Paris, Louvre

Q19675

It is hard to write a review of the Louvre in Paris, because it is one of the world’s largest museums. There are many departments, and each one of them might, in its field, have been a museum of the first order. For example, it is hard to find another Egyptological museum in Europe that equals the Louvre.

The museum also has a reputation for interesting expositions – one on Meroe and one on the archaeology of Saudi Arabia during my latest visit – and to be honest: one ought to visit the Louvre twice a year to keep in touch. The people of Paris are unusually blessed.

If you visit the museum for the first time, you will be surprised by the pyramid-shaped entrance. Use the time you lose to pass the bomb check and buy a ticket to look at it, because it is a monument of the first order.

I already mentioned the Egyptian department, where you can easily spend a full day. There are portraits of the Egyptian kings and objects from daily life, and what is even better: the full history is dealth with, so you will also find objects from the first millennium BCE. The Greek, Roman, and Coptic age are not ignored either, although you need to go to Greek department for the royal portraits of the Ptolemies.

The Egyptian department is deservedly famous, and attracts many visitors, who are usually exhausted when they are half-way their tour. Usually, they will take the shortest route to the exit, which brings them through the departments of Cypriote, Arab, Palmyrene, and Phoenician art – which are, as a consequence, full of people who are not interested in the objects. That is a pity, because these rooms alone justify a trip to Paris. Still, if you manage to ignore the crowd of tired visitors to the Egyptian department, you will certainly enjoy coffins from Sidon, Byblos, and Carthage, Nabataean inscriptions, and statues from Cyprus. One of my favorites is a relief of one of the divine triad of Palmyra. You will need half a day to study it well.

Next to it is the Oriental department. The most famous object is, of course, the Code of Hammurabi. Don’t concentrate on the diorite monolith only, but also look in the small display in the same room, because there you will see cuneiform tablets with the same text – one of them written more than a millennium later and proving that these laws had become some kind of Mesopotamian classic, and it is probably no coincidence that the division of these Old Babylonian laws returns in the Ten Commandments.

The Code of Hammurabi was found in Susa, which is a prominent part of the oriental collection. You will also see a wall decorated with Achaemenid soldiers and cuneiform tablets from this Iranian town. Other important excavations are Mari and Khorsabad, but there is a lot more to see. There are also rooms devoted to Jordan and western Syria; they are not adjacent to the eastern Syria and the other Levantine rooms, which is a bit impractical – but the Mesha stela is worth the detour. You need a full day to study the entire oriental department.

The Roman department is surprisingly small. Yet, there is a lot of fine sculpture, including a nice series of portraits of Roman rulers. Next to it is a comparatively small Etruscan department. A gallery of rather mediocre statues brings you to the room devoted to Roman art that was later restored, which is great fun: usually, you can immediately see which part is ancient and which is an addition. (Here, you will also find Canova’s famous Amor and Psyche.) You need about half a day to see it all, read the explanatory signs, and take your photos.

The Greek department is larger – you again need a full day to study it all. The two most famous pieces are the expressive Nike of Samothrake and the famous Venus of Milo. The latter is more or less the museum’s raison d’être. Napoleon had looted the Italian museums, but after he had found his Waterloo, all those works of art had to be returned. In an age in which it was believed that inspiration by great art created great minds, and that Greek art was the most inspirational, the emptying of the Louvre was believed to be a national disaster, but fortunately, the Venus of Milo was found. Now, France could compete again with the British, who had the Elgin Marbles. That the armless deity was a Hellenistic and not a Classical statue, was ignored – the inscription which proves it, is now conveniently lost.

The Greek department also has some fine temple remains (from a/o Assos), the Tanagra statuettes that I increasingly love, and lots of pottery. Unfortunately, the rooms with Greek ceramics have recently been closed. I haven’t seen the Croesus to the left for quite some time: last time, the room was closed to install better protection; before that, it was on loan to another museum.

The crowds are very large, and you may count yourself lucky that I did not bring you to the paintings. This makes a visit to the Louvre a bit difficult, and you must prepare yourself well; fortunately, the museum’s website is excellent. Four days is the minimum for the ancient departments.

Finally, I must mention one little gem that is often ignored and where you can, consequently, quietly look at the objects: the room with metal objects. There is some fine silver work, but you will also see the helmet of a gladiator, a nice statuette of the Tyche of Antioch, the head of Demetrius Poliorcetes, a hoplite’s panoply, a curse tablet from the Crimea, Roman military diplomas, and so on.

But unfortunately, that’s the only part of the museum where you will not meet many other people. In fact, the museum is too big, and I think that it would be wiser to split it into smaller museums.

This museum was visited in 1984, 1989, 2008, 2010, 2020.

301 pictures related to this museum

Mithridates V Euergetes	Lambaesis, Rules for the trumpetters of III Augusta	Amasis	Susa, Soldiers' Relief with inscription
Faustina II	Sobekhotep IV	Relief of a Roman officer	Palmyra, Tombstone of a priest
Susa, Apadana, Inscription DSf (Old Persian)	Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Megara, Figurine of two hoplites	Drawing of Amenhotep I
Baalbek, Mosaic of the Birth of Paris	Susa, Soldiers' Relief, Lion	Portrait of a Roman man (CE 070-100)	Kition, Figurine of a woman
Beirut, Tombstone of Valerius Rufus of VII Claudia	Khorsabad, Foundation Tablet	Ptolemy II Philadelphus	Eretria, Two-headed phial
The Azara herm	Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Tepe Sialk, Pot from the fourth millennium BCE, decorated with an ibex	Dibon, Mesha Stela
Yemen, Dromedary pendant	Susa, Weight from Didyma	Didia Clara	Nectanebo I wearing the war crown
Tepe Sialk, Sherd from the fourth millennium BCE	Marib, Dedication to Almaqah	Susa, Neo-Elamite decoration (dragon)	Tayma, Aramaic funerary inscription
Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Old Paphos, Epitaph of King Echetimus	Cleopatra VII Philopator in Egyptian style	Madaba, Funeral inscription of Itaybel
Pupienus	Smyrna, Honorific decree for an officer of VI Ferrata	Esarhaddon and his mother attend the restoration of Babylon	POWs being led away on an Akkadian victory stele
Annius Verus	Livia (Paris)	Nectanebo I, wearing the crown of Upper Egypt	Demetrius Poliorcetes
Rhodes, Mycenaean jar with a bull (LH IIIa2)	Susa, Hellenistic or Parthian figurine of a harpist	Aegis of Osorkon IV	Statuette of a hippopotamus
Amulet of Darius	Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Fausta	Susa, Soldiers' Relief
Susa, Soldiers' Relief, Sphinxes	Susa, Stone relief with a banquet scene	Apollonia, Relief of two hoplites	Pompey the Great. Louvre, Paris (France)
Susa, Rim of a cup with the name of Xerxes	Relief of a scribe	Herodes Atticus	Byblos, Temple of Baalat, Figurine of a bull
Shabaqo	Portrait of a man, third quarter of the first century CE (the so-called "Vitellius")	Alexander, Statuette from Lower Egypt	Bishapur, Palace, Mosaic of a musician
An Egyptian poem about the battle of Kadesh	Athens, Black-figured dish with a Scythian archer	Assos, Temple of Athena, relief, Triton	Susa, Funerary portrait
Aššur, Annals of Tikulti-Ninurta II	Gladiator helmet	Alexander I Balas	Susa, Dedication to Inšušinak
Olympia, Temple of Zeus, Model	Sardes, Temple of Artemis, Relief of the "Mistress of the animals". (The archer partly visible to the right must be Heracles.)	Greek plate with a picture of the Chimaera. Louvre, Paris (France)	Susa, The Awan King List
Ptolemy X Alexander	The Azara herm	Matidia	Tayma, Relief of a sacrifical meal; Assyrian influence
Pittacus	Hadrumetum, Sanctuary of Baal Hammon, Punic stela with three baetyls	Head of Croesus on a Greek vase	Caere, Sarcophagus of the Spouses
Keki, the courtier	Susa, Achaemenid administrative document	Bishapur, Palace, Stucco apse	Antiochus VI Dionysus
Fayyum, Coptic chalice	Susa, Middle-Elamite basrelief of warrior gods	Furnos Minus, Christian funerary mosaic	Thyatira, Relief of a gladiator (thraex)
Agrippa	Heraclius and Khusrau	Nineveh, Palace of Aššurbanipal, Sumerian-Akkadian Dictionary	Assos, Temple of Athena, Relief of a symposium
Leo I	Rhodes, Mycenaean cup (LH IIIa2)	Idalion, orientalizing gold dish	Geta
Statues of Sekhmet	Byzantine, Dromedary-shaped lamp	Susa, Temple of the Šutrukids, Relief	Oea, Punic sphinx
Titus	Susa, Relief with the sacrifice of goat	Achmim, Funerary stela of Pamim	Yemen, Woman's head
Osorkon I	Cartouche of Osorkon I	Susa, Inscription of Nicocles	Bawit, Portrait of a lady
Alexandria, Tombstone of Longinus of II Traiana	Figurine from Bactria	Sallustia Orbiana	Saba, the Arab warrior Mushayqat Hamayat ibn Yusuf on a dromedary
Khorsabad, Lamassu	King of the Eleventh/Twelfth Dynasty	Susa, Temple of the Šutrukids, Relief	Bosra, Nabataean altar
Figurine of an Etruscan warrior	Artemis and Apollo killing the Niobids	Susa, Battle axe	Ptolemy I Soter
Enkomi, Late Bronze pectoral with sphinxes	Julia Domna	The Azara herm	Susa, Middle-Elamite model of a sun ritual
Hadrumetum, Sanctuary of Baal Hammon, Punic stela	King Djedefra	Ptolemy III Euergetes	Ugarit, Temple of Baal, Stele with the king of Ugarit in front of the god Baal Saphon
Vase painting of an archaic Greek galley	Ladjvard, Sasanian king, perhaps Peroz	Cleopatra II or III as Isis	Khorsabad, Relief of rafts on a great river
Susa, Stela of Šutruru	Susa, Letter from Artabanus II, requesting the appointment of one Hecataeus as treasurer	Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Delos, Portrait of Alexander the Great
Sippar, Victory stela of Naram-Sin	Girsu, Tablet with a fragment of the Sumerian Creation Epic	Utica, Oil lamp with a lion and a panther	Susa, Temple of the Šutrukids, Goddess
Justinian I (Barberini Ivory)	Saqqara, Serapeum, Relief of Isis and Nectanebo II	Hermopolis, Portrait of a Cleopatra I, Cleopatra II, or Berenice III	Charlemagne
Cyrene, Statue of Antinous	Ptolemy XII Auletes	Valerian Jr	Gortyn, Inscription with laws
Apries	Apollonia, Relief to commemorate the battle of Actium	Edessa, Mosaic of a lady	Susa, Soldiers' Relief
Antinoopolis, Coptic textile, Praying man with candelaber and ankh	Ptolemy IV Philopator	Alexandria, Alexander the Great as City Founder	Nimrud, Relief of an Anatolian fort
Seleucus I Nicator	Cyprus, Bilingual Greek-Phoenician inscription	Susa, Soldiers' Relief, Lion	Caere, Banditaccia necropolis, Wall painting of an archer
Corbulo	Sarcophagus with the body of Hector	Arsinoe III	Smyrna, Diadumenianus
Susa, Soldiers' Relief, Flowers	Bishapur, Palace, Mosaic of man dressed as an ostrich	Athens, Heliaia, Allotment plate	Ajax and Cassandra.
Senusret III	Cherchell, Inscription of Micipsa	Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus	Alexandria Troas, Psyche on a dromedary
Crassus	Statuette of a Libyan	Berenice II	The Azara herm
The Azara herm	Bowl from Tepe Hesar I	Susa, Soldiers' Relief with inscription DSm	Antonia Minor
Nicomedia, Hellenistic Funerary relief	Corinth, Hoplite battle (Tydeus painter)	Susa, Apadana, Inscription DSf (Elamite)	Susa, Apadana, Capital
Senusret III	Sippar, Contract from the reign of Xerxes about a canal	Susa, Stela of Adda-hamiti-Inšušinak	Arsinoe II
Domitian	Corinth, Small painting of Poseidon	Cirta, Sanctuary of El-Hofra, Votive stela	Egypt, Byzantine textile, Erotes picking grapes
Fragment of the sarcophagus of Sety II	Coptic tunic	Susa, Soldiers' Relief, Immortal, Counterweight of a spear	Antinoopolis, Coptic textile, Nilotic scene (including nilometer)
Nineveh, Palace of Aššurbanipal, Relief of Arbela	Choga Zanbil, Ziggurat, Doorknobs (Paris)	Horus, Osiris, Isis	Smyrna, Attalus II Philadelphus
Moabite warrior god	Susa, Temple of the Šutrukids, Relief: the bull-man	Idalion, statue of Melqart	Thelsae, Nabataean altar
Choga Zanbil, Model	Bawit, Coptic church, Model	Byblos, Temple of Baalat, Figurines	Pyla, Temple of Apollo, Portrait of a man
Mask of a Sumerian	Rome, S. Pietro, Sarcophagus with Christ as Lawgiver	Ptolemy XI Alexander, gold sealing ring	Susa, Gold plate with royal warrior
Wadi Miyah, Palmyrene triad: Aglibol (Moon), Ba'al Šamem (Lord of Heaven), and Malekbel (Sun)	Susa, Statue of queen Napirasu, wife of Untaš-Napiriša	Sippar, Cylinder with a building inscription from the reign of Hammurabi	Soknopaiou Nesos, Stele of Isis, Horus, and Cleopatra VII Philopator
Sphinx of king Siamun	Coptic jar with decoration of a woman with wild animals	Sobekhotep IV	Babylonian map of the western Zagros. A road, a mountain, and a river are indicated.
Tyre, Hellenistic building inscription from Al-Ma'shook	Khorsabad, Relief of two courtiers	Theodosius II	Eshnunna, Relief of Ištar
Yemen, Relief of a bird eating grapes	Susa, Temple of the Šutrukids, Inscription	Upper part of the Codex of Hammurabi; taken from Babylon to Susa, it was excavated in what is now Iran.	Montuhotep II wearing the red deshret crown
Nefertiti and Akhenaten	The Tyche of Antioch (figurine)	Messalina	Assos, Temple of Athena, Relief of two bulls
Susa, Stone fish	Chalouf, Darius' DZb inscription	Salonina	Tayma, Dedication to Salm
Ugarit, Alphabet tablet	Merenptah	Statuette of Raherka, inspector of the scribes, and his wife Merseanch	Informal portrait of Sobekhotep IV
Bottle from Tepe Hesar level II	Khorsabad, Relief of Sargon and Sennacherib, king Sargon	Rhagae, Dancers on a piece of pottery	Susa, Sasanian cup
Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Ugarit, Stele of the "smiting god"	Julia Mamaea	Marib, Dedication to Almaqah, detail
Nimrud, Northwest Palace of Aššurnasirpal II, Foundation Inscription	Kition, Egyptianizing capital	Giza, Diner of Nefer	Alexander IV
Ramesses IV	Rhodes, Head-shaped aryballos	Susa, Treaty between Naram-Sin and Elam	Bishapur, Palace, Mosaic of a Dionysiac head
Utica, Funeral stela	Tombstone of Iglum, son of Sa'adillat	Demetrius I Poliorcetes	Statuette of Bes, dedicated by Pakher, chancellor of king Psamtek I
Drawing of Ramesses VII	Ptolemy IV Philopator or Ptolemy VI Philometor	Utica, Oil lamp with a lion and a crocodile	Khorsabad, Relief of Sargon and Sennacherib
Tayma, Taymanite inscription	Pharsalus, Funerary stela with a relief of a flower offering	Taharqo venerating the falcon-god Hemen	Rhodes, Dish with a sphinx
Tayma, Nabataean votive stela	Khorsabad, Relief of Sargon and Sennacherib, prince Sennacherib	Antiochus III the Great	The Albani Alexander
Ur, Foundation statuette of Amar-Sin	Psammetichus I	Susa, Soldiers' Relief, Mythological creatures	Uruk, Cuneiform tablet with first use of a zero
Dedication by Ilîmagud Mayfa	Susa, Soldiers' Relief	Persian nobleman; statue from Egypt	Bawit, Icon of Christ and St.Menas
Lagash, Vulture Stele, Sumerian phalanx	Khorsabad, Iron tool	Khorsabad, Lion-taming spirit ("Gilgameš")	Byblos, Relief of a lion
Timna, Dedication by Rathad'il	Susa, Apadana, Inscription DSf (Babylonian)	Antioch, Judgment of Paris	Aelius Caesar
Agrippa Postumus	Socrates	Beirut, Christian phylacterium, invoking the protection of several celestial beings to protect one Alexandra	Lascuta, Imperator inscription
Suovetaurilia	Achaemenid jar with representation of Bes	Susa, Silver rhyton	Boy with hoop and rooster
Ostracon with a Coptic Writing Exercise (Thebaid)