Tag: photography

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Da Vinci Exhibit

Musée du Louvre, Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France

1} Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci by Francesco Melzi, 1515-1518 2} Tete de femme, dite La Scapiliata- L’Echevelee , 1500-1510 3} Anatomie, Crane sectionne- Verso

An Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose genius, perhaps more than any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance ideal. The Louvre has marked the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci {1452-1519} by building upon their collection with additional paintings, drawing, manuscripts, and sculptures that will be on display until February 24, 2020 for the world to view.

Da Vinci is one of the most intriguing personalities in Western art, and I was completely captivated by the large number of drawings that recorded his thinking, along with the copious number of notebooks that were on display.

1} Study of Hands, 1474 2} Etudes pour une Adoration des bergers ou pour une Adoration des Mages, 1478-1481 3} Detail of a Centralized Church, 1488.

The way the exhibit is presented/setup, one cannot help noticing that da Vinci’s curiosity and insatiable hunger for knowledge never left him. He was constantly observing, experimenting, and inventing, and drawing was, for him, a tool for recording his investigation of nature and the world.

Kathleen

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Update from Paris

The latest news from Paris are the strikes over France’s pension reform that are in full effect and have shut the Louvre museum along with public transportation. Several dozen protesters, including some Louvre employees staged a demonstration after an appeal from several unions against President Emmanuel Macron’s changes to the retirement system, which they stated will “lower everyone’s pensions”. 

The Louvre was our first destination scheduled for Friday morning with timed tickets. We arrived at 8:40 am on a extremely cloudy day, protestors were already blocking the front doors so, no one was going in, employees also gathered in the Pyramid, while police gathered around the courtyard to ensure safety. Around 9;45 the sky opened up and it began to rain…. hard and fast …luckily most people were dressed appropriately. Under our umbrella my group triangulated the next destination, when we received an alert the museum was closed for the rest of the day.

From our hotel it was an impressive site to see democracy at work, as thousands of Parisians stood in unity against the government. I am also pleased to be able to access France 24 to keep up with world news.

France 24- Article, Friday, January 17th

Kathleen