Mona Lisa Smile

Paris, France

“The ‘Earth’ without ‘Art’ is just ‘Eh’.” Unknown

The last two days I have spent in art museums. The Louvre and Musée d’Orsay.

To say it was crowded at both places is an understatement. I am not a fan of people in groups. The herd mentality kicks in and it’s like surviving armageddon. Dog eat dog.

Today’s post will focus on the Louvre.

This was my second visit to the Louvre. The first time was in 2002 and I remember that hardly anyone was in line to see the Mona Lisa. Today was an entirely different story.

The Louvre is obviously one of, if not the most famous art museum in the world so I'm not going to overexplain it but I will tell you about my experience and highlight the pieces of art that moved me in one way or the other and why.

When I arrived I had a list of a few pieces of art that I wanted to see even though I've seen them before and most of them are well known. I can never get enough enjoyment from looking at art.

First, I went to scope out the room with the Mona Lisa just to see what was happening because I figured it would be packed. I scheduled my ticket for 4:30 pm with the hope that later in the day the crowd would be thinner. I was wrong. I took a photo of the crowd (above) and bailed with a new game plan of coming back at 8:30 pm when most people would have hopefully left before the 9 pm closure.

Next on my list was The Feast of the Gods by Giovanni Bellini. As I'm sure many of you read (and have some passionate opinions about) the Olympic Opening Ceremony got some not-so-good publicity regarding one particular scene. Many viewers believed it was mocking Christianity and making fun of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper (located in Milan). I had read online that it was taken from The Feast of the Gods. Turns out we are all wrong.