where in the world have i gone?

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

the louvre

today we spent 4 hours at the louvre, which is way more time than i imagined staying. museums can be quite overwhelming for me, and the grandiosity of this one was no exception. it turns out that the louvre was once the royal palace and in the 1700s on of the louis decided to have an art showcase in one of the wings. over time the entire palace became the louvre. before going inside, i thought that the louvre was just within the glass pyramid (which was one of the few images i had seen), but it is in fact within an entire palace that goes around a massive courtyard in a rectangular formation.

the main attraction, of course, is the mona lisa. i had heard that looking at it was usually 20 people deep so we decided to head straight for it to get it out of the way. when we got there, there were in fact throngs of people, but we did get to see it. sadly, it is the only piece in the museum where you have to stand pretty far back, so we did not get to really look at it closely. also, it is small because we are so far back. but it was neat getting to look at it.

after looking at the mona lisa, we decided to do one of the audio guided tours. i thought this endeavor would be a lot easier than it was. oh, how i miss the days when they just gave you headphones and told you about the works (aka...you just had to follow the numbers). this gadget was interactive so you were allegedly supposed to be able to follow the arrows on the screen and follow the tour. as simple as this sounds, i could not figure out how to follow the map/arrows. surprise, surprise. so at one point i lost annette in this monstrosity of a cavernous pit and i could not follow the tour because i had no idea where i was. i felt like a little kid being encircled by the jaws of the grown up world. it was pathetic. so as annette was off, skipping about and doing her tour, i was trudging about, like a lost lamb, fearing the slaughter. i eventually found her, but i did miss a chunk of the tour. luckily, once i found her i just stuck to her like peanut butter to jelly because she actually knew how to work this high tech, futuristic machine. i honestly believe you need a PHd in mechanical engineering to be able to navigate it. surprisingly, there seemed to be hundreds of people who were able to navigate it and did not have that look of pathetic concentration on their faces as i did. children under the age of 12 included.



a sculpture... cupid and psyche.. .this is supposed to be one of the most romantic stories of roman history... but i have a bit of a hard time with it... see if you can see why... basically, cupid shuns and ejects psyche (his lover) from his life because she disobeys him (blah, blah, blah, blah) and so she becomes the servant of his mother, venus. one day venus sends psyche off on an errand to pick up a goblet of some liquid, but not to open it. of course, in common tragic form, psyche opens it and is cursed by death for her obvious disobedience... and then death strikes her (or at least is about to), but then cupid, the one who banished her in the first place, comes out of nowhere to give her a kiss and save her from her potential death. a beautiful sculpture and a tragic story...but i have a hard time finding the romance in it...





the slaves by michelangelo... there is the rebellious slave (who is obviously trying to escape the entrapments of his destiny) and the submissive slave (who is aware of his destiny and has given in)... que tragique, no? this was one of the works that michelangelo was working on, before being called away to work in the sistine chapel... alas, they were never completed...



me trying to look intelligent (but really nothing going on inside that big head of mine), trying to figure out the stupid louvre navigation machine. i look a lot more confident than i actually was...



and, of course, the mona lisa... la joconde...

1 comment:

Rania said...

You are standing in front of the Mona Lisa!! How incredible!

AND you were in Picasso's neighborhood?? So hard to believe.