Summer Vacation Destinations: Paris

Paris Museum Crawl Part 1: Le Louvre

First stop, the Louvre! With over 35,000 works of art from eight departments displayed in over 60,000 square meters of exhibition space, the Louvre is Paris’ largest museum and one could literally spend weeks in there…

Right now you can catch a fascinating exhibition entitled “The Gates of Heaven. Visions of the World in Ancient Egypt”, running through June 29.

The Egyptian term “gates of heaven” refers to the doors of a sacred shrine holding the statue of god. The Egyptians believed if the doors were opened the divine world would be transported into the human one! They also believed that certain places acted as replicas of these shrines and so were adorned with their own set of doors representing the “gates of heaven”, and thereby offering a transition between physical and mental realities.

The exhibition, containing about 350 artifacts spanning three millennia, from the Old Kingdom to the Roman Period, seeks to place everyday objects in their social, religious and artistic context. It focuses on four of these realities: the ordered Universe, the Beyond, the tomb chapel, and the temple forecourt. A fascinating glimpse at philosophy, which is far removed from rational, Western thinking…

The Universe as Divine Sanctuary

The Celestial Underworld, or Mysterious Beyond

Coming and Going: The Tomb Chapel

At the Gates of Heaven: Temple Forecourt

Another exhibition that will be taking place this summer is called, “Early Altar pieces (12th- early 15th century) - A presentation of Sacred Art”. This exhibition features the evolution of altarpieces from the 12th century on. It focuses on retables and their relationship with altars. Originating around the same time period, the retable, also known as a “reredo”, was hung behind the church altars taking on the form of a screen framing a picture, a carved or sculptured work in wood or stone, or of a mosaic.

13th Century Retable

Of course, a trip to the Louvre would not be complete without seeing some of the permanent works of art that have earned the Louvre its reputation as one of premiere museums of our time:


For example, Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”:


Or Gericault’s “The Raft of the Medusa”:



Here is a Roman marble sculpture of the head of Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, that was acquired by the Louvre in 2002:



Or you may wander through the collection of Egyptian antiquities…. here is a fragment of a temple wall, depicting an offering scene, portrayed between the signs for earth and sky:


And finally, don’t miss I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid, beautifully and dramatically situated in the museum courtyard… magnifique!