Well, it's been quite some time since I've added a post to our blog. Since the last blog we took a trip to Italy which was both fun and exhausting. The cities we visited were Venice, Florence and Rome. However, all of the photos we took while there are gone forever and are now in possession of some crook in Rome. Yes, I'm not very happy about it, but rather than get caught up in the unpleasantness of travel, I decided to keep posts of the places we go, even though we at present are without a camera. There is a silver lining however, that being in the form of a free camera that Tom's father has gotten hold of through a coworker of his. We are very grateful to Tom's father, and his friend (I'll have to find out his name, so I can thank him proper). It will be a nice Christmas gift for when we return.
Anyway, I wanted to share some photos of some of the things we saw when we made our trip to the Louvre this past weekend. The photos enclosed are from the internet, and I take no claim to their ownership, some are from wikipedia and places like that. I simply put them up to share some of the things we got to see while there. Hopefully I can replace them with photos from our future camera.
This is of course the Mona Lisa. For anyone who hasn't seen it in person, it is a wonderful painting, however it seems somewhat anti-climatic when first seen. Mostly because it's all alone on the wall it occupies, and is not a very large painting in comparison to most in the immediate area. Usually there is quite a large crowd, yet we were lucky to be present when few people were around. The gift shop had so many different things with the Mona Lisa printed on it, stationery, post-its, rubiks' cubes, ties, anything you could think of it seemed.
Here is Caravaggio's Fortune Teller. This was one of my favorite paintings. I'm a big fan of Caravaggio's. I love his use of contrast and shadow, with prominent light sources. His paintings always seem to stand out from others to me.
Here's the statue of Winged Victory of Samothrace, or the goddess Nike. It was discovered in the mid-1800's on the island of the same name off the coast of Greece. It was then sent back to Paris, and a plaster replica was sent to Samothrace to stand in place of the original. There are duplicates in many places, a wooden copy is housed at Syracuse University in the Crouse College building, although one of the most famous copies is probably the replica at Caesar's palace in Las Vegas.
Here's one of the Winged Bulls or Lamassu in the Sully wing of the Louvre. This is near the Egyptian antiquities area. I remember studying these objects in Art History. One of the things I remember most is the way the sculptors managed to depict the bull from two different points of view. One from the side, and one from the front. This bull actually has five legs.
This is part of the original medieval foundation of the Louvre Palace. You can see it in the basement of the Louvre. There was also a place to purchase the audioguide for The DaVinci Code.
Anyway, I wanted to share some photos of some of the things we saw when we made our trip to the Louvre this past weekend. The photos enclosed are from the internet, and I take no claim to their ownership, some are from wikipedia and places like that. I simply put them up to share some of the things we got to see while there. Hopefully I can replace them with photos from our future camera.
This is of course the Mona Lisa. For anyone who hasn't seen it in person, it is a wonderful painting, however it seems somewhat anti-climatic when first seen. Mostly because it's all alone on the wall it occupies, and is not a very large painting in comparison to most in the immediate area. Usually there is quite a large crowd, yet we were lucky to be present when few people were around. The gift shop had so many different things with the Mona Lisa printed on it, stationery, post-its, rubiks' cubes, ties, anything you could think of it seemed.
Here is Caravaggio's Fortune Teller. This was one of my favorite paintings. I'm a big fan of Caravaggio's. I love his use of contrast and shadow, with prominent light sources. His paintings always seem to stand out from others to me.
Here's the statue of Winged Victory of Samothrace, or the goddess Nike. It was discovered in the mid-1800's on the island of the same name off the coast of Greece. It was then sent back to Paris, and a plaster replica was sent to Samothrace to stand in place of the original. There are duplicates in many places, a wooden copy is housed at Syracuse University in the Crouse College building, although one of the most famous copies is probably the replica at Caesar's palace in Las Vegas.
Here's one of the Winged Bulls or Lamassu in the Sully wing of the Louvre. This is near the Egyptian antiquities area. I remember studying these objects in Art History. One of the things I remember most is the way the sculptors managed to depict the bull from two different points of view. One from the side, and one from the front. This bull actually has five legs.
This is part of the original medieval foundation of the Louvre Palace. You can see it in the basement of the Louvre. There was also a place to purchase the audioguide for The DaVinci Code.