The Louvre

The Louvre

-Leonardo da Vinci's The Mona Lisa-

Visiting the Louvre has been one of my greatest pleasures since living in Paris. I have enjoyed all the times I have gone and have enjoyed looking at all the wonderful art. One of the classics as well as one of the most popular exhibits to visit is the Mona Lisa. This room regardless of the time of day or day of the week is constantly packed with people. There is a huge line surrounding the painting and due to the number of people, it is initially difficult to see. However, this is one piece I love seeing! The Mona Lisa is Leonardo da Vinci's prize possession. This painting is famous for a couple of reasons. The first is for da Vinci's art technique sfumato, a technique that creates transparent and smooth lines creating an illusion of softness within the picture. The women in the picture, Mona Lisa, is famous for her smile. Representing the carefree spirit within her allowing the audience to wonder what she is thinking. The last reason this picture is well-known is due to its depth, there is a landscape behind Mona Lisa and that creates depth within the picture, breaking up the image in front and the images in the back. During this time period, a lot of artwork was very flat and very 2-dimensional, not really having a lot of depth to it. Da Vinci changed this by adding more depth and perspective to the image.



-The Winged Victory of Samothrace (Nike)-

Another great and very classic piece is The Winged Victory of Samothrace or also known as the Nike. This is a Hellenistic sculpture, made to inspire soldiers who go into battle. During this time period wars were fought at sea on boats and women where a symbol of liberty and victory. Although this artist is unknown, this piece had inspired and encouraged a lot of people, representing victory, justice, and liberty. The statue is standing on the prow because it symbolizes her leading them into victory. The Hellenistic era has been well-known for their realistic

art, and accurate body portions. In the sculpture, we see the movement of the body through the cloth. The cloth looks wet and it sticks to her body, displaying and highlighting the movement of the figure. I really like this piece because I like a lot of movement in art and I feel like this statue resembles that a lot.