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

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