Celebrity Gazing

The Slaves by Michelangelo

It must be difficult to be a celebrity.  The constant pressure of always having to look your best.  The annoyance of having to smile when you really don't feel like it.  The continual flashing of bright lights as the paparazzi take your photograph.  Although taking pictures with a flash is prohibited in the Louvre, there are always those tourists who don't follow the posted signs to turn off their camera flash. 

The Louvre is jam packed with art celebrities.  There are paintings by artists even third graders have heard of, especially if those kids watch reruns of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  There are artworks by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello.  There are even some artists that are famous without being featured as a cartoon reptile.  As someone who spent seven years studying art then nine years as an art teacher, I was very excited to be in the Louvre for the first time.  So many of the famous artworks I have studied reside there.  I felt like a movie buff visiting Hollywood, constantly on the look out for someone I recognize. 

The first celebrity that E. and I encountered during our March 2010 visit was the Winged Victory of Samothrace.  She is large and in charge standing on a landing of the main staircases in the Louvre.  Even without a head or arms her presence is commanding. 

Winged Victory of Samthorace

One of the issues with being famous is that everyone knows who you are.  I found this to be a problem when there was a work of art that I would have like to have looked at closer but was unable to because of all the other people crowded around it.  I know that I am being unrealistic about getting to spend one on one time with certain artworks but the crowds did bother me.

People admiring a work by Leonardo da Vinci

Probably the most famous artwork in the Louvre is the Mona Lisa.  Friends had told me that she wasn't as big as you would imagine.  That is true, but the painting is bigger than I had thought.  From hearing people say that I imagined that it was the size of a piece of tablet paper.  It is bigger than that but not as big as the other enormous paintings in the same room. 

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

Mona is so famous that she has a wall all of her own.  She also has bodyguards.  I didn't see any other artwork with its own guards.  There is glass over the painting so no one can throw rotten tomatoes to voice their disappointment that Mona is smaller than her reputation.  There is also a roped off area to keep the crowd back.  And by crowd I do mean there was a literal crowd.  People were piled up behind the rope, craning their necks to see Leonardo's most famous beauty.  Jostling was occurring to garner the best space to take a picture of the lovely Mona.

Mona's fans

I was the most in awe of seeing two of Michelangelo's statues.  I had never seen a Michelangelo work in person before this.  I could have stood there staring all day long.  Thankfully these two statues aren't very well known.  I didn't have to fight against the crowds in order to see them.




detail of the Rebellious Slave



detail of the Dying Slave by Michelangelo



Surprisingly my favorite celebrity turned out to be the Venus de Milo.  Before seeing her in person I would never have guessed that this statue is so beautiful.  I liked her so much that I want to devote an entire blog post in homage to her. 

Venus de Milo