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

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