~A Day at the Louvre~ Part II

Today we are visiting the Richelieu Wing.   This wing houses French Sculpture and the apartments of Napoleon III.  (It also includes French paintings, art objects and German, Flemish and Dutch paintings which will have to wait for another time.)  This wing is not as crowded as the Denon or Sully because there are none of the "famous" works here.

The lower and ground floor levels are taken up by 2 large sculpture gardens~Cour Puget and Cour Marly. Both of the sculpture gardens are peaceful, wide-open and spacious.  The atriums are enclosed with glass ceilings.  Most of these sculptures adorned royal parks or chateau in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Cour Puget

There are 18th-19th century French sculptures in the Cour Puget.  This photo was taken from the Richelieu Passage entrance to the Louvre.

Glass enclosed rooms.

Cour Marly

This area of the Louvre was opened in 1993.  Many of the sculptures here are from the Chateau de Marly, which was a small royal residence near Versailles.  There are also French sculptures from the 5th-18th centuries.

These are a few of my favorites from the Cour Puget.

"The Four Captives"~ these bronze figures were taken from the statue in the Place des Victoires and represent a different reaction to captivity; revolt, hope, resignation and grief.

"The Four Seasons" by French sculpture Pierre 1st Legros (1629-1714)

"Perseus and Andromeda"  Sculpted by Pierre Puget from carrara marble.  This piece was commissioned by Louis XIV for the Gardens of Versailles.

"Madame du Pompadour" by Jean Baptiste Pigalle (1714-1785).
(This is the Pigalle that the Place Pigalle in Montmartre is named for.)

"Bacchante au tambour de basque avec deux enfants" by Augustin Pajou

We then walked over to the Cour Marly.

One of the 4 Horses of Marly.  This one was commissioned by Louis XIV for his Sun Pavilion at the Chateau Marly.  Later the horses were moved to the Champs Elysees near the Place de la Concorde before being moved to the Louvre.

"La Loire et La Loiret"  This is one of several sculptures representing the rivers of France.

The next grouping was titled "Diana et ses compagnes" ( Diana and her companions)

From Cour Marly we climbed to the next floor to the Galleries along the rue de Rivoli.
There are more smaller sculptures.  We passed through the Mesopotamia sculpture area (I always seem to be lost~maybe because something catches my eye and I wander).

Mesopotamian art from 2400 BC.

This black block bears the code of Babylonian King Hammurabi 

from 1700 BC, it is one of the world's oldest legal documents.

"Winged Bull with Human head" from the 8th century BC, found in Assyria.

(I don't know how I got over here but it is an impressive room)

Again we find ourselves in the French sculpture rooms~starting with pieces from the 18th century and working back into Medieval times.

"Girl Confiding her Secret to Venus"  (1839) by French sculptor Francois Jouffroy.

(This is one of my favorite pieces.)

"Mercury Putting on his Winged Sandles"  (1834)  by  Francois Rude

16th century "Fountain of Diana"  from the Chateau of Anet.

"Cupid Cutting his bow from a Club of Hercules"  1750

Funerary sculpture  from the 16th century

This is the funerary monument for the Duke de Longuevillle (1595)

The following pieces are not in chronological order.

 Portal dating to the Carolingian period between the 8th and 9th centuries.

 These pieces are from the family tomb, Chapelle Commynes.

 Phillipe de Commynes was the historian of Louis XI.

 "St. George Killing the Dragon"  (1508) marble altarpiece from the chapel

 at Chateau de Gaillon, Rouen.

 From the Tomb of Phillipe Pot (royal steward)  15th century.  

This was a remarkable sculpture.  All the figures are life sized.

 Charles V and wife Jeanne de Bourbon  14th century funerary pieces

A retrospective sculpture of King Childebert I (died 558), founder of St. Germain des Pres abbey.

The statue is dated to the 13th century.

5th century columns.

By the time we completed the tour in the Medieval galleries, I was pretty tired and really ready to leave.  Then Woody saw the plaque that directed us to the Apartments of Napoleon III.  This I could not pass up; after all, Napoleon III changed Paris into the beautiful city that it is today.  I had to see the space where he lived.

There are 4 main rooms; the hall leading to the Family Salon, the Grand Salon, the Theatre Salon and the Dining Hall.  These rooms are sumptuous, elegant and dazzling.  My photography is lacking...

The Family Salon

I was mesmerized by the chandeliers.  They were huge and there were so many of them.

The Grand Salon

 When I saw this, my jaw dropped.  That chandelier was bigger than all the others.

I wish my photo was better!

 The rich red jacquard upholstery, the gilding and the crystal~awesome.

The Theatre Salon

 Don't forget to look up.

The Dining Hall

I am going to save the rest of the tour for another time....

This was a great day~I took over 250 photos. I was happily tired and so glad we saved the Louvre until the end of our stay.  We left the museum and stopped at the charcuterie for our dinner.