Louvre, 4

Saturday, October 16th, we made our fourth and final visit to the Louvre for this campaign, mostly finishing up the collection of French painting, looking at the Gallery of Apollo, Etruscan artifacts, and assorted decorative stuff. The Friends of the Louvre deal will get us in next spring, too, so it's been a good plan.

In the David (and his followers) Hall

David version of Madame Recamier; unfinished, as noted before,
because they did not get along, she, a banker's wife and socialite,
he, a Revolutionary

Obligatory Coronation of Empress Josephine by Team David; way

too big for my camera

David's The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons, 1789;
emphasizing public duty over family loyalty, based on Voltaire's
play; incited more than one revolution

I was gratified to see yet another Elisabeth-Louise
Vigee-Le Brun in the big hall, perhaps the Louvre's
most prestigious; another self-portrait with her
daughter Julie

And even more gratified to see her name inscribed among the
collection of biggies that adorn the hall

David's Leonidas at Thermopylae

Now in the adjoining hall, mostly Delacroix and his followers,
which Vicki calls the hall of death and dying; Gericault's massive
Raft of the Medusa 

Antoine Jean Gros, Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylas, 1807

Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapale, 1827; it's a long story but
basically he didn't want all his wives and concubines to fall into
the hands of his conquerors, so had them executed

Delacroix, The Capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders, 1204;
where most of the Medieval Christian relics came from...

Paul DeLarouche, The Children of Edward [in the Tower], 1830;
we last saw his Execution of Lady Jane Grey at the National
Gallery in August; don't know what his deal was, painting such
moments in another country's history; beautiful, dramatic works
nonetheless

Moving right along, we are now entering the Gallery of Apollo,
long closed for renovation; built for Louis XIV, aka the Sun King,
for his fondness of the classical sun god; now housed what remains
of the royal jewelry, gems, and such; also thirty-some paintings
and a similar number of stucco sculptures; and more

Among the royal gems, this interesting figure; the tongue actually
wags 

And this beauty

And this crown made for Louis XV; not all the jewels are real

Portraits of assorted kings, including personal 

favorite, Francois Premier

The Hyacinth diamond, pinkish, 22 carats, which Louis XIV is
said to have liked wearing in his lapel 

Assorted further gems, precious stoneware, etc.; the Sun King
collected them himself

Central ceiling of the hall, done in the earlier 1800s by Delacroix,
Apollo slaying the serpent...

Greatest and largest of all museums...jusqu'a la prochaine fois...