The collection includes the statue of Venus, the Mona Lisa oil painting and the stone carving of the goddess of victory, as well as a large number of antiques from Greece, Rome, Egypt and the East, as well as ancient relics from France and Italy. The exhibition area is 55,000 square meters and the collection is 25,000 pieces.
History of the Louvre
The Louvre has a very tortuous and complicated history, intertwined with the history of Paris and even France. People come here to see the world-famous artistic treasures with their own eyes, and also to see the Louvre itself, because it is not only a great artistic masterpiece, but also a witness to the history of France in the past thousand years. There used to be 50 French kings and queens living here, and many famous artists also lived here.
The Louvre was built in 1 190, when it was just the castle of Philip August II Fryderyk Moncny Palace. During the Crusades, in order to defend the northern Paris area, Philip II built a castle leading to the Seine River here in 1200, which was mainly used to store royal archives and treasures, as well as his dogs and prisoners of war. At that time, it was called the Louvre. During the period of Charles V, the Louvre was used as a palace, which made it a completely different building. In the next 350 years, with the increasing demands of the royal family for pleasure, they constantly added gorgeous towers and unique rooms. However, during the whole 150 years, there was no king living in the Louvre. /kloc-In the middle of the 6th century, after Francis I succeeded to the throne, he demolished this palace. He ordered the architect Pierre Leiskow to rebuild a palace on the basis of the original castle. Francis also asked the famous painter at that time to paint his portrait. He worshiped Italian painters and bought the paintings of Ferro, the most famous Italian painter at that time. Including the Mona Lisa and other treasures. After Francis I's son Henry II ascended the throne, he rebuilt everything his father destroyed. Henry likes the decoration of French Renaissance architecture, but he is not interested in Italian architecture. He followed his father's hobby, but he didn't have the same aesthetic view as his father.
During the reign of Henry IV, it took him 13 years to build the grand gallery, the most spectacular part of the Louvre. This is a 300-meter-long gorgeous corridor, which is very long. Henry planted trees, raised birds and dogs here, and even chased foxes in the corridor on horseback. Louis XIV was a famous king in French history. He is called the king of the sun. He was only five years old when he became king, and he has been king in the Louvre for 72 years-the longest period in French history. Louis XIV built the Louvre into a square courtyard and built a magnificent gallery outside the courtyard. He bought paintings from various European schools, including Kardashian, Rembrandt and others. He was obsessed with art and architecture all his life, leaving the French treasury empty. During the reign of Louis XVI, the famous 1789 Revolution broke out, and the first guillotine of the French Revolution was built in the courtyard of the "Arena" in the Louvre. 1792 On May 27th, the National Assembly announced that the Louvre would belong to the public and become a public museum. This situation lasted for six years until Napoleon I moved into the Louvre.
Napoleon built more houses around the building, reinforced the wings of the palace and built arches in the courtyard of the arena. The first carved horses on the arch were taken from St. Kyle's Church in Venice. Napoleon decorated the Louvre in an unprecedented way. He moved the best works of art that other European countries could provide to the Louvre. Napoleon continued to expand outward and dominate Europe, so thousands of tons of works of art were transported to Paris from halls, libraries and Catholic churches in all conquered countries. Napoleon renamed the Louvre Museum Napoleon Museum, and the huge corridor was also full of works of art he plundered. In the Louvre, Napoleon's glory lasted for 12 years until the fiasco of the Battle of Waterloo. For Napoleon, every work of genius must belong to France. This view is unacceptable to Germans, Italians, Spaniards and Dutch. After Napoleon stepped down, they came to the Louvre, and about 5,000 works of art were returned to their original owners. However, due to French diplomatic means and French persuasion, many artworks he plundered remained in the Louvre. Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte was an ambitious emperor. He is the "architect" who has invested the most since the Louvre was built. More buildings were built in five years than those built in 700 years ago. The grand design idea of three centuries ago was left to Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte to complete. When completed, the Louvre became a place for royal celebrations. Gorgeous is the characteristic of anything built by Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte. In this way, it was not until Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte that the entire magnificent building complex of the Louvre was completed, which lasted nearly 600 years.
Six exhibition halls of Louvre
According to statistics, there are more than 400,000 art treasures from all over the world in the Louvre Palace. The French exhibited these art treasures in six exhibition halls according to their sources and types, namely Oriental Art Museum, Ancient Greek and Roman Art Museum, Ancient Egyptian Art Museum, Treasure Museum, Painting Museum and Sculpture Museum. Among them, the painting museum has the largest number of exhibits and the largest area. There are 198 pavilions in the Louvre area, the largest of which is 205 meters long. Obviously, it is impossible to appreciate all the rare treasures in a day or two. Therefore, if you want to visit the Louvre, you must first make a plan to visit six exhibition halls one by one, so don't rush to visit. If you have enough time, you can savor it; If time is tight, you can choose representative art exhibits to watch.
Oriental Art Museum
Oriental Art Museum was built in 188 1, with 24 exhibition halls and 3,500 exhibits. These exhibits mainly come from West Asia and North Africa, including Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, Iran and other countries. These exhibits come from a very long time, such as statues in 2500 BC, stone carvings in 2270 BC and clay sculptures fired in 2000 BC. One of the most famous is the majestic winged bull face statue (8th century BC). It once guarded the gate of Assyrian King Sargon II's palace in Dursharukin (now Iraqi Herr Schabad). These huge sphinxes came to France and experienced a tortuous history. 1843, a Frenchman, Paul-Emile Botha, discovered these statues and took all kinds of risks to transport them to Paris. Two of the statues were exhibited at the First Assyrian Museum in the Louvre in 1847, and the third statue survived a shipwreck in a shallow salt lake and was transported to Paris in 1856. The fourth statue sank to the bottom of the lake and was replaced by a plaster statue. The fifth statue is the only bull that turns its head to tourists. In the fourth exhibition hall of the Museum of Oriental Ancient Literature, there is a familiar cultural relic: code of hammurabi, which comes from Babylon around 2000 BC and has 282 pieces, carved on a black basalt with zigzag characters on it. Basalt is 2.5 meters high, with 282 fa in the middle. The characters in the upper part are like the sitting God of Justice issuing laws to the standing King Hammurabi, and the king thanked him with his right hand to show his respect for the laws issued by God.
Museum of ancient Egyptian art
The Museum of Ancient Egyptian Art was established in 1826, earlier than the Oriental Art Museum, with 23 exhibition halls and 350 precious cultural relics. These cultural relics include costumes, ornaments, toys and musical instruments used by residents on the west bank of the Nile in ancient times. There are also broken walls, doorways, mummies and heads of ancient Egyptian temples in 2600 BC. The Museum of Ancient Greek and Roman Art was built earlier and exhibited to the public at about 1800, with a large collection of about 7,000 pieces. The collections of the ancient Greek and Roman art galleries are all based on the collections of the French royal family. After the victory in Italy, the French army led by Napoleon robbed many ancient Italian artworks and shipped them back to France, enriching the Louvre. Later, France continuously enriched its collection from various aspects. Sculpture occupies a dominant position in the museum, including marble, copper, ivory and so on. In the art galleries of ancient Greece and Rome, there are two most remarkable immortal works praised by the world, one is "the goddess of victory in Sumtra" and the other is Venus, the god of love.
The "Victory Goddess of Sumteras" was created in the 3rd century BC and stands on a stone pier with a height of 3.28m.. This is a headless statue with no hands, which was excavated in the temple ruins of Las Island, sumter in 1863. Although the statue lost her hands and head, she can be seen spreading her wings in the wind and holding her head high, announcing the victory of a war to the world. According to research, it was made by sculptors to commemorate a successful naval battle in Rhode Island, Greece. The goddess of victory leaned forward slightly in the wind, and her strong chest was covered with a thin robe. She is strong, light and rich in texture. Although the goddess lost her head and arms, she is still complete and perfect in people's eyes. Now, the goddess of victory attracts the attention of thousands of people every day and becomes the most perfect work showing enthusiasm and dynamics among known statues. Venus is more familiar to people. She is 2.02 meters tall and was created in the 2nd century. She is a beautiful goddess in Greece, and I don't know how many admirers she has fallen. Every day, her surroundings are crowded with audiences. She is semi-naked, extremely dignified and natural, and is regarded as the most outstanding work to express female beauty.
It is very accidental that Venus can be collected in the Louvre. 1820, a farmer on Milo Island in the Aegean Sea of Greece discovered a beautiful god while digging. When the news came out, there happened to be a French warship moored in Milo Port. After hearing the news, the captain rushed to the scene immediately and wanted to buy it, but there was no cash. As a result, Venus was bought by a Greek businessman and was ready to be shipped to Constantinople. Seeing that the treasure was about to be lost, the French were unwilling and immediately sailed to stop it. There was a scuffle between the two sides, which caused the treasure to be damaged and the statue arm to be broken. After the dispute between the two sides, the local authorities in Milo came forward to solve it, and the French bought the statue with money and contributed it to the French king. In this way, "Venus" was transported to France, which immediately caused a sensation at that time.
Painting gallery
The comprehensiveness and preciousness of the paintings collected by the Louvre Painting Museum are unmatched by other art galleries in the world. There are 35 exhibition halls and more than 2,200 exhibits, of which two thirds are works by French painters and one third are from foreign painters. Exhibition 14 to 19 th century works of various painting schools. Outstanding works include: Foucault's Image of Charles VII (/kloc-5th century), Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Rock (/kloc-6th century), Raphael's Beautiful Gardener (/kloc-0th century) and Renan's Farmer (/kloc-0th century). The coronation ceremony of Napoleon I held by Louis David in Notre Dame de Paris (19th century), Chopin in Delacroix (19th century), Harman in Angel (19th century), etc. Among all the paintings, the most outstanding and striking one is Leonardo da Vinci's immortal masterpiece Mona Lisa completed in 1503. The Mona Lisa was placed in a hall in the middle of the second floor of the Louvre, covered with glass, which is obviously a special protection. The soft light around the glass cover is enough for the audience to see all the details of the picture. Mona Lisa, also known as Eternal Smile, is considered to be the first work that pays attention to psychological description in the history of western European painting. Mona Lisa is dignified and handsome with a deep and gentle smile on her face. That smile sometimes makes you feel gentle and intoxicating; Sometimes it seems to contain sadness, seems to be sadness; Sometimes it's a bit ridiculous. Although it's beautiful and touching, it's a bit inaccessible ... What's even better is that in front of this famous painting, no matter from which angle you look at it, her gentle eyes always look at you with a smile, vivid and unusual, as if she were beside you.
Statue hall
Founded in 18 17, the Statue Museum has 27 exhibition halls, and 1000 exhibits, most of which are works showing religious themes, and some are works showing human bodies and animals. Here you can see the painted woodcut "The Head of the Crucifixion", "Jesus on the Cross", "The Virgin and the Angel", the Italian sculpture "The Virgin and the Child",/kloc-Louis XIV in childhood in the 7th century,/kloc-Voltaire in the 8th century, and/kloc-group sculptures in the 9th century. Treasure Hall Treasure Hall was originally a part of the Statue Hall. Later, due to the increase in the collection of treasures, an independent exhibition hall was formed from 65438 to 0893. At first, the exhibits in the Treasure Hall were mainly treasures confiscated from the royal family during the Great Revolution. Later, the museum organizers bought everywhere, and with donations, the exhibits were greatly enriched, and now there are more than 6,000 exhibits. Among them, there are large diamonds weighing 137 carats, crowns studded with precious stones, gilded statues of the Virgin Mary, furniture and decorative appliances of royal families in past dynasties, etc.
Building structure
The Louvre Museum is famous in the world, not only because of its rich and precious exhibits, but also because the museum itself is an outstanding art building. According to statistics, the Louvre Museum covers an area of 19 hectares, including the courtyard. It is located on the right bank of the Seine from east to west, with a length of 690 meters on both sides. The whole building is very magnificent. Hundreds of spacious halls used to display treasures are magnificent, and there are exquisite murals and exquisite reliefs on the walls and top of the hall, which are the crystallization of painstaking art everywhere, which is amazing. Visiting this art palace is also an unforgettable enjoyment. In the course of hundreds of years of historical development, the Louvre has always been a relatively scattered building complex at first, and it has not formed a whole as it does today. This situation changed after 198 1 year. 198 1 In September, francois mitterrand promised to "restore the Louvre to its original appearance" at a press conference after being elected president of the French Republic, with the intention of letting the Ministry of Finance move out of the "Li Sailiu Wing". "Li Sailiu Wing" was built between 1852 and 1857, with a length of195m and a width of 80m. It is a part of the Louvre and has been occupied by the Ministry of Finance since 187 1. 1In July, 989, douard balladur, then Minister of Finance, left this pleasant place after repeated requests. With the recovery and opening of "Wings of Li Sailiu", the exhibition area of the Louvre increased by 21.5000 square meters, three courtyards and 1.65 new exhibition halls were added, and * * * exhibited1.2000 artworks, of which 3000 were taken out from the storage room, thus greatly increasing the exhibits of the Louvre Museum.
Louvre pyramid
Another contribution of President Mitterrand to the Louvre Museum is that he invited the famous Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei to design a new entrance for the museum. After careful consideration, Mr. I.M. Pei put forward a plan to build a "pyramid". This "pyramid" adds new luster to the Louvre Museum and Paris. With this "pyramid", the audience's visit route is more reasonable. Here, the audience can go directly to their favorite exhibition hall, instead of going to one exhibition hall as in the past, they have to go through several other exhibition halls, sometimes even going around 700 meters. In a modern museum, logistics service facilities generally account for half of the total area. In the past, only 20% of the Louvre Museum was used for logistics. With this "pyramid", the museum will have enough service space, including reception hall, office, storage room, ticket office, post office, canteen, locker room, lounge and so on. The service function of Louvre Museum will be more perfect.
Opening hours and prices
Tickets: full-time tickets, 8.5 euros/person (except temporary exhibitions); Tickets for Wednesday and Friday nights (18: 00 to 2 1: 45) are 6 euros per person (except temporary exhibitions); Temporary exhibition tickets, 8.5 euros/person;
Joint ticket (including temporary exhibition and permanent exhibition), 13 euro/person; The coupon for Wednesday and Friday nights (18: 00 to 2 1: 45) is 1 1 euro/person (including temporary exhibitions and permanent exhibitions).
/kloc-tourists under the age of 0/8, disabled people, art teachers and unemployed people who have been receiving relief for less than 6 months enter the Louvre free of charge; Visitors under the age of 26 are free on Friday night (18: 00 to 2 1: 45).
Opening hours: 09: 00 to 18: 00, Wednesday to Friday, and 2 1: 45. It closes every Tuesday. In addition, public holidays such as 65438+1 October 1, May1,August 15 and February 25th, 65438 are closed to the public.
Because of the limited manpower, the opening hours of the exhibition hall of the Louvre vary within a week;
Sculpture Hall: The exhibition hall showing Italian and Spanish sculptures from the 20th century to the 6th century and the exhibition hall showing Nordic sculptures from the 6th century are closed on Friday night, while other exhibition halls are open all day.
Painting Gallery: Exhibitions 4 to 16 are closed on Fridays and Thursdays, Exhibitions 2 to/39 are closed on Mondays, Exhibitions A to F are closed on Fridays, Mondays and Saturdays, Exhibitions A to C and/kloc-0 to 49 are closed on Mondays, Exhibitions 34 to 49 are closed on Sundays, and Exhibitions 50 to 73 are closed on Thursdays. The pavilion will be closed on Friday and Sunday from 50 to 63, 15 to 25, 27 to 3 1 pavilion will be closed on Monday, Wednesday, Sunday and Friday, and other pavilions will be open all day;
Ancient Egyptian Art Museum: Hall 2 will be closed from Friday to 19, Hall 20 to Hall 26 will be closed from Monday to Saturday, and other exhibition halls will be open all day;
Museum of Ancient Greek and Roman Art: No.39 to No.47 are closed every Wednesday and Friday night, No.7, 14, 15 and 16 are closed, and other exhibition halls are open all day;
Near East Art Museum: 1-8 is closed on Wednesday night, and 9-2 1 is closed on Wednesday night and Friday.
Louvre Museum of History: It is open to the public from 9:00- 18:00 on Mondays and closed at other times.
Museum of American Civilization in Asia, Africa and Latin America: closed on Friday; The Islamic Art Museum is open all day;