roundup: enough art already

we went to the musee d’orsay yesterday, where they have an incredible collection of impressionist art. lots of stuff by monet, manet, cezanne, van gogh, it goes on and on… lots of lovely stuff by degas, including a room of beautiful pastels.

masterpieces that i’d only dreamt of being able to see in person, like manet’s le dejeuner sur l’herbe, monet’s rouen series, and renoir’s le bal au moulin de la galette, are there for you to gaze at. right there. on the wall. it makes you a little teary, to be honest.

today we took a day trip to chartres to see the cathedral there. listed as “one of the greatest architectural achievements in western civilization,” how can you not go see it?

if you ever go, i’d recommend the audiotour. it’s a good history of the cathedral and explains the architecture, as well as what all the different stained glass windows and the sculptures and iconography around the entrances stand for. on the other hand, i’d skip the choir curtain audiotour, and save the extra time and money, which wasn’t really worth it. do you really need to hear things like: “this section depicts christ’s circumcision, in dubious realism”? if nothing else, you could probably bug one of the many british nuns making pilgrimages and ask them, “so, which one of these is the passion of the christ?”

after getting back to paris, we headed back to the louvre to hit the wednesday late night opening. this time we were ready: audiotour, louvre guide to french painting, and the entire sully wing full of treasures to be both enjoyed and analyzed.

sitting in front of ingres’ painting of louis-françois bertin, you’re just amazed at the power of painting. it’s not just the fact that someone can make a photorealistic depiction of a person. but it’s the fact that they can make something that’s more than just a photographic depiction, somehow they’re able to convey a warmth, a power, a sense of spirit, a magnificent essence above and beyond just a pictorial representation. all this with some oils and a few light tricks. incredible.

alas, it’s just too much. there’s too much stuff in there. we learned a lot and that’s certainly the way to do it, if you have the time. but to have the time to really see everything and appreciate it would take at least nine months. or maybe nine years..

plus, there’s stuff that you can’t even see now. the whole large-scale french paintings room in the denon wing is closed for the entire year, meaning such masterpieces like gericault’s the raft of the medusa or delacroix’s liberty leading the people are just hopelessly out of reach, no matter how many days we come back.

i guess we’ll just have to come back again next year.

Posted at March 9, 2005 3:39 PM