Arts sphere or home of the Monarchy?

“[T]he Louvre was not left unoccupied and it became the arts sphere, after having been the home of the Monarchy” (pp. 24-28, “Second Day Afternoon”; “Third Day Morning”).

When figuring out which site to give more than its standard 15 minutes (or so it seems based on how packed each day is!) to, it comes as no surprise that Guilmin would dedicate two days in the guide to tackling the Louvre.  Though common opinions of the Louvre seem to differ greatly*, it seems as though the Guilmin Guide came closest to summing up my own personal opinions on the world’s biggest museum.  To begin, Guilmin differentiates between The Louvre (as monument) and The Louvre (as museum) which I find to be a really cool way of dividing such a large and complex site.  The tail-end of “Second Day Afternoon” is dedicated solely to discussing the monumental and historical aspects of the Louvre, giving a sort of narrative map of the space, its changes, and how far it stretches.  The beginning of “Third Day Morning” begins, like the museum itself should, with a disclaimer about the semi-chaotic nature of the groupings of displays and the difficulty that one might be faced with when trying to locate a specific piece.

Having gone to the Musée d’Orsay the day before the Louvre, not only was the art museum fatigue hitting hard, but I had trouble contending with the often less-than-ideal scenarios in the Louvre after I had a genuinely awesome experience in Musée d’Orsay.  To start, I missed out on a lot of things that I would have loved to see, despite attempting research beforehand (seriously, was no one going to tell me that Hammurabi’s Code was in the Louvre?!).  Obviously I had no intention of seeing everything that I vaguely recognized in the Louvre, but as someone who really enjoys wandering in museums and stumbling across cool things, the labyrinth-like structure of the museum, as well as the numerous warnings about how easy it was to exit the galleries and be unable to come back in (which we still did, whoops), it was really hard for me to conceptualize how any of the spaces interacted or if there was any logical flow to how people absorbed the art.**

Once I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to easily find anything that wasn’t the Mona Lisa, the experience did become wayyyy more relaxed, and I found myself wanting to focus on the architectural details that interested me rather than checking off every painting in the Louvre coffee-table book that I was obsessed with as a kid.  In the end, I think that Ellie and I stepped into every single room and took pictures of the ceilings and floors before we even looked at the art! One thing that I especially enjoyed that was less art-centric was Napolean III’s apartments (specifically, the super fun assortment of chairs and couches that are straight out of my dreams).

Despite my preference for the Louvre’s architecture and decorative arts, I will say that the ways in which the art was displayed within the space were really fascinating, especially the frescoes in the Italian Painter section, and I would love to go back sometime for a closer look at how each room’s theme differed!

**Before going to the Louvre, I was told both that it would be the biggest disappointment of my trip and the greatest thing I will ever experience.

***My game plan was 1) see the Mona Lisa so I don’t get yelled at for not seeing the Mona Lisa and then 2) try my hardest to make it to like three rooms using the map.