Louvre!

Don't bite your fingernails, kids.
Victory of Samothrace.
It's alot smaller than you think it would be.
D'awww, Eros and Psyche.
Just to prove how much of a nerd I am, I took a picture of this Krater because I noticed that all the males had those stick things that kind of look like asparagus. Anyway, I know that in the tradition of the cults of Dionysus, only the female worshippers usually had those sticks (I can't remember what they're called, but they were from a specific plant with some significance to Dionysus) when they went out to the woods to drink and party. So I was intrigued to see a Dionysian cult ceremony depicting only males holding the asperigus things and none of the women. NERD.

Oh lord, I want to live in the Louvre. It has everything I could ever ask for, both as an Artist and a Greco-Roman Amature Mythology Buff. I went yesterday with Richard and Cathy, we left pretty early in the morning so getting through security and getting tickets wasn't all that bad. We went and saw the landmark things first of course, Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, and then we found out there was a section of Oceanic, African, and other Primitive art, so we trekked down to the basement and checked out all that stuff. It was pretty interesting, to get to the primitive section, we had to go through all of the Italian paintings (where the Mona Lisa happens to

be) and we went from CROWDS of people, to having almost the entire place to ourselves. Then we went out for lunch after I checked to make sure my ticket was good for the whole day and I walked them up to Notre Dame. After seeing Our Lady again, we parted ways and I mosied on down to the Louvre for some more picturegazing. Yes, I went alone, taking a nice long walk down the river Seine and it was sooo hot. It just suddenly warmed up here the past few days and I was sweating.

Ok, so I got back to the Louvre, taking the secret speedy entrance that NO ONE uses. Porte des Lions. It's right by the Oceanic exhibit so that's how I found it. Everyone always goes to the Pyramid to get in... SUCKERS HAHA! Anyway, I got back in and had to go through Italian Paintings AGAIN, which was just as crowded, but then I somehow got down to Italian Sculpture and saw some stuff by Michaelangelo and other things that were pretty nifty. Then I went through Greek/Roman/Etruscan art. You wouldn't believe how intricate the sarcophogi the Greeks made are. They're gorgeous. I didn't get too many pictures in after I went through Italian sculpture though, because I saw that my battery was getting low.

After Greek etc. I went through Egyptian Antiquities, which takes up 3 floors I found out. I thought I would never get out of there, and I got lost a few times in Egypt, I'll admit. Pretty much the entire space of Egypt and even Greek/Rome was almost empty. It was like I had the place to myself. I gues that everyone goes to see the Mona Lisa and just overlooks the vast amount of other things that the Louvre has. Pretty much the only time I ran into other people was school tour groups and occasionally another dedicated museum goer like myself (they seemed to all be German, by the way.) After I finally got out of Egypt, I was in Mesopotamia. I can't even tell you how big everything in that exhibit is. I'm talking 10 foot high mosaic lions and 30 tall winged bulls. MASSIVE.

Apres la, I finally got to something that I had been looking for for a while (sadly, Islamic Arts is closed until 2011, which is a shame because I wanted to see that) and that was the French Sculpture section. They have 2 or 3 courtyards in the middle of French Sculpture that are basically just huge sculpture rooms. At this point I was kicking myself for not having charged my camera battery before I went to the Louvre because my battery had pretty much run out halfway through Egypt. I only managed to squeeze in one more picture while I was in FS of a Hyacinth. I have to go back there so I can get in more pictures. Pretty much all of the FS pieces were from Greek/Roman mythology which I drool over (Prometheus, Eros, Hermes, Athena, Hephaestus, Poseidon, Heracles, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, ETC., ETC., ETC.) There were also a couple of St. Sebastians that I didn't get to take pictures of. I did manage to get in 4 different St. Sebastions before my battery died, but I saw at least 6 more after that.

In the FS area, I saw more people drawing there than anywhere else in the Louvre. I would say that about 1/10 statues had someone sitting there drawing it. And there were quite a few statues in the courtyards. I wish I was one of those people, just sitting in the Louvre, drawing or painting whatever I wanted... oh what a nice dream. I would have stayed longer, but alas, the Louvre does close so I had to go home. My metro maps mislead me so I had to try 2 stations before I got the right one, but they were close by and it wasn't much of an issue.

I think this is the longest blog I've written so far. Hahha... if this thing let me post more than 5 pictures at a time it would be MUCH longer. Hehehe... ow... my legs are still sore from all the walking yesterday. I'm used to walking alot now, too.