Tickets to the Louvre were readily available a day ahead of time. We had a nice walk along the river in the chilly morning air (1). The Louvre was originally built in 1190 as a fortress with a moat fed by the Seine. Converted unto a royal residence in 1364, the galleries were constructed beginning in 1595. The Palace was converted into a museum in 1791, early in the revolutionary period.
Unlike the Vatican Museums, one can wander more freely among the collections at the Louvre. The Mona Lisa is among the notable paintings here. The painting is behind glass, and the crowd taking selfies is kept about 5 feet back from the painting. As with the Vatican Museum, there was also an Egyptian collection at the Louvre.
Wandering through the galleries, we noted that virtually every painting before about 1600 had an overtly religious theme. Particularly striking to me were painting which seemed to glow with the artist's use of color.
After dinner, we grabbed some bikes from the Velib bike share system. The road on the left bank/south side of the Seine has a good bike path, and we rode a few miles downriver to the Eiffel Tower in the bracing night air.
(1) 25° F is quite cold for Paris
Sign at the Mona Lisa.
Intricate, tiny vase ~1 1/2 inches
The Monkey Antiquarian - Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin (mid 1700s)
Weak winter sun at Keflavik, Iceland (64° North lattitude), where we changed planes. The temperature was 28°F at Paris, Keflavik, and Boston.
The Seine at Ile de la Cité
Bellini's St. Anthony, the founder of monasticism.
The blue robe was very vibrant, c. 1450
There is a crush of people taking selfies in front of the painting, which is behind a pane of glass
The altar boys looked less than fully enthused at the coronation. Detail of coronation painting.
Stefano di Giovanni (Sassetta), The Blessed Ranieri Frees the Poor from a Florentine Jail, 1437 - 1444. The saint is on a cloud, but it looks like a jet pack to me.
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri aka Le Guerchin (1591-1666) - Saint Pierre pleurant devant la Vierge, 1647. Not in the Bible that Peter and Mary commiserated after the crucifiction, but plausible.
The ceiling in the café had tiles with what appeared to be nuclear fallout symbols
The raising of Lazarus, François-Auguste Biard, c. 1480
The Monkey Painter - Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin (mid 1700s)
Claude-Joseph Vernet, Seaport in the moonlight. The painting almost glowed.
I turned a corner and exclaimed "Oh, Wow!" when I saw this painting. Magdalenefjorden, Spitsbergen. François-Auguste Biard, 1849. The color was striking.
Gypsum figure, c. 7000 B.C.E. One of the oldest items at the Louvre
Baked clay bookkeeping records from Sumeria
Toy soldiers to accompany the dead of ancient Egypt
Sacred Egyptian cat, scarab on head
Venus de Milo, found in the 1820s
The Louvre was originally a moated fortress, and you can walk along the bottom of the moat in the museum's basement.
Depiction of Mecca on tile (c. 1650) in the Louvre's recently-added (2012) Islamic Art collection.
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