Paris, Louvre

Q19675

It is hard to write a review of the Louvre in Paris, because it is one of the world’s largest museums. There are many departments, and each one of them might, in its field, have been a museum of the first order. For example, it is hard to find another Egyptological museum in Europe that equals the Louvre.

The museum also has a reputation for interesting expositions – one on Meroe and one on the archaeology of Saudi Arabia during my latest visit – and to be honest: one ought to visit the Louvre twice a year to keep in touch. The people of Paris are unusually blessed.

If you visit the museum for the first time, you will be surprised by the pyramid-shaped entrance. Use the time you lose to pass the bomb check and buy a ticket to look at it, because it is a monument of the first order.

I already mentioned the Egyptian department, where you can easily spend a full day. There are portraits of the Egyptian kings and objects from daily life, and what is even better: the full history is dealth with, so you will also find objects from the first millennium BCE. The Greek, Roman, and Coptic age are not ignored either, although you need to go to Greek department for the royal portraits of the Ptolemies.

The Egyptian department is deservedly famous, and attracts many visitors, who are usually exhausted when they are half-way their tour. Usually, they will take the shortest route to the exit, which brings them through the departments of Cypriote, Arab, Palmyrene, and Phoenician art – which are, as a consequence, full of people who are not interested in the objects. That is pity, because these rooms alone justify a trip to Paris. Still, if you manage to ignore the crowd of tired visitors to the Egyptian department, you will certainly enjoy coffins from Sidon, Byblos, and Carthage, Nabataean inscriptions, and statues from Cyprus. One of my favorites is a relief of one of the divine triad of Palmyra. You will need half a day to study it well.

Next to it is the Oriental department. The most famous object is, of course, the Code of Hammurabi. Don’t concentrate on the diorite monolith only, but also look in the small display in the same room, because there you will see cuneiform tablets with the same text – one of them written more than a millennium later and proving that these laws had become some kind of Mesopotamian classic, and it is probably no coincidence that the division of these Old Babylonian laws returns in the Ten Commandments.

The Code of Hammurabi was found in Susa, which is a prominent part of the oriental collection. You will also see a wall decorated with Achaemenid soldiers and cuneiform tablets from this Iranian town. Other important excavations are Mari and Khorsabad, but there is a lot more to see. There are also rooms devoted to Jordan and western Syria; they are not adjacent to the eastern Syria and the other Levantine rooms, which is a bit impractical – but the Mesha stela is worth the detour. You need a full day to study the entire oriental department.

The Roman department is surprisingly small. Yet, there is a lot of fine sculpture, including a nice series of portraits of Roman rulers. Next to it is a comparatively small Etruscan department. A galery of rather mediocre statues brings you to the room devoted to Roman art that was later restored, which is great fun: usually, you can immediately see which part is ancient and which is an addition. (Here, you will also find Canova’s famous Amor and Psyche.) You need about half a day to see it all, read the explanatory signs, and take your photos.

The Greek department is larger – you again need a full day to study it all. The two most famous pieces are the expressive Nike of Samothrake and the famous Venus of Milo. The latter is more or less the museum’s raison d’être. Napoleon had looted the Italian museums, but after he had found his Waterloo, all those works of art had to be returned. In an age in which it was believed that inspiration by great art created great minds, and that Greek art was the most inspirational, the emptying of the Louvre was believed to be a national disaster, but fortunately, the Venus of Milo was found. Now, France could compete again with the British, who had the Elgin Marbles. That the armless deity was a Hellenistic and not a Classical statue, was ignored – the inscription which proves it, is now conveniently lost.

The Greek department also has some fine temple remains (from a/o Assos), the Tanagra statuettes that I increasingly love, and lots of pottery. Unfortunately, the rooms with Greek ceramics have rcently been closed. I haven’t seen the Croesus to the left for quite some time: last time, the room was closed to install better protection; before that, it was on loan to another museum.

The crowds are very large, and you may count yourself lucky that I did not bring you to the paintings. This makes a visit to the Louvre a bit difficult, and you must prepare yourself well; fortunately, the museum’s website is excellent. Four days is the minimum for the ancient departments.

Finally, I must mention one little gem that is often ignored and where you can, consequently, quietly look at the objects: the room with metal objects. There is some fine silver work, but you will also see the helmet of a gladiator, a nice statuette of the Tyche of Antioch, the head of Demetrius Poliorcetes, a hoplite’s panoply, a curse tablet from the Crimea, Roman military diploma’s, and so on.

But unfortunately, that’s the only part of the museum where you will not meet many other people. In fact, the museum is too big, and I think that it would be wiser to split it into smaller museums.

This museum was visited in 1984, 1989, 2008, 2010, 2020.

301 pictures related to this museum

The Azara herm	Nefertiti and Akhenaten	Domitian	Head of Croesus on a Greek vase
Uruk, Cuneiform tablet with first use of a zero	Persian nobleman; statue from Egypt	Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Apollonia, Relief to commemorate the battle of Actium
Figurine from Bactria	Susa, Stone fish	Susa, Middle-Elamite model of a sun ritual	Esarhaddon and his mother attend the restoration of Babylon
Senusret III	Alexander, Statuette from Lower Egypt	Wadi Miyah, Palmyrene triad: Aglibol (Moon), Ba'al Šamem (Lord of Heaven), and Malekbel (Sun)	Statuette of a Libyan
Idalion, orientalizing gold dish	Kition, Egyptianizing capital	Assos, Temple of Athena, Relief of a symposium	Sphinx of king Siamun
Susa, Soldiers' Relief, Lion	Alexandria, Tombstone of Longinus of II Traiana	Giza, Diner of Nefer	Susa, Stela of Adda-hamiti-Inšušinak
Statuette of Raherka, inspector of the scribes, and his wife Merseanch	Tayma, Nabataean votive stela	Gladiator helmet	Alexander IV
Yemen, Dromedary pendant	Corinth, Hoplite battle (Tydeus painter)	Susa, Statue of queen Napirasu, wife of Untaš-Napiriša	Merenptah
Justinian I (Barberini Ivory)	Susa, Letter from Artabanus II, requesting the appointment of one Hecataeus as treasurer	Kition, Figurine of a woman	Cyprus, Bilingual Greek-Phoenician inscription
Dibon, Mesha Stela	The Azara herm	The Azara herm	The Azara herm
Marib, Dedication to Almaqah	Tepe Sialk, Sherd from the fourth millennium BCE	Lascuta, Imperator inscription	Susa, Soldiers' Relief
Ptolemy III Euergetes	Statuette of Bes, dedicated by Pakher, chancellor of king Psamtek I	An Egyptian poem about the battle of Kadesh	Bishapur, Palace, Mosaic of a musician
Ladjvard, Sasanian king, perhaps Peroz	Theodosius II	Bishapur, Palace, Mosaic of man dressed as an ostrich	Sardes, Temple of Artemis, Relief of the "Mistress of the animals". (The archer partly visible to the right must be Heracles.)
Edessa, Mosaic of a lady	Smyrna, Attalus II Philadelphus	Portrait of a man, third quarter of the first century CE (the so-called "Vitellius")	Rhodes, Mycenaean cup (LH IIIa2)
Sobekhotep IV	Caere, Banditaccia necropolis, Wall painting of an archer	Chalouf, Darius' DZb inscription	Lagash, Vulture Stele, Sumerian phalanx
Bosra, Nabataean altar	Rhodes, Head-shaped aryballos	Julia Mamaea	Antiochus III the Great
Pittacus	Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Khorsabad, Iron tool
Sippar, Contract from the reign of Xerxes about a canal	Antiochus VI Dionysus	Agrippa Postumus	Susa, Apadana, Inscription DSf (Old Persian)
Susa, Relief with the sacrifice of goat	The Tyche of Antioch (figurine)	Hermopolis, Portrait of a Cleopatra I, Cleopatra II, or Berenice III	Susa, Soldiers' Relief with inscription DSm
Susa, Temple of the Šutrukids, Relief	Relief of a scribe	Ugarit, Alphabet tablet	Ptolemy X Alexander
Idalion, statue of Melqart	Khorsabad, Lamassu	Moabite warrior god	Choga Zanbil, Ziggurat, Doorknobs (Paris)
Olympia, Temple of Zeus, Model	Nineveh, Palace of Aššurbanipal, Relief of Arbela	Leo I	Informal portrait of Sobekhotep IV
Susa, Inscription of Nicocles	Cartouche of Osorkon I	Tayma, Taymanite inscription	Alexandria Troas, Psyche on a dromedary
Nimrud, Relief of an Anatolian fort	Susa, Rim of a cup with the name of Xerxes	Bishapur, Palace, Mosaic of a Dionysiac head	Susa, Achaemenid administrative document
Susa, Hellenistic or Parthian figurine of a harpist	Achaemenid jar with representation of Bes	Antioch, Judgment of Paris	Khorsabad, Lion-taming spirit ("Gilgameš")
Lambaesis, Rules for the trumpetters of III Augusta	Ugarit, Temple of Baal, Stele with the king of Ugarit in front of the god Baal Saphon	Cirta, Sanctuary of El-Hofra, Votive stela	Susa, Soldiers' Relief with inscription
Yemen, Relief of a bird eating grapes	Byblos, Temple of Baalat, Figurines	Sarcophagus with the body of Hector	Senusret III
Furnos Minus, Christian funerary mosaic	Alexandria, Alexander the Great as City Founder	POWs being led away on an Akkadian victory stele	Messalina
Byblos, Relief of a lion	Susa, Middle-Elamite basrelief of warrior gods	Didia Clara	Susa, Stone relief with a banquet scene
Socrates	Rhodes, Dish with a sphinx	Matidia	Beirut, Tombstone of Valerius Rufus of VII Claudia
Julia Domna	Hadrumetum, Sanctuary of Baal Hammon, Punic stela with three baetyls	Upper part of the Codex of Hammurabi; taken from Babylon to Susa, it was excavated in what is now Iran.	Susa, Soldiers' Relief, Sphinxes
Figurine of an Etruscan warrior	Susa, Temple of the Šutrukids, Goddess	Pharsalus, Funerary stela with a relief of a flower offering	Pyla, Temple of Apollo, Portrait of a man
Fragment of the sarcophagus of Sety II	Khorsabad, Foundation Tablet	Nicomedia, Hellenistic Funerary relief	Pupienus
Ajax and Cassandra.	Delos, Portrait of Alexander the Great	Herodes Atticus	Susa, Temple of the Šutrukids, Relief: the bull-man
Susa, Dedication to Inšušinak	Corbulo	Bawit, Icon of Christ and St.Menas	Ostracon with a Coptic Writing Exercise (Thebaid)
Sippar, Victory stela of Naram-Sin	Nectanebo I wearing the war crown	Ptolemy XII Auletes	Susa, Funerary portrait
Assos, Temple of Athena, relief, Triton	Caere, Sarcophagus of the Spouses	Nectanebo I, wearing the crown of Upper Egypt	Sallustia Orbiana
Salonina	The Azara herm	Montuhotep II wearing the red deshret crown	Taharqo venerating the falcon-god Hemen
Susa, Apadana, Inscription DSf (Babylonian)	Susa, Neo-Elamite decoration (dragon)	Old Paphos, Epitaph of King Echetimus	Boy with hoop and rooster
Statues of Sekhmet	Livia (Paris)	Berenice II	Relief of a Roman officer
Susa, Sasanian cup	Susa, Soldiers' Relief, Flowers	Titus	King Djedefra
Palmyra, Tombstone of a priest	Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Heraclius and Khusrau	Pompey the Great. Louvre, Paris (France)
Portrait of a Roman man (CE 070-100)	Aššur, Annals of Tikulti-Ninurta II	Choga Zanbil, Model	Yemen, Woman's head
Ptolemy IV Philopator	Tyre, Hellenistic building inscription from Al-Ma'shook	Susa, Weight from Didyma	Bawit, Portrait of a lady
Cleopatra VII Philopator in Egyptian style	Aegis of Osorkon IV	Khorsabad, Relief of Sargon and Sennacherib, prince Sennacherib	Apries
Ramesses IV	Osorkon I	Dedication by Ilîmagud Mayfa	Arsinoe II
Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Rhodes, Mycenaean jar with a bull (LH IIIa2)	Oea, Punic sphinx	Ur, Foundation statuette of Amar-Sin
Susa, Soldiers' Relief, Lion	Nineveh, Palace of Aššurbanipal, Sumerian-Akkadian Dictionary	Gortyn, Inscription with laws	Amulet of Darius
Apollonia, Relief of two hoplites	Shabaqo	Timna, Dedication by Rathad'il	Smyrna, Honorific decree for an officer of VI Ferrata
The Albani Alexander	Susa, Temple of the Šutrukids, Relief	Susa, Soldiers' Relief, Mythological creatures	Bottle from Tepe Hesar level II
Vase painting of an archaic Greek galley	Eretria, Two-headed phial	Thelsae, Nabataean altar	Bawit, Coptic church, Model
Tepe Sialk, Pot from the fourth millennium BCE, decorated with an ibex	Girsu, Tablet with a fragment of the Sumerian Creation Epic	Rhagae, Dancers on a piece of pottery	Beirut, Christian phylacterium, invoking the protection of several celestial beings to protect one Alexandra
Demetrius Poliorcetes	Horus, Osiris, Isis	Coptic tunic	Mask of a Sumerian
Tayma, Aramaic funerary inscription	Susa, Silver rhyton	Soknopaiou Nesos, Stele of Isis, Horus, and Cleopatra VII Philopator	Sippar, Cylinder with a building inscription from the reign of Hammurabi
Susa, Apadana, Capital	Cyrene, Statue of Antinous	Keki, the courtier	Khorsabad, Relief of Sargon and Sennacherib, king Sargon
Statuette of a hippopotamus	Saba, the Arab warrior Mushayqat Hamayat ibn Yusuf on a dromedary	Geta	Crassus
Marib, Dedication to Almaqah, detail	Artemis and Apollo killing the Niobids	Fausta	Suovetaurilia
Charlemagne	Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus	Tombstone of Iglum, son of Sa'adillat	Susa, Soldiers' Relief, Immortal, Counterweight of a spear
Drawing of Ramesses VII	Byzantine, Dromedary-shaped lamp	Rome, S. Pietro, Sarcophagus with Christ as Lawgiver	Babylonian map of the western Zagros. A road, a mountain, and a river are indicated.
Tayma, Relief of a sacrifical meal; Assyrian influence	Ptolemy II Philadelphus	Ugarit, Stele of the "smiting god"	Corinth, Small painting of Poseidon
Bowl from Tepe Hesar I	Coptic jar with decoration of a woman with wild animals	Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Susa, Apadana, Inscription DSf (Elamite)
Cherchell, Inscription of Micipsa	Khorsabad, Relief of rafts on a great river	Bishapur, Palace, Stucco apse	Aelius Caesar
Annius Verus	Cleopatra II or III as Isis	Thyatira, Relief of a gladiator (thraex)	Eshnunna, Relief of Ištar
Utica, Oil lamp with a lion and a crocodile	Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Susa, Temple of the Šutrukids, Inscription	Susa, The Awan King List
Antinoopolis, Coptic textile, Nilotic scene (including nilometer)	Khorsabad, Relief of two courtiers	Faustina II	Sobekhotep IV
Antonia Minor	Susa, Stela of Šutruru	Egypt, Byzantine textile, Erotes picking grapes	Athens, Black-figured dish with a Scythian archer
Mithridates V Euergetes	Arsinoe III	Antinoopolis, Coptic textile, Praying man with candelaber and ankh	Ptolemy IV Philopator or Ptolemy VI Philometor
Smyrna, Diadumenianus	Greek plate with a picture of the Chimaera. Louvre, Paris (France)	Utica, Oil lamp with a lion and a panther	Ptolemy I Soter
Fayyum, Coptic chalice	Nimrud, Northwest Palace of Aššurnasirpal II, Foundation Inscription	Ptolemy XI Alexander, gold sealing ring	Baalbek, Mosaic of the Birth of Paris
Athens, Heliaia, Allotment plate	Achmim, Funerary stela of Pamim	Khorsabad, Relief of Sargon and Sennacherib	Agrippa
Madaba, Funeral inscription of Itaybel	Assos, Temple of Athena, Relief of two bulls	Susa, Battle axe	Psammetichus I
Saqqara, Serapeum, Relief of Isis and Nectanebo II	Demetrius I Poliorcetes	Susa, Gold plate with royal warrior	Alexander I Balas
Amasis	Byblos, Temple of Baalat, Figurine of a bull	Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Seleucus I Nicator
Tayma, Dedication to Salm	Susa, Treaty between Naram-Sin and Elam	Drawing of Amenhotep I	Enkomi, Late Bronze pectoral with sphinxes
Megara, Figurine of two hoplites	King of the Eleventh/Twelfth Dynasty	Utica, Funeral stela	Valerian Jr
Hadrumetum, Sanctuary of Baal Hammon, Punic stela