MuseumChick | Danee Gilmartin

While I spend my last few weeks as a French resident traveling through Israel and Greece (Paris is way too steamy in August and I don't have A/C), I will be recalling my favorite things about living in Paris. I can't believe the year went so quickly and after my trek through Israel and Athens, then relaxation in the islands of Greece, I'll be on my way to my new home in NYC. One way plane ticket to NYC has been booked for Aug 17th!

One place I will miss the most, of course, is the Musée du Louvre and vast collection that seems to change every time I'm there. Some of my favorite pieces to see there are the popular pieces you may already know, but having time to explore the museum I have found some favorites that may not be the most popular but are just as interesting. Here they are:

My personal 10 favorite offbeat pieces at the Louvre:

#10- Giuseppe Archimboldo's seasons portraits called Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter were done in the 1570s. These portraits intrigue you to come closer for a better look because Archimboldo used all still life items to create these portraits.

#9- American artist, Cy Twombly's The Ceiling took 2 year to complete recently in 2009. It adds a jolt of modernity to a classic style room.

#8- Italian sculptor, Antonio Corradini created Femme Voilée out of marble in the 18th century. I find it fascinating that out of marble the artist was able to create a veil while her face is still visible.

  #7- German artist, Albrecht Dürer's  Portrait of the Artist is from 1493. The thistle he is holding, often used as symbol of fidelity, can indicate that this is a portrait about an engagement.

#6- A silent Dionysos with a child is so touching. It was created in the Roman Imperial time 3rd century A.D. and discovered in the XVIth century at the site of the Gardens of Salluste in Rome, Italy.

  #5- This Babylonian sculpture is from the 2 millennium B.C. and is called Lion Head Guards the Temple, made of terra cotta. I've had a recent fascination with all things Babylonian. Speaking of Babylonian, remind me to tell you in a future post about the Ishtar Gate (the gates to the city of Babylon from 575 BC.) that I saw in Berlin.

#4- The French Neo-Classical painter, Louis David's very popular, The Coronation of Napoleon hangs next to this favorite of mine, The Intervention of the Sabine Women from 1799.

#3- In 1953, the Louvre invited Georges Braque to decorate original ceilings from the 1500s in the Henri II room. Braque created The Birds Ceiling, below. 

e="font-size: 15px;">#2- Louis David's General Bonaparte from 1798 was never finished. This draft was painted in the countryside of Italy. I find the visible draft lines very interesting. It's a cool look inside the methods the artist used to create his portraits. 

#1- And this is one of my favorites. This painting, overlooked by visitors looking for its neighboring Delacroix, is in the room behind the Mona Lisa.  Ary Scheffer, an artist from the Netherlands painted this in 1855. The Louvre describes it as "the shades of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta appear to Dante and Virgil."

©2010 Danee Gilmartin All rights reserved

I know what you are thinking…how could she be exploring Museum Island when the Currywurst Museum is right down the road! It seems that in Germany currywurst is so adored that they gave it a museum. As intriguing as the invention of hotdogs slathered in spicy sauce is, I skipped the Currywurst Museum and went to Museum Island, stranded in the middle of the River Spree in Berlin, to visit one of their four great museums, the Neues Museum, famous for its Ancient Egyptian artifacts.

I looked around for the martini hut but this island was dry. However I did find one of the most treasured and most controversial artifacts of ancient Egypt, the Nefertiti Bust. I have had this piece on my must-see list for a while now. It wasn't the Nefertiti Bust coloring page I "drew" that got me inspired to see this piece but what did increase my interest was my time searching for mummies in Paris, my recent travels through Egypt and then visiting the site of German excavations in Egypt where the Nefertiti Bust was discovered, the ruins of the house and studio of the bust's sculptor, Thutmose.

The Neues Museum was recently reopened in October 2009 after sitting ruined for over 60 years after being heavily damaged in bombings of Berlin during WW 2. Evidence of the bombings and gun fire has been left in the redesign of the building. Blackened original columns stand next to smooth, clean columns and bullet holes are still evident on the exterior and interior walls. On the interior, an effort to preserve frescoes and moldings from the 19th century building shares a space with distinct lines between where the old and the new materials meet.

Here you can see bullet holes that have been left unattended to.

The Neues Museum is known for its Egyptian collection. The most famous piece in the museum and perhaps in all of ancient Egyptian history is kept down a dimly lit hallway. In a small domed room all to herself, heavily guarded by two men on each doorway, is the Nefertiti Bust. It is the only area of the museum where I was not allowed to take pictures, but if you are not familiar with what the bust looks like, click here. When first seeing it, I thought that it was in the proportions I expected it to be (about 1.5 feet tall) but it was much more subtly detailed than I could ever see in pictures. The face was sculpted in a way to show her age and wisdom. The bags under her eyes and lines in her jowls were pronounced. I was also amazed at how vibrant the colors still are in this over 3000 year old, painted limestone sculpture.

This is the site (below) in Amarna, Egypt (modern day Minya) where the house and studio of the 14th century BC sculptor, Thutmose once worked. German archeologists excavated this site in 1912 and found the Nefertiti Bust, along with other ancient Egyptian artifacts.

Other artifacts found in the area of ancient Amarna, Egypt include this altar piece used by Pharaoh Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti. It depicts Pharaoh Akhenaten, Queen Nefertiti and their three daughters worshiping Aten, the sun god, the only god worshiped by Pharaoh Akhenaten. It is argued that he is the pioneer of a monotheistic religion. Although this altar piece depicts only three daughters, Pharaoh Akhenaten had potentially 9 known children, one being the legendary King Tutankhamun, whose extravagant gold mask I saw at the Cairo Museum.

Another highlig
ht of the Neues Museum was these Fayum portraits (mummy portraits) done for funeral purposes. These mummy portraits started in Egypt under Roman occupation and were mostly painted on wood panels. I talked a little bit about the mummy portraits I saw at the Cairo Museum in a guest post I did at Travelogged. 

Located in the lower levels of the museum, where brick ceiling arches make it feel as if you are walking through a underground lair, are these mummy portraits of the family of Lady Aline and her children. These could be from as early as 1st century BC.

I thought these mummy masks (below) were particularly cool. I've never seen such intact mummy masks. The colors are so vibrant and the material the artist used for hair is still curly and shiny (she must have used Pantene). They are all painted on plaster and would have been placed over the mummified wrapped body so that the gods in the afterlife would recognize them.

I hope you enjoyed the Neues Museum as much as I did. I saw some other cool stuff there, such as treasures found in mythical Troy and artifacts from ancient Sudan, but maybe I'll get to them another time. Next I want to show you what I saw in Poland!

©2010 Danee Gilmartin All rights reserved