Saturday at the Louvre - Public entry

[avari_elf]

Saturday I went to the Louvre museum to follow a guided visit. I love their guided visits, the people leading them are brilliant.
So, yesterday the theme was "XVIth century Italian sculpture". The man guiding us was really interesting, and he wrote his thesis on S. Stefano Rotondo, so I totally heart him

Comments

[danalwyn]

The art that you've got pictures of looks fantastic (even if I'm not the world's biggest Michaelangelo fan). I've only ever seen two Michaelangelo collections, the one at the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, that houses the impressive David as well as a few other works, and the Vatican's collection-of which I remember little except the Pieta. I do remember seeing his Moses at St. Peter-in-Chains, but I was not as impressed by that (it seemed a bit small). I didn't know the the Louvre had such an impressive collection of his stuff, especially since it seems a bit heavy to haul all the way up to Paris.

I'm more of a Bernini person, and I was fascinated by the Borghese, which is really a nice museum. His sculptures seemed more lifelike than Michaelangelo's at times, and they had that smooth and delicate finish that I think Michaelangelo never quite mastered. Especially when it came to fine details in action, but then again, Bernini had more advanced technology that allowed for several different poses-and even he had to cheat from time to time. Michaelangelo did the best he could with what he had. Then again, that's my opinion, and it's probably why I've never been considered an art critic of any sort.

I always felt sorry for Charles V, even when he nearly destroyed Rome. He was a guy with an impossible job, and no clue how to do it.
Maybe I'll make it out to the Louvre one day to check it out. Now if only I could find a good historical museum.

[avari_elf]

I really want to visit Rome and Florence one day. In Italy I know pretty well Venice and Sicily, but that's all, and I'm really dying to see the other cities.

I didn't know the the Louvre had such an impressive collection of his stuff, especially since it seems a bit heavy to haul all the way up to Paris.

I think the Louvre just as these two sculptures - which is already quite a gift, of course. If I remember correctly, my mother told me there were also around 40 drawings of him at the Louvre, but I'm not sure they're shown to the public as they're quite fragile.
And yes, I'm always surprised by all these things we managed to bring back from other countries. For example, in the same where the Mona lisa is exposed, there's also Paolo Veronese's Marriage at Cana (this one). It's huge, like 10x7 meters and it must have been something to bring it back from Italy in 1797 during the Revolution wars in Italy, even if you can roll the canvas up.

I'm more of a Bernini person

There are 6 Bernini at the Louvre (I cheated: I looked on the Louvre website, who has a great atlas and search engine in several languages). I love his David, but I'm afraid I'm partial to Michelangelo, who was such a force of nature - something you can sense through his work. But I'm no art expert either. I just "feel" more from Michelangelo's sculptures :)

One anecdote we were told about him amused me a lot, and made me think about his personality too. You know that he believed his work was to free the forms that were already inside the stone, so one day, he was finishing a Moses when suddenly he violently hit the knee of the statue with a hammer, shouting: "Why don't you speak to me?".

You can't stay indifferent to someone like that :)

I always felt sorry for Charles V, even when he nearly destroyed Rome. He was a guy with an impossible job, and no clue how to do it.

I feel more sorry for the Romans of the time, myself (I'm poking fun at you). Anyway, I think the whole affair was made worse by the fact that Charles' troops held a high proportion of the soldier s animated by an "anti-papist" crusading spirit, as the cries of "Vivat Lutherus pontifex" were heard.
Anyway, this is how some monks resumed the whole thing: "mali fuere Germani, pejores Itali, Hispani vero pessimi": the Germans were bad, the Italians even more, the Spaniards were the worse.