The Louvre Through a Museum Nerd’s Eyes

With all the traditional cockiness of a native New Yorker, I thought I was prepared for the Louvre. I’ve done the Met multiple times and am familiar with a huge museum that you cannot see all in one go, in addition to heavy crowds. But boy, was I wrong. I was not prepared. I was not even CLOSE to being prepared for the Louvre.

First off, holy crap. Let’s get this out of the way: literally nothing can prepare you for the size of the Louvre. Nothing can prepare you for its gorgeous architecture either. Maybe it’s just me, but I preferred the Louvre’s architecture to Versailles. It might be that it’s easier to take in without furnishings but I felt like the architecture was an art of its own. I walked over 20,000 steps today in the museum. The only other day comparable was the day we went to Disney and I did almost 21,000. So Louvre size= roughly Disney park size. Yep. Rethink those sandals because they are a poor choice (trust me on this one). I will also admit right now that despite Dr. Smith and MICEFA and everyone on the face of the planet telling me to do so, I did minimal research going in. I was research-adverse. I did SOME. I did enough to know what the big draws were. But I didn’t enter with a list or a plan or anything. Honestly, I think this worked out for me because if I had a list and didn’t see it all, I think I would have been disappointed.

I started off my experience lost. As they say in Maine, “ya can’t get there from here” and nothing is more true in the Louvre. I ended up in Near Eastern Antiquities and it ended up being a good starting point. I saw some works we had discussed in Art History and saw these amazing gates. It was a happy accident that lead to me stumbling into my favorite section, the Egyptian antiquities wing. I could wax poetic about the Egyptian wing for ages. I got super into Egyptology during Dr. DeLancey’s amazing art history class (aforementioned, forever loved) and made a special sojourn to the Met to see their Egyptian wing. I will simply say this: it’s incredible. It’s HUGE and incredible. I loved every minute of it. Plus, it wasn’t nearly as crowded as the other areas I visited.

It was in the Egyptian wing that I sat down and recorded some of my thoughts, and when my perspective of the Louvre shifted. I was already getting overwhelmed by the art and the people and the noise, and so sitting amidst the Egyptian coffins, I realized it was far less overwhelming and helped me focus if I analyzed the museum and its visitors as I went. Especially since in a month, I will be beginning my graduate program for museum studies, I applied what I have learned already about museum interpretation and education to what I was seeing. There were so many types of people at the museum: the solo travelers forging their way, the couples doing little less than paying attention to each other, the tired and/or bored children being dragged along, misbehaving teenagers getting in trouble, the artists sketching a work, the tired guard with one earbud in. I began to observe the visitors and how they interacted with the museum.

I took note of areas where people seemed to just snap a photo and move on. This isn’t a criticism but an observation. Of course, the Mona Lisa (I’ll touch on her later), The Winged Victory of Samothrace, Liberty Leading the People, Venus de Milo, and the other big hits all had these giant crowds, and a million phones in the air getting those photos. The deeper I got into the Egyptian wing, the fewer phones I saw and the more dedicated and interested types of visitors emerged. I would stand in front of a sarcophagus for 5 minutes looking at the detailed hieroglyphics and paintings. I looked at what felt like every statue looking for those of Hatshepsut, a personal interest. But the main draw, the Mummy, was a revolving door of photo snapping. I was as guilty of it as everyone else, I want photos of the things that interest me. But it did make me wonder what it used to be like to go to a museum and not be able to just capture the image of something instantly. I wonder how many people look back on those photos afterward. There were some creative photo ops that I caught happening. A few tourists were posing with the statues, which is always entertaining to watch. I enjoy seeing people interact with the artifacts in fun ways like that!

I was also on the hunt for The Seated Scribe, a work we had studied in Art History. I passed the pedestal at least three times before I realized it had been removed for another exhibition. So that got me looking at the notices left in empty cases. All museums have to do restoration or protective work, in addition to artifacts being loaned out for exhibitions, research or moved internally for special exhibits. So logically, there are always going to be things that are “missing” from the visitor’s view. Most people don’t even register it past an empty case here or there. But, being a nerd, I enjoy reading about why things are missing. I find it interesting to see how long they’ve been on loan or in restoration. Some in the Met on my latest visit had been out for over 10 years!

I moved slowly out of the Egyptian wing and took note of the supports used to hold the sarcophagi upright. It was pretty cool to see the shaped metal supports behind each piece. I didn’t get a photo (people didn’t enjoy me standing there observing) but there was what appeared to be mylar under each layer of decorative garments on the mummy. I wonder how the Louvre approached displaying each artifact. The statues and other seemingly free-standing pieces particularly concerned me. There were so many gorgeous statues but many were simply on a pedestal or placed on the floor without any barriers. The people weaving through them made me stressed. How do they keep all these artifacts safe? Even with guards, mistakes happen. Case in point: this giant vase that I passed as a child reached up and smacked it. No one seemed to notice. Still, I gave that family a wide berth in case a different statue got smacked and decided on divine retribution.

I decided to suck it up and at least see the Mona Lisa from afar. I didn’t care much about getting a good photo or seeing her up close but had become more interested in seeing how the museum handled the painting’s immense popularity. And holy crow, is it popular. You know it is the Mona Lisa room due to the sheer volume of people flooding in and out of that room. The room it is in is huge and surrounded by incredible works that are hard to appreciate due to the ocean of people around you. There is a long line for people wanting to see the painting up close and get a photo. The sides of this line are closely monitored to keep people moving and avoid people stopping in the passageways to grab photos, blocking traffic. I decided I didn’t need to wait in line. I was happy to see it, even across the room. Plus, I had my question answered about what the room with the Mona Lisa looked like and I wanted to get out before the people overwhelmed me.

I spent a good chunk of time lost, and a large amount of that lost time was wandering around the French, Italian, and Spanish painting wings. That led me to my next pondering: how does the average visitor decide what to see? I had some ideas based on my art history classes and really would have been okay with seeing any part of it. But why do so many people flock to the European paintings (particularly those three, because upstairs the northern European painting wings were empty) while other wings are practically empty? I fear that I do know the answer, and it’s probably related to westernization. I wanted to get to the Arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas wing (holy super grouping Batman) but couldn’t find my way there, so again, I’m not much better. Also side note: why the heck are like three continents grouped into three galleries in this massive museum? *side eyes the Louvre* So how do we encourage visitors to explore beyond their comfort zone? Just more questions I don’t have answers to, but that I pondered in the Louvre.

I have a lot more I could talk about, especially about repatriation, colonialism’s influence, and accessibility in the Louvre but I’ll leave it there for this one. Hit me up if you want to get into those fun topics! Hopefully, I am going to post a fun game I played in the Louvre soon, and also possibly talk about interpretation in all the museums I’ve visited because there is a wide range. But for now, I need to sleep and rest from the Louvre exploration! Enjoy two of my new favorites from today… I realize now they are a little bit of a juxtaposition.