{"id":1200,"date":"2013-05-13T08:23:15","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T13:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/?p=1200"},"modified":"2025-06-04T16:44:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T21:44:47","slug":"how-do-you-know-youre-in-a-world-class-museum-lessons-from-the-louvre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/2013\/05\/13\/how-do-you-know-youre-in-a-world-class-museum-lessons-from-the-louvre\/","title":{"rendered":"How do you know you\u2019re in a world class museum? Lessons from the Louvre"},"content":{"rendered":"

There were a lot of tips today that we were in a world-class museum.\u00a0\u00a0Here are some that spring to mind:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The line for admission goes half way around the block.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s for those who were smart enough to reserve via the internet.\u00a0\u00a0The other line goes around the block and then some.\u00a0 Fortunately, our guide gave us a few tips; get there early and go to the nearby tobacco store that sells tickets. That was almost an oops, too.\u00a0\u00a0Ella and I got to the tobacco store in the Louvre Mall (you read that right) just as the mall opened (8:30) only to discover that we needed cash, and of course the first ATM machine was down.\u00a0 Happily, there were several others nearby, and so we were able to get the tickets, so that when students joined us at 9:45 we were able to go right in.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On your way to the 24 pictures\/sculptures on the list you compiled of \u201cmust sees,\u201d you spot one or two that are not on the list and a light bulb goes off, \u201cOh, THIS is where THAT is.\u201d<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You are in to finding number 12 and three hours have already passed.\u00a0\u00a0Part of it is that the map is largely useless because some corridor is closed for renovation, and like most maps, it\u2019s most useful for people who don\u2019t need a map.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You can tell where most of those 24 pictures are because the 8 million people visiting the Louvre today have chosen that time to get in front of you and dawdle while you\u2019re trying to take the picture to prove that, yes, you did see the Mona Lisa (and realize it\u2019s smaller than you thought, and not just because there are a hundred people between you and it)<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One of the twenty four pictures you had to see is on loan.\u00a0\u00a0If you want to see Delacroix\u2019s Liberty, you\u2019ll have to come back\u2014or go the museum which currently houses it.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Your feet start hurting and you realize it\u2019s only four hours, and there are still ten pictures and sculptures left.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the case of the Louvre, you\u2019re so dazzled by the art that you fail to \"\"<\/a>realize that you\u2019re in one of the largest palaces in Europe, one that might have shamed even Versailles had it not been pillaged during the Revolution.\u00a0\u00a0As you sit down and pray for strength, you look up, and, by golly, there\u2019s an enormous ceiling painting that some famous artist had painted just for the Bourbon family to see.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You can spend as much time as you want in the bookstore, but no book will capture what you saw; most will be expensive, and all will weigh too much to take home with you.<\/p>\n

–\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You are inevitably sidetracked by something you didn\u2019t come to see\u2014such as the wonderful\u00a0\u00a0Greek and Egyptian exhibits you did not know the Louvre had\u2014that all of a sudden you realize time is fleeting and you have 8 other museums, possibly today, or else you\u2019ll have to come back to Paris (not all bad!).<\/p>\n

I think you get the picture, which is what you should do at an art museum. The building is a treat, having been the home of one of the richest kings in Europe at a time when monarchs could spend the country\u2019s wealth on themselves (wasn\u2019t it Louis XIV who declared, \u201cI am the state?\u201d ) and like the Bourbons, whose former palace became an art museum, the Romanovs in St. Petersburg saw (those who survived that revolution) their Winter Palace turned into an art museum\u2014the Hermitage.<\/p>\n

\"\"Most of the traffic in the Louvre, not surprisingly, was in the European section, where it has a strong holding in pictures of and about the French Revolution (not the collection of the Bourbons!)\u2014Ingres and David and Delacroix, for example, with the famous painting of Napoleon\u2019s coronation ala Charlamagne, where I think he took the crown from the Pope and put it on his own head.<\/p>\n

People scattered in the afternoon, but there was at least one more museum I had to see, and while it doesn\u2019t qualify as a \u201cworld-class\u201d museum using the criteria I ascribed above, and I\u2019m glad it didn\u2019t have the tour buses in front, the Guimet museum should be on the list of every Asianist who comes to Paris.<\/p>\n

The chief attraction for me is the \u201clargest Cambodian art display outside of Cambodia.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Since Cambodia was part of French Indochina, and \"\"<\/a>the French were into archaeology, some of the artifacts \u201ccame from Cambodia\u201d (imagine the passive voice\u2014came on their own?) to this wonderful museum.\u00a0\u00a0A naga (snake, the protector of the Buddha) with a giant churning the sea of milk greets you; it used to be in Angkor Wat.<\/p>\n

The museum has an outstanding collection of other Southeast Asian countries\u2019 artifacts, including India, Indonesia, the former French Indochina, Burma, Japan, and China.\u00a0\u00a0Having been to many of the places from which the art came to the Guimet, I could picture the statues in Pribanam or Borobudur in Indonesia, the Yungang caves in China (I was there last year), and so forth.\u00a0\u00a0The temporary exhibit was an outstanding collection of Bronze Age Chinese treasures\u2014all the collection of one man.\u00a0\u00a0It was really worth my time.<\/p>\n

I have to confess this is also an exciting city for foodies and for culture, and Professor Pana and I have been doing our best to savor both.\u00a0\u00a0Last night we wandered into a delightful arrondissement next to ours, Marais, with \"\"<\/a>narrow streets, local cafes, and nary a tourist\/tour bus.\u00a0\u00a0We went to a concert in an Armenian Catholic church (Armenia was the first country to embrace Christianity) that seemed in need of the increased revenue brought in by a soprano and a pianist performing before a crowd equally divided between people who saw the concert was on a donation basis, and the duo’s friends from the conservatory.\u00a0\u00a0We stopped in a local bistro for dinner.\u00a0\u00a0Tonight we went with a few students to St. Chappelle, another Gothic Church near Notre Dame for another concert, one that is probably replicated in most European cities\u2014with Pachelbel\u2019s canon and Vivaldi\u2019s Four Seasons.\u00a0\u00a0It was set in a church that might have had more stained glass (1113) than any church I have ever seen.\u00a0\u00a0Dinner was at a caf\u00e9\u2014with Margret du Canard (look that up) as the main entr\u00e9e.<\/p>\n

There is only one Paris, and tomorrow has our business visits\u2014and our last full day, unfortunately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were a lot of tips today that we were in a world-class museum.\u00a0\u00a0Here are some that spring to mind: –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The line for admission goes half way around the block.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s for those who were smart enough to reserve via the internet.\u00a0\u00a0The other line goes around the block and then some.\u00a0 Fortunately, our guide gave us … Continue reading “How do you know you\u2019re in a world class museum? Lessons from the Louvre”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-may-term-2013"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1200"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9454,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200\/revisions\/9454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}