Ceilings of the Louvre

[Deleted]

I am pretty sure that nobody has any interest in all of the clutter on the walls of the Louvre, so I went there and tried to take pictures only of the ceilings. Perhaps I will go back one of these days to see other stuff (since obviously I only saw about 20% of the building today) because my new social status ("job seeker") allows me to visit the Louvre free of charge just by waving my papers in front of the ticket takers. But today, here are the ceilings! Some are elaborate, some are ordinary, some are totally utilitarian. It was interesting to see the different decisions about how rooms should be lighted depending on that stuff on the walls or the things displayed here and there around the room. All of the brick ceilings were on the ground floor, which was probably considered to be a sort of nasty basement area in the past, so no reason to decorate it.

Once you start going upstairs, they put a little more effort into the finishings.







The upper floors benefit from skylights.





If you lower your gaze, you see that you are not actually alone.





There sure is a lot of stuff on those walls, though!













Still not alone. If I spoke Chinese, I would feel right at home.

[Deleted]

On a slow day like today, copy artists can actually work unhindered.







Okay, I admit it. Every now and then I looked at the walls. I have a soft spot for "The Clubfoot."



I also liked "Pandemonium" with its lovely palace of the demons.

And the young man being treated by some famous saint (I already forgot which one) was touching. He had amputated his foot out of remorse for hitting his mother. Since the foot was still there, I don't know if the saint-doctor had reattached it or if "amputation" had an alternate meaning in olden times.

back to the ceilings I had come to see









The Islamic Arts section just opened. Since the Louvre is so tiny, they had to roof over a courtyard to fit it in.





okay, here's what was under the roof





Islamic stained glass!

[Deleted]

[htmb]

You know, showing me the newly opened Islamic section is just one giant tease.

I do see that you got a shot of my telemones in the seventh picture from the top.

[mossie]

Looking through this thread just makes one marvel at the enormous amount of work and artistry went into creating those ceilings. I bet 90% of the visitors never see them. ;D

[Deleted]

This poor guy wasn't looking at much of anything...



... even though he was seated near these lovely caryatids.





Here is the reply to the unasked question.





The rule signs have become a bit more playful.

[Deleted]

Obviously all of the upper floors are skylighted.



The Galerie Médicis with the huge works by Rubens









Two of the main courtyards were roofed over years ago to make space for more sculptures.



Naturally the ceilings of the Napoléon III apartments are over the top.







































One last ceiling and I'm out of here!

[fumobici]

Beautiful, obviously. In an almost completely obscene way. I'm getting to the point where the moral implications of extreme opulence in an imperfect world clouds my objective aesthetic sense.

[Deleted]

You have to put that other spin on it -- these were job creators. ;D

[bixaorellana]

Nov 27, 2012 16:02:01 GMT kerouac2 said:

You have to put that other spin on it -- these were job creators. ;D

Tsk, tsk. Many of those ceilings were undoubtedly jobbed out to Italian or eastern European workers, with the money saved going into Swiss bank accounts.

ANYway ............ woweee!

That's a monumental job of ceiling photo-documentation & a fascinating & surprising tour. I had to go look up the history of the Louvre (old!) because of wanting to get a sense of how the styles and usages had unfolded. Certainly, before seeing this thread, I had no idea of the vastness of the place. Obviously many of the ceilings you show are contemporary, some of them clunkily so. But beyond the covered-over courtyards, it appears there are no modern physical additions to the place. Is that correct? From your pictures, it appears that the smaller, modern-looking spaces are created with false walls within the structure. Quite interesting & probably invisible to most visitors.

Does your neck hurt?

[nycgirl]

First the Pantheon, now the Louvre- you're turning into quite the tourist, K. And yet you still manage to put a fresh spin on one of the most popular museums in the world. These ceilings are great, from the ostentatious historic ones to the clean, geometric modern ones.

I especially like the shot of Winged Victory. It's a perspective I haven't seen before. I never got a good shot of it myself because of the crowds. I knew I couldn't get a photo of the hallway with no people in it, of course, but I didn't expect people to walk directly in front of my nose when there was plenty of room elsewhere. Grr. Well, next time I'll know to just shoot the ceiling.

That painting "Pandemonium" is striking. Never seen it before, I'd love to have a look up close.

Very enjoyable thread, once again.

[htmb]

I've really enjoyed looking back over your photos and i love the way you framed your Winged Victory photo.

It struck me that in the several trips I've made to the Louvre I've never been to the Napoleon Apartments.

[nycgirl]

Oh, forgot to mention the Islamic art. I hope they give that section a reworking at some point. The presentation is a little uninspired. I don't think it does justice to the works.

[Deleted]

Nov 29, 2012 16:18:19 GMT bixaorellana said:

But beyond the covered-over courtyards, it appears there are no modern physical additions to the place. Is that correct? From your pictures, it appears that the smaller, modern-looking spaces are created with false walls within the structure. Quite interesting & probably invisible to most visitors.

Except for the central pyramid, there are indeed no modern structural additions to the building.

Speaking of which, the new Louvre in Lens opens next Tuesday, and the other new Louvre in Abu Dhabi opens next year.

[bixaorellana]

Well, they didn't ask me, but I'd think that the beautiful & unadorned walls & ceiling in the picture immediately before those of the Islamic Arts section would have been perfect for showing some of the Islamic art.

Some info about the Abu Dhabi Louvre from way back in May of 2009: anyportinastorm.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=arts&thread=1424&page=1#21088

[Deleted]

I was looking at news articles about the Louvre, since the area was chosen for possible victory celebrations if Emmanuel Macron is elected president today, but the thing that struck me had nothing to do with the election. As just about everybody knows, when there is the threat of a war or any other kind of disaster, museums are emptied of their treasures as quickly as possible to hide them in safe places, whether in Paris or Baghdad or Mosul.

So I found this photo of the Louvre during WW2 particularly striking.

s19.postimg.cc/9u7rcblzn/louvre_ww2.jpg

[bixaorellana]

Wow ~ a photograph worthy of a poem.

[kerouac2]

I'm not the only person who looks at the ceiling. If you want to shoot a video at the Louvre, the price is 15,000 euros a day. I assume that Tuesday is the only daytime slot available, the day that the Louvre is closed. But nighttime shoots are common. I read that the Louvre is used at least 500 times a year for various photos, videos and films.

[kerouac2]

I think I want to add that I find this video somewhat disrespectful of classical fine art, but that at the same time at least it is being seen by people who have no idea what classical fine art is. Thank you Beyoncé?