Paris Day 2: The Louvre

Anyone who has been to the Louvre should realize that there is no easy way to show the whole thing. It's massive, it covers all of history and every great empire, and every part of it is worth a day in itself. But, I was told going into a gallery if you try to take the whole thing in you'll be too overloaded. Try to find one piece that really sticks out at you and take it in. So I decided to show the parts that struck me the most.

This depicts the survivors of the shipwreck Medusa. Of the 200 or so survivors not more than 10 survived due to starvation and murder. These are the murderers that survived... and look for salvation from the ship on the horizon... but do they deserve it?

Of all the artists in the Louvre trying to copy the masterpieces this one was far and away the best.

The three women are Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of Jesus, and a servant girl who is taking the crown of thorns off of Jesus' head. The guy on the right is taking part in the scene through prayer. One of the tougher parts of theology is trying to figure out how God can know the future even though it hasn't happened. One answer is that God is outside of time (an element he created and through science we realize can be relative) and sees things happening all at the same time. This priest believes that his prayers for God to comfort these women can directly affect their lives. Interesting to say the least.

The room of Apollo... the Sun God.


And in the room the 140 Carat Regent Diamond.

The founding of Rome on rape and bloodshed. Romulus and his men kidnapped the daughters of the Sabines because they had no wives. The Sabines attacked. Here is Titus, leader of Sabines facing off against Romulus the founder of Rome. Caught in the middle is the wife of Romulus and her children... yet she is also the daughter of Titus. Life is beautiful but complicated...

The two different sides of David slaying Goliath. Placed back to back in the middle of the hallway.

OZYMANDIAS
I met a traveller from an antique landWho said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. Near them on the sand,Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frownAnd wrinkled lip and sneer of cold commandTell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.And on the pedestal these words appear:"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains: round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away

Most every culture in history seems to worship the bull as a god of fertility and plenty. Baal. If you think that America escaped free of all this then you've obviously never seen the "golden" bull in the middle of Wall Street.

Nike, the goddess of victory. Wings outspread as she steps down from her ship onto the land. The wind the only thing keeping her garments pinned to her body.

And her hand raised in some sort of victory salute to the opposing army...

I realize how cheezy this picture probably is... and probably how historically inacurate... but I still like it.

Constantine... according to my history teacher at Harvard the second, with a strong argument for the first most influential person in the Western Civilization.

I'm missing so much it's actually kinda sad that you don't get to see it. The big ones... The Book of the Dead, The Mona Lisa, The Venus de Milo, The Turkish Bath, The Wedding Feast at Cana, Busts of Alexander, Marcus Aurelius, Caesar and the other Roman Emperors... and the list goes on and on...