Paris, Louvre

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 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.

260 pictures related to this museum

Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Byblos, Temple of Baalat, Figurines	Suovetaurilia	Enkomi, Late Bronze pectoral with sphinxes
Agrippa Postumus	An Egyptian poem about the battle of Kadesh	Temple of the Šutrukids, inscription	Keki, the courtier
Portrait of a Roman man (CE 070-100)	Tayma, Taymanite inscription	Sherd from the fourth millennium BCE	Temple of the Šutrukids, goddess
Byblos, Relief of a lion	Drawing of Amenhotep I	Nectanebo I, wearing the crown of Upper Egypt	Tombstone of Iglum, son of Sa'adillat
Statues of Sekhmet	Funeral inscription of Itaybel	Babylonian map of the western Zagros. A road, a mountain, and a river are indicated.	Didia Clara
Ptolemy X Alexander	Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Susa, Soldiers' Relief, sphinxes	Aegis of Osorkon IV
Boy with hoop and rooster	Ptolemy IV Philopator or Ptolemy VI Philometor	Statuette of an Etruscan warrior	Artemis and Apollo killing the Niobids
Dedication by Ilîmagud Mayfa	Statuette of Bes, dedicated by Pakher, chancellor of king Psamtek I	Rhodes, Mycenaean cup (LH IIIa2)	Punic sphinx
Temple of the Šutrukids, relief	Corbulo	Figurine from Bactria	Tayma, Dedication to Salm
The Azara herm	Khorsabad, Lamassu	Leo I	Yemen, Relief of a bird eating grapes
Rhodes, Bull on a Mycenaean jar (LH IIIa2)	King of the Eleventh/Twelfth Dynasty	Mosaic of a musician	Susa, DSf (Elamite)
Portrait of a man, third quarter of the first century CE (the so-called "Vitellius")	Byblos, Temple of Baalat, Figurine of a bull	Darius' DZb inscription	Ptolemy I Soter
Relief of an Anatolian fort (from the Assyrian city Nimrud)	Susa, Soldiers' Relief, lion	The Azara herm	Ugarit, Alphabet tablet
Shabaqo	Scythian archer on an Athenian dish	Susa, Soldiers' Relief, lion	Mosaic of the Birth of Paris
Cleopatra II or III as Isis	Khorsabad, Foundation Tablet	Julia Domna	Aelius Caesar
Arsinoe II	Statuette of a hippopotamus	Pot from the fourth millennium BCE	Eretria, Two-headed phial
Sasanian cup	Apollonia, Relief of two hoplites	Caere, Sarcophagus of the Spouses	Demetrius Poliorcetes
Cartouche of Osorkon I	Yemen, Dromedary pendant	Marib, Dedication to Almaqah	Ptolemy XII Auletes
Immortal (Susa)	The Albani Alexander	Rules for the trumpetters of III Augusta (EDCS-11000956)	Agrippa
Justinian (Barberini Ivory)	Khorsabad, Relief of rafts on a great river	Apollonia, Relief to commemorate the battle of Actium	Tablet from Girsu with a fragment of a Sumerian Creation Epic
Hellenistic or Parthian figurine of a harpist	Osorkon I	A bowl from Tepe Hesar I	Kition, Statuette of a woman
Corinth, Small painting of Poseidon	Sobekhotep IV	POWs being led away on an Akkadian victory stele	Mask of a Sumerian
Persian nobleman; statue from Egypt	The Azara herm	Tyre, Hellenistic building inscription from Al-Ma'shook	Susa, DSf (Babylonian)
Mosaic of man dressed as an ostrich	Statue of queen Napirasu, wife of Untaš-Napiriša	Smyrna, Honorific decree for an officer of VI Ferrata	Alexander, statuette from Lower Egypt
Utica, Oil lamp	Dancers on a very ancient piece of pottery from Rhagae	Marib, Dedication to Almaqah, detail	Head of Croesus on a Greek vase
Ramesses IV	A Christian phylacterium, invoking the protection of several celestial beings to protect one Alexandra	Giza, Diner of Nefer	Titus
Stele of the "smiting god" from Ugarit.	Susa, weight from Didyma	Antioch, Judgment of Paris	Bottle from Tepe Hesar level II
Rome, S. Pietro, Sarcophagus with Christ as Lawgiver	Stele of Šutruru	Rhodes, Dish with a sphinx	Susa, Apadana, capital
King Djedefra	The body of Hector	Socrates	Saba, the Arab warrior Mushayqat Hamayat ibn Yusuf on a dromedary
Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Roman officer	Tydeus painter, Hoplite battle	Susa, Soldiers' Relief
Theodosius II	Model of a tower	Senusret III	Ugarit, Temple of Baal, Stele with the king of Ugarit in front of the god Baal Saphon
Susa, Soldiers' Relief with inscription	Senusret III	Cyprus, bilingual inscription	Temple of Athena, relief, symposium
Middle-Elamite basrelief of warrior gods	The Mesha Stela	Gold plate with royal warrior	Herodes Atticus
Apries	Aglibol (Moon), Ba'al Šamem (Lord of Heaven), and Malekbel (Sun)	Alexander IV	A stucco apse
Crassus	Megara, Figurine of two hoplites	Arsinoe III	Susa, DSf (Old Persian)
King Sargon II (right) and his crown prince Sennacherib (left)	Antiochus III the Great	Taharqo venerating the falcon-god Hemen	Susa, Soldiers' Relief, flowers
Pittacus	The Azara herm	Susa, neo-Elamite decoration	Ptolemy IV Philopator
The counterweight of a spear	Demetrius Poliorcetes	Gortyn, Inscription with laws	Montuhotep II wearing the red deshret crown
Bosra, Nabataean altar	Seleucus I Nicator	Relief of a scribe	Ajax and Cassandra.
Kition, Egyptianizing capital	Greek plate with a picture of the Chimaera. Louvre, Paris (France)	Temple of Athena, relief, bulls	Treaty between Naram-Sin and Elam
Yemen, Woman's head	Temple of the Šutrukids, relief: the bull-man	Vase painting of an archaic Greek galley	Temple of Athena, relief, Triton
Old Paphos, Epitaph of King Echetimus	Nineveh, Palace of Aššurbanipal, Sumerian-Akkadian Dictionary	Geta	Achaemenid administrative document
Nineveh, Palace of Aššurbanipal, Relief of Arbela	Pompey the Great. Louvre, Paris (France)	Fragment of the sarcophagus of Sety II	Battle axe
Livia	Esarhaddon and his mother attend the restoration of Babylon	The "Mistress of the animals": slab from the original temple of Artemis. The archer partly visible to the right must be Heracles	Timna, Dedication by Rathad'il
Tyche (figurine)	Stele of Adda-hamiti-Inšušinak	Nicomedia, Hellenistic Funerary relief	Utica, Oil lamp
Susa, Soldiers' Relief with inscription	Sasanian king, perhaps Peroz	Khorsabad, Relief of two courtiers	Antonia Minor
Relief with the sacrifice of goat	A Sumerian phalanx on the Vulture Stele from Lagash	Temple of the Šutrukids, relief	Ptolemy III Euergetes
Valerian Jr	Stele of Isis, Horus, and Cleopatra VII Philopator	Khorsabad, Iron tool	Letter from Artabanus II, requesting the appointment of one Hecataeus as treasurer
Sphinx with the portrait of king Siamun	Heraclius and Khusrau	Isis and Nectanebo II (Serapeum, Saqqara)	The Azara herm
Statuette of Raherka, inspector of the scribes, and his wife Merseanch	A Ptolemaic queen (Cleopatra I, Cleopatra II or Berenice III)	Rhodes, Head-shaped aryballos	Dedication to Inšušinak
Amasis	Smyrna, Diadumenianus	Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus	Olympia, Temple of Zeus, Model
Stone relief with a banquet scene	Imperator inscription (EDCS-05600393)	Ptolemy II Philadelphus	Matidia
Statuette of a Libyan	Caere, Banditaccia necropolis, Wall painting of an archer	Amulet of Darius	Nimrud, Northwest Palace of Aššurnasirpal II, Foundation Inscription
Dionysiac head	Rim of a cup with the name of Xerxes	Akhenaten and Nefertiti	Ptolemy XI Alexander, gold sealing ring
Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Merenptah	Upper part of the Codex of Hammurabi; taken from Babylon to Susa, it was excavated in what is now Iran.
Cleopatra VII in Egyptian style	Informal portrait of Sobekhotep IV	Idalion, statue of Melqart	Funerary portrait
The Awan King List	Charlemagne	Aššur, Annals of Tikulti-Ninurta II	Susa, Silver rhyton
Nectanebo I wearing the war crown	Stone fish	Psamtek I	Ramesses VII
Doorknobs from Choga Zanbil (Paris)	Messalina	Utica, Funeral stela	Portait of a priest
Horus, Osiris, Isis (from the reign of Osorkon II)	Alexander the Great as founder of Alexandria	Idalion, orientalizing gold dish	Berenice II
Alexander the Great. Portrait from Delos	Salonina	Khorsabad, Lion-taming spirit ("Gilgameš")	Susa, Soldiers' Relief, mythological creatures
Thelsae, Nabataean altar	Inscription of Nicocles	Faustina II	Antinous
Annius Verus	Fausta	Moabite warrior god	Julia Mamaea
Flower offering on a funeral stela from Pharsalus	Sobekhotep IV	Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Susa, Soldiers' Relief
Sallustia Orbiana	Portrait of a man from the Temple of Apollo in Pyla	Middle-Elamite model of a sun ritual	Pupienus