Page 162 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Europe

160  FR ANCE AND THE L OW C OUNTRIES

Exploring the Louvre’s Collection Greek, Etruscan, and
Owing to the vast size of the Louvre’s collection, it is useful Roman Antiquities
to set a few viewing priorities before starting. The collection The famous Greek marble
of European paintings (1400–1848) is comprehensive, with statues here, the Winged Victory
more than half the works by French artists. The extensively of Samothrace and the Venus de
Milo, both date from the
renovated departments of Oriental, Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, Hellenistic period (late 3rd to
and Roman antiquities are of world renown and feature 2nd century BC). A highlight
numerous new acquisitions and rare treasures. The hugely of the Roman section is a
varied display of objets d’art includes furniture, jewelry, 2nd-century AD bronze head of
scientific instruments, and armor. the Emperor Hadrian. Other fine
pieces include a bust of Agrippa
and a basalt head of Livia. The
star of the Etruscan collection
European Sculpture: is the terra-cotta sarcophagus
1100 to 1848 of a married couple. Among the
The French section opens with vast array of earlier fragments,
a 12th-century figure of Christ a geometric head from the
and a head of St. Peter. Several Cyclades (2700 BC) and a
works by French sculptor Pierre swan-necked bowl hammered
Puget (1620–94) are assembled out of a gold sheet (2500 BC)
in a glass-covered courtyard. are noteworthy.
Other masterpieces of French
sculpture, including Jean-
Antoine Houdon’s busts of Objets d’Art
Diderot and Voltaire, stand in More than 8,000 items feature
the Cour Marly. A notable in this collection, many of
Flemish sculp ture is which came from the Abbey
Adrian de Vries’s long- of St-Denis, where the kings
The famously enigmatic Mona Lisa (c.1504), limbed Mercury and of France were crowned.
by Leonardo da Vinci Psyche (1593). Treasures include a
Michelangelo’s Slaves serpentine plate from the
and Benvenuto Cellini’s 1st century AD and a
European Painting: Fontainebleau Nymph golden scepter made for
1400 to 1848
are among the many King Charles V in about
Notable Flemish paintings splendid Italian works. 1380. The French crown
include Jan van Eyck’s Madonna jewels include the
of the Chancellor Rolin (c.1435). splendid coronation
The fine Dutch collection feat- Oriental and crowns of Louis XV and
Egyptian
ures Self-portrait and Bathsheba Napoleon, scepters, and
(1654), both by Rembrandt. Antiquities swords. The Regent,
Among important German Important works of one of the purest
works are a Venus (1529) by Mesopotamian art diamonds in the
Lucas Cranach and a portrait include one of the world, worn by Louis
of Erasmus by Hans Holbein. world’s oldest docu- XV at his coronation
Italian paintings are arranged ments, a basalt block, in 1722, is also on
chronologically, and include Fra bearing a proclamation Venus de Milo show. An entire room
Angelico’s Coronation of the of laws by Babylonian is taken up with a series
Virgin (1435) and the celebrated King Hammurabi from about of tapestries, the Hunts of
Mona Lisa (1504) by Leonardo 1750 BC. Maximilian, executed for
da Vinci. The warlike Assyrians are Emperor Charles V in 1530.
Outstanding French works represented by delicate The large collection of French
are represented by Enguerrand carvings, and a fine example furniture ranges from the 16th
Quarton’s Villeneuve-lès-Avignon of Persian art is the enameled to the 19th centuries, and
Pietà (1455) and the delightfully brickwork depicting the king’s includes pieces by exceptional
frivolous The Bathers (1770) archers (5th century BC). furniture-maker André Charles
by Fragonard. Egyptian art on display, Boulle. He is particularly
Among English artists dating from between 2500 and noted for his technique
featured are Gainsborough, 1400 BC, and mostly produced of inlaying copper and
Reynolds, and Turner, while for the dead, includes lifelike tortoiseshell. Among more
the Spanish collection has funeral portraits, such as the unusual items is Marie-
portraits by Goya and works Squatting Scribe, and several Antoinette’s inlaid steel
by El Greco and Zurbarán. sculptures of married couples. and bronze writing desk.
For hotels and restaurants see pp206–8 and pp209–11

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