! In order to get something meaningful out of our visit, we decided to take a private tour with Paris Walks. Cerise, who's originally from England, was our guide. She went to school in Paris, and was an art history major, and she's been in Paris for about eight years. So she was well qualified!
Before we saw the walls, though, Cerise brought us to this courtyard to explain why these statues were displayed like this, at different levels and with trees. Basically it's because they used to be outside at different levels in a lawn. So the display is trying to mimic the statues original home. It reminded us that, while museums are definitely great, it's nice to be able to imagine a piece of artwork's original home.
Then we went to see Napoleon's apartments, since he lived here when he was emperor. They were very ornate, but not as ornate as Versailles. This was after the revolution, so he had to be careful not to be too gaudy. Judge for yourself!
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| Cerise told us that Walt Disney visited Paris, and he was inspired by many things in the city. In fact, this room (Napoleon's living area) is very similar to the ballroom from "Beauty and the Beast." |
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| Napoleon's throne - Wow! |
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| Venus de Milo |
Okay, I'll be honest. I feel a little uncomfortable with all the nudity in art! I know, it's ART, but I have a hard time explaining that to our three children, when even I don't quite get it. Cerise gave a great explanation, which I'll try to sum up. She mentioned that back in Ancient Greek times, all the sports were performed while the men were naked. They saw the body as a beautiful thing, and something to be proud of. Also, she said that there was a belief (via Aristotle), that, while the body was beautiful, it was also imperfect. In fact all the physical world is imperfect. Only perfection can be reached in heaven. Our bodies, and the physical world are just imperfect representations of that perfection. I thought it was so cool how this sounded (somewhat) biblical, how we're imperfect representations of God. Anyways, artists try to reach that perfection through their art. One example she gave was with another statue holding what looked like a ball. The ball was actually an apple, since the belief that a perfect apple would be perfectly round.
Anyway, the kids still cringe a little around some of the art, but hopefully there's a little more understanding!
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| Winged Victory of Samothrace |
And here it is! We had to fight our way through the crowd to see the Mona Lisa, although Cerise told us that it was actually a lighter crowd than usual!
After our tour, we headed over to the Tuileries to have a picnic. We were so happy to have a warm beautiful day!
What a beautiful view!
And then, a bird comes and sits on a statue! So funny!
Anna was excited to see some pigeons. We have to make sure she actually eats her sandwich and not give it all to the pigeons!
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| Recognize this classic book? |
1 comments:
Awesome! I wonder how long it would take to see the whole Louvre? Kelly, you should write a book! Our Sabbatical Year or something. Or, How to Make Your Friends Jealous, something like that...
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