Greek and Roman Antiquities
From Paris Hotels Reviews
The collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities, mostly statues, is one of the finest in the world. To begin at the beginning, make for the lower ground floor of Denon and the Pre-Classical Greece section, where you'll be confronted by the extraordinary, stylized Cycladic Woman's Head of around 2700-2300 BC, followed by the Dame d'Auxerre, from seventh-century BC Crete, in the very centre of the room. Immediately above, on the ground floor, the plain stone vaults of the Galerie Daru make a good setting for some of the Louvre's finer Roman marbles, including the famous Gladiator. You may be able to glimpse building works in the adjacent Cour Visconti (Denon's mirror image of the Cour Puget), which is supposed one day to become a courtyard for displaying works of late antiquity.
On the ground-floor level, the first room off the main pyramid hall is the handsomely vaulted Salle du Manege (room A), built as a riding school for the short-lived son of Napoléon III – a use symbolized by the grotesque animal sculptures carved atop its snowy columns. It houses Italian Renaissance copies and restorations of antique sculptures, On either side of the adjoining vestibule, long, stone-vaulted galleries recede into the distance. To the west, the Galerie Mollien (room 4) begins the Italian sculpture section, while the Galerie Daru (room B) kicks off the main Antiquities section with the poised energy of Lysippos's Borghese Gladiator.
At the eastern end of the gallery, Lefuel's imperial Escalier Daru rises triumphantly under the billowing, famous feathers of the Winged Victory of Samothrace towards the Italian painting section and the Grande Galerie. Skirt the staircase to continue into the Etruscan and Roman collections, which incorporate some beatiful mosaics from Asia Minor and stunning, naturalistic frescoes from Pompeii and Herculaneum. Beyond, in the Sully wing, you enter Pierre Lescot's original sexteenth-century palace. In the Salle des Caryatides (room 17), which houses Roman copies of Greek works, the musicians' balcony is supported by four giant caryatids, sculptured in 1550 by Jean Goujon. Just beyond, the Henri II staircase is carved with the initials H and D for Henri and his mistress Diane de Poitiers, along with symbols of the hunt recalling the Roman goddess Diana. Greek Antiquities continue in the main Sully wing. You'll find the graceful marble head known as the Téte Kaufmann here (room 16) and the delightful Venus of Arles – both early copies of the work of the great sculptor Praxiteles.
Up on the first floor are smaller groupings by medium – primarily the daunting terracotta and ceramics collections. The section on Greek and Roman bronze, glass and precious objects is more manageable, however, and room 33 is well worth visiting for its heart-stirring ceiling decoration of blue and white birds, painted by George Braque in 1953.
