Louvre Museum

Louvre Masterpieces

Aphrodite, known as the Venus de Milo

• Found in fragments on the Greek island of Melos (Milos) in 1820
• King Louis XVIII handed it over to the Louvre in 1821
• Unlike most Greek statues, which are actually Roman copies, this is a genuinely Greek example
• The properly proportioned dimensions of the body are noteworthy
• Its original appearance still remains a mystery, with speculations about its missing arms.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace
• Denon wing
• Found on the island of Samothrace in the Sanctuary of the Great Gods
• Originally placed in a high position in the sanctuary
• Depicts a woman with wings perched on the prow of a ship
• Initially displayed without the wings or ship, the complete ensemble was perceived 10 years later and underwent restoration.

Slaves by Michelangelo
• The two sculptures represent two slaves in different postures – The Rebellious Slave and The Dying Slave
• The work was commissioned to Michelangelo for a funerary monument to the Pope, but the project was abandoned, leaving the pieces unfinished.

Mona Lisa
•Painted by Leonardo da Vinci’s using sfumato technique
•Sfumato is a technique that employs subtle gradations of light and shadow to create shape.
•The painting depicts a figure with a sculptural face revealing da Vinci’s knowledge of the skull under the skin.
•Many art historians think the picture depicts Madam Lisa Giocondo, the wife of a rich Florentine (because of Giorgio Vasari’s biography of Leonardo da Vinci)

The Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo Caliari, known as Veronese
• It is the largest painting in the Louvre, covering 70 square meters
• Located on the opposite side of the Mona Lisa
• It was commissioned to decorate the refectory of a monastery in Venice
• It was confiscated in 1797 by Napoleon’s troops and sent to Paris
• The author transposed the biblical scene to the setting of a Venetian banquet.

The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault
• Denon wing
• Became part of the Louvre collection in 1824 after the painter’s death
• Illustrates the dramatic scene of the French ship Medusa’s shipwreck in 1816 off the African coast
• The ship drifted for 12 days, and only 15 of the 150 people on board survived
• In preparation, the artist spent 8 months visiting morgues and hospitals, observing the dead and dying.

Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix
• Denon wing
• Probably Delacroix’s most famous work
• Depicts a barricade during the three-day Parisian revolt in July 1830 (not the French Revolution of 1789, as is commonly believed)
• The allegorical figure of Liberty is the central element.

Great Sphinx of Tanis
• The sphinx was located in the temple dedicated to the god Amun-Ra.
• It has a lion body representing the god Horus and a human head representing the king.

The ‘Seated Scribe’
• It is one of the most iconic pieces in the Louvre museum
• It is unknown who it represents, as the base where the figure’s name could be found has never been found.

Code of Hammurabi
• A piece from Mesopotamia that is one of the oldest legal texts ever found, predating the Bible, for example.
• The Babylonian king Hammurabi had similar stelae carved for distribution throughout the kingdom.
• It has 300 inscribed articles in cuneiform writing, establishing examples of which punishments should be applied for various crimes.

The Private Apartments of the Minister
• A set of rooms where the State Minister and his family lived (small apartments) and where formal receptions were held (large apartments).
• Commonly referred to as Napoleon III’s apartments because of their decorative style.
• The emperor and his family did not live here, but rather in the now-vanished Tuileries Palace.

The Pyramid by Ming Pei
• Built between 1985 and 1989
• It is 19 meters high
• Its construction generated some controversy due to fears that it would detract from the rest of the architecture
• However, it became one of the Louvre’s most iconic and economical features.