Louvre in pictures – Sculptures

This whole blog could be about the Louvre and might end up being just a drop in the ocean of an attempt to show you how gorgeously mind numbing the place is.

I really wish I could just absorb all the details of every sculpture on display. But it\’s humanly impossible. Unless of course you are the sculptor. I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I did writing and selecting pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Psyché (below)

I fell in love with Psyché and Cupid\’s love story. I will, when I\’m ready, do an entire post celebrating them. Until then, below is the work that broke my heart, and apparently the reality of it, deeply saddened many-a-hearts.

 

 

 

 

 

Carved in Golden Onyx marble, is the regale statue of Minerva, Roman Goddess  of wisdom, commerce, the arts and later war. Here she is seen with her helmet and carrying in her left palm her lovely companion owl, symbolising wisdom and knOWLedge.

A Gimblette is a round, ring almost donut-shaped pastry biscuit that comes from the Albi region, in south west France. These biscuits are hung on festive branches (of Laurel) and are traditionally eaten as a snack between Lent and Easter Sunday.

 

Artemis was a Greek Goddess and her equivalent Roman version was Diana. Her \’scope\’ of Godliness extends to wilderness, wild life, animals and even childbirth and virginity.

If you notice the sculptures, her dresses are always shorter than all Goddesses at the time. That is because she often had to roll up her robe, tuck it in her waist-band and run fast.

 

The above artworks can be found in the Egyptian Antiquities section at the Louvre. The Seated Scribe (in the first pic) is sculpted from limestone and natural vibrant colours. The details are simply astounding, almost as if he were really seated in the glass box.

On the right is \’probably\’ and sometimes \’undoubtedly\’the body of Nefertiti. The way the shoulder blades, stomach and navel, legs are carved gives me goosebumps. I love the pleats of her dress. It\’s so much more easier to grasp history through museums rather than text-books, don\’t you think?

 

The Lion funéraire, on the left (above) was discovered as a guardian of a tomb. As was done traditionally in the Athenian times, a statue of a powerful animal or sometimes a loyal one was placed right above the tomb as the protector of the one within.

 

 

 

 

Some of the works below are shown time and again on my blog. But they are so darn awesome, I just couldn\’t help myself.

 

At  9000 years old, Ain Ghazal is the oldest little fellow in the Louvre. He was found with many others in a pit in Amman, Jordan and has been loaned to the Louvre for 30 years.

 

Below is the iconic Goddess of Victory, standing on what might have been the base of a ship. The strong winds cause her robe and wings to flow poetically giving us this masterpiece.

 

You know  that feeling when you look at the galaxies and realise that you are nothing but a dot on a dot\’s dot? I get the exact same feeling when I am surrounded by art.

Have you felt like that lately?