COLLECTIONS OF THE LOUVRE
France's Galleries of Art and History
The
massive collections of art at the Louvre cover 9,000 years of art and
culture presented in three
main
galleries on four floors. The Museum
building created from the historic Louvre Palace is built in wings around
central courtyards. The exhibit galleries are divided into three main
sections – The Richelieu – The Sully – and The Denon
Galleries. Entrance to each gallery is primarily through the central
ticket
entrance in the Napoleon concourse underneath the Pyramid (see Paris
- The Louvre).
A map provided with admission will show where each collection
is located in the complex to plan your visit.
For
some quick reference of the more famous and familiar, sculptures of
Michelangelo are on
the ground floor of the Denon wing, while the Mona Lisa and Italian
Renaissance
paintings are on the 1st floor. French sculptures including famous 
figures like Emperor Napoleon
and Voltaire are on the ground floor of The Richelieu,
while Rubens and Vermeer and
the Dutch
Masters
are on the 2nd floor. Ancient
Greek
antiquity
sculptures
are on the Ground Floor of Sully. The preserved apartments of Napoleon
III (see Arenenberg
Palace Switzerland) are on the 1st floor of the Richelieu
wing one of the few places showing what the Louvre was like when it was a
royal
imperial palace.
The collections are categorized as:
Oriental Antiquities
Sculpture,
reliefs and artifacts from the Near East going back to 7,000 B.C. in
Mesopotamia and Persia
(now
Iran) and the “Levante” stretching
from the Mediterranean to India
Eqyptian Antiquities
Ancient Egypt from the earliest recorded time to Cleopatra and presented in a thematic circuit from Coptic to Roman Egypt
Greek, Etruscan & Roman Antiquities
Sculpture and painted works and artifacts from three ancient civilizations
covering two floors. On the Ground Floor a chronological tour of marble
statuary from 3,000 B.C to the 6th Century A.D. (Venus de Milo and Winged
Victory). The First Floor exhibit presents bronzes, jewellery, silverware,
glassware and terracotta with a focus on techniques and materials used.
Paintings
The Louvre painting collections examine European painting in the period from the mid-13th Century (late medieval) to the middle of the 19th Century. (Later period paintings like Picasso and Renoir are not found at the Louvre) The paintings are divided into three main groups, The French School, the Italian (Davinci, Rafael and Boticelli) and the Spanish Schools (Goya), and Northern Europe, English, German, Dutch and Flemish Schools.
Sculptures
European Sculptue from the Late Middle Ages to the mid 1800’s. The collection is made of mostly French works with some significant pieces from Italy, Spain and Northern Europe.
Objets d’art
Decorative items from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, 17th and 18th art items, furniture, crown jewels and Napoleon III apartments.
Arts of Islam
Works from various Islamic countries mostly from French royal collections, (Napoleon brought back a number of baubles from his foreign adventure), ceramics, metals ivories, woods, carpets and paintings.
Prints and Drawings
The Graphic Arts Department holds more than 100,000 items from the Edond de Rothschild Collection of printed works and copper plates. Access to the department is by prior arrangement, but examples are displayed in temporary exhibits on a rotating basis.
History of the Louvre and Medieval Louvre
Two rooms dedicated to the archaeological study and history of the Louvre Palace from early medieval foundations to the present design.
There are also several restaurants, cafes, two bookshops and a multimedia
collection referring to the collections and history of the museum called
CyberLouvre available free of charge. Audio headphone guides in French,
English, German, Italian and Japanese are available for a small rental
price at the ticket entrance. Admission for adults is 8.50 Euro reduced
to 6 Euro after 6PM. A ticket bought on the same day can also be used
for entrance to the Delacroix Museum. © Bargain
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The Louvre
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