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 a 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 gallery 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 recently 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 diplomas, 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

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