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

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