Discovering the West through an eastern eye

When I first started reading about France, it was with reference to the renaissance and French revolution. The authors who inspired me were Maupassant with his short stories and travel stories, Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables’,  Alexander Dumas complete works, Voltaire and Rousseau’s philosophies and play-writes and off course Charles Dickens’s- A Tale of Two cities. Having guarded with history, I ventured to Paris, to learn good art, after I was convinced by Neil Gaiman’s commencement speech of 2012- “Make good art”. To make good art, one needs to appreciate and learn good art also and the Mecca of such treasure is in De Louvre in Paris.

 Taking a train from Marne-la- vallee/ Chessy, changing to Green line RER at Chatelet les Halles and then after 40 mins that is record time in Paris on a week day, I got down at Louvre. Louvre Museum is housed in the Palais du Louvre, which was a fortress built in the late 12^th century under Phillip II. During the French revolution, the National Assembly stated a diktat, that the Palace should be used as a Museum to display the nation’s masterpieces. The Museum opened on August 10^th in 1793 with 537 paintings majorly confiscated from royal palaces and churches.

The Palais du Louvre, museum is so vast that, it is impossible to cover it in one day, so I just concentrated on the Denon wing which houses the Italian and Greek works and few of Egyptian and Islamic art. The Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities along with the department of paintings are the oldest in the Louvre. Since 2004, the Louvre’s former stables and the Salle du Manege’ have housed the antique sculptures from the collection amassed in Italy during the rediscovery of Antiquity.Like the Fontaine Aux Satyres, this is Albani collection ( 1692-1779), this piece was housed in Jardine de la Villa Albani, Rome and then it came to France in 1797 under the rule of Louis XVIII.

  “The Lady of Auxerre”, The female statue in orientalizing style, from 630 BC, limestone, height 75 cms, exchanged in 1909 with Auxerre museum. Shows the influence of Eastern art on Greek art, which increased during the 7^th century BC. This small statue was certainly made in Crete, although it features an Egyptian hair style. The accurately proportioned figures and volumes as well as color painted in the engraved decoration, bring this work to life.

Another great art by a French painter- Theodore Gericault – The Raft of the Medusa, 1819, oil on canvas. This painting captures the tragic shipwreck in 1816 of the Medusa off the coast of Africa. Out of 149 shipwrecked sailors only 15 of them survived. Gericault chose to depict a moment of hope, as a ship appears to save them.

Finally I reached the alter of the great master, Leonard De Vinci- Mona Lisa also known as La Giaconda- 1503-1506. Oil on wood. The famous smile of Lisa Gheredini, the delicate hand position, the serene beauty of her face and the mystery of the imagery landscape in the background all contribute to the fame of this universal icon- which has become the ultimate symbol of the Louvre. The massive crowd assembled in front of this painting reminded me of visiting a shrine in Jammu in India. I realized for the first time the basic line dividing east and west. In East, this kind of crowd is found mainly in the holy places and in West, a throng of this variety was seen admiring a creation- Art. 

Bang opposite to Vinci’s Mona Lisa, is the master piece of another Italian artist,  Paolo Callari known as Veronese- The Wedding Feast at CANA (1562-63) Oil on Canvas. This painting was for the Benedictine church on the Venetian island of san Giorgio Maggiore and is the largest work in Louvre. It represents an episode from the New Testament: the moment when Christ transformed water into wine. The artist made use of his exceptional knowledge of perspective and color in this composition.

Coming to the Sculpture section, Moai Head from 11^th to 15^th century carved on soft rock of the Rano Raraku Volcano, draws one’s attention. It probably depicts a god or the ancestor of a family group, raised to the status of a deity. Gift from the Chili’s govt in 1935.

As I said earlier, Palais du Louvre, museum is a place which requires more than a day, or a week’s visit, so when I plan my next holiday and this time I’ll keep at least a weeks’ time in my hand to discover Louvre again.