Page 128 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Paris

126  P ARIS AREA B Y AREA

Exploring the Louvre’s Collections
It is important not to underestimate the size of these vast Conversation in a Park (around
collections, and useful to set a few viewing priorities before 1746), Sir Joshua Reynolds’
starting. The collection of European paintings (1200–1850) is Master Hare (1788) and France’s
only painting by JMW Turner,
comprehensive, and 40 per cent of the works are by French Landscape with a River and a
artists, while the selection of sculptures is less complete. The Distant Bay (around 1840).
museum’s antiquities – Oriental, Islamic, Egyptian, Greek, Many of the masterworks
Etruscan and Roman – are of world renown and offer the in the Spanish collection
visitor an unrivalled range of objects. The objets d’art on depict the tragic side of life:
display are very varied and include furniture and jewellery. El Greco’s Christ on the Cross
Adored by Donors (1576) and
Francisco de Zurbarán’s Lying-in-
State of St Bonaventura (about
1629), with its dark-faced corpse,
are two of the Louvre’s prize
pieces. The subject of José de
Ribera’s Club-Footed Boy (1642)
is a beggar boy, who carries a
scrap of paper requesting alms.
Portraits by Goya from the late
18th and early 19th century are
in a lighter vein.
The museum’s large collection
of Italian paintings covers the
period 1200 to 1800. The father
figures of the early Renaissance,
Cimabue and Giotto, are here,
as is Fra Angelico, with his
Coronation of the Virgin (around
The Fortune Teller (c. 1594) by Caravaggio 1430–1432), and Raphael, with
his stately Portrait of Baldassare
European Painting: futility of human existence. Castiglione (around 1514). There
1200 to 1850 In the Dutch collec tion, Van is also a fine portrait in profile of
Dyck’s portrait King Charles out Sigismondo Malatesta by Piero
Painting from northern Europe Hunting (1635) shows Charles I della Francesca (around 1450)
is well covered. One of the of England in all his refined and an action-packed battle
earliest Flemish works is Jan van elegance. Jacob Jordaens, best scene by Paolo Uccello. Several
Eyck’s Madonna of Chancellor known for scenes of gluttony paintings by Leonardo da Vinci –
Rolin (about 1435), which shows and lust, reveals unusual for instance, the Virgin with the
the Chancellor of Burgundy sensitivity in his Four Evangelists. Infant Jesus and St Anne – are as
kneeling in prayer before the The saucy smile of the Gypsy Girl enchanting as his Mona Lisa.
Virgin and Child. Hieronymus (1628) displays Frans Hals’ The collection of French
Bosch’s Ship of Fools (1500) is effortless virtuosity, in sharp painting ranges from the 14th
a fine, satirical account of the contrast to Vermeer’s highly century to 1848. Paintings after
finished Lacemaker. Rembrandt’s this date are housed in the
self-portraits, Disciples at
Emmaus (1648) and Bathsheba
(1654) are fine examples of
his genius.
There is relatively little
German painting, but the three
major German painters of the
15th and 16th centuries are
represented by important
works. There is a Self-portrait by
Albrecht Dürer as a young artist
of 22 (1493), a Venus by Lucas
Cranach (1529) and a portrait of
the great humanist scholar
Erasmus by Hans Holbein. Works
Portrait of Erasmus (1523) by by English artists include Gilles or Pierrot (c. 1717) by
Hans Holbein Thomas Gainsborough’s Jean-Antoine Watteau

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Date 3rd August 2012
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