Henry #1: Parisian Art History Weekly Review

Having just finished a year long Art History class, this first week in Paris has been particularly exciting for me. Our first day began with a visit to the EIffel Tower, and I was immediately struck by the immense size of the elegant building. I always knew it was a hallmark of the Paris skyline, but I never knew its height was comparable to the tallest Atlanta skyscrapers. When the tower was originally built, Eiffel's use of steel as the sole means of building material was not taken well. However, the Eiffel Tower is by far one of the prettiest buildings I have ever seen. We climbed the stairs through the first two levels and then took the elevator to the top. Viewing Paris from the sky was a great way to start our visit as we were able to see some of our future touring destinations and get ourselves oriented.

Seeing Notre Dame was another highlight of the week for me. After sitting through endless lectures about Gothic and Romanesque Cathedrals, there was something so rewarding about seeing Notre Dame right in front of me and not in my 1000 page Art History book. Notre Dame is located on a small island in central Paris called Ile de France. Once again, I was immediately struck by the Cathedral's size. When we walked into the church, we were immediately dwarfed by the immensely tall nave arcade. We walked around the Cathedral, looking at the relics and the relief narratives that told the story of Christ.

Our third stop of interest was Sainte-Chapelle, a cathedral that is known for its plethora of stained glass windows. Unfortunately for us, a large section of the windows were covered for restoration. Regardless, the visit was well worth it because there was plenty of stain glass to please our eyes.

The Louvre. Need I say more? This was by far the highlight of my trip so far, but I wish the museum was not so large because it was impossible to visit every exhibit we wished to see. We had to make a strategic strike of the museum because we arrived two and a half hours before close. Our first stop was the Egyptian exhibit. Unfortunately for me, I did not recognize any of the works in the exhibit. We then ventured to the Greek and Roman exhibit, the highlight of which was Lady of Auxerre, an early Greek statue oriented in a rigidly frontal position. One thing that surprised me about the statue was how small it was. In our Art History book, all of the sculptures are depicted as the same size and it is easy to be deceived unless you pay close attention to the scale next to the picture. Our final exhibit at the Louvre was the European Artist exhibit. As we walked up the stairs, the first painting we were confronted with was Cimabue's extremely large Madonna Enthroned with Angels. My heartbeat immediately picked up because I could not believe I was seeing a painting we had spent endless class periods dissecting and comparing to other similar paintings but Giotto and Duccio. Everything in the painting was just as I had expected it. Mary was sitting on the same unmountable throne we had seen in our textbook. Her knees were in line, but one leg was longer than the other, hanging over her throne. Cimabue's Madonna is much more hesitant than other similar depictions as she is holding Jesus back, reluctant to give him up to his certain destiny of sacrificing himself for the forgiveness of our sins. Just as we had seen in Art History, the surrounding angels were sacked up around the throne, all part of an early attempt at depth. After staring at the painting for several minutes, we moved on because our time at the Louvre was quickly winding down. As we continued down the hall, we saw works by Da Vinci, including the famous Mona Lisa and Madonna on the Rocks. We also saw The Raft of Medusa and Napoleon in the Pesthouse of Jaffa. This whole exhibit was so rewarding for me after having slaved incessantly through months of Art History.

Musee D'Orsay is one of the best museums I have ever been to. It is organized so that you can walk through the entire museum and literally see every work of art on display. Our first stop was Van Gogh and Gaugin exhibit. Both Van Gogh and Gaugin were late 18th century Impressionist artists. While I think their works were beautiful, I am more of a fan of some to the more realistic works of Courbet. On of the paintings was saw was Burial at Count Orgaz, a massive painting of a country funeral. This painting was not received well at all, mostly because of its size. Large paintings typically depicted great military victories and coronations, not peasant funerals. However, Courbet was a Realist who had great respect for the struggles of the working class and he depicted their lives as a means of glorifying their perseverance. When asked why he did not paint more "glorious" scenes, Courbet famously replied that he would paint angels and other biblical figures only if he saw them, solidifying his staunch Realist stance.

We have seen many other extremely important works of art, but if I wrote about everything I wanted to I would fill this entire blog. I am interested to see what Berlin and Prague will bring in terms of Art History, and I will definitely keep you all updated on what we see. I would love to keep writing, but I am currently on the night train and in desperate need of sleep, so good night and stay tuned.