The Louvre Round Two

This will be short because I lack photos.

I briefly went back to the Louvre this morning. I went in a few galleries, but my main purpose was to see this...

The statue known as ‘the Winged Victory of Samothrace’ or it is also referred to as the ‘Nike of Samothrace’. It is an incredibly well preserved ancient Greek marble statue, despite the missing limbs and head, because it was originally housed inside a temple on the island of Samothrace. All of the carved edges of her chiton, for example, are still fairly crisp.

She is believed to be to have been on the bow of a decorative, non-functional ship in the temple (not unlike the carvings Europeans used to put on the front of their boats).I braved the crowds to go see her because it’s one of the most dramatic statues I had ever seen in photos and in person she does not disappoint.

The majority of the day I spent at Les Arts Décoratifs, which is a museum within the Louvre complex. The outside is impressive which, given that it used to be a palace, is not surprising...

 

 

Its permanent collection covers the history of European design from the Middle Ages to the Present.There are also a number of rotating galleries devoted to specific types of items like jewelry, advertising, and toys. I was there to go see this show...

The show is called ‘La Méchanique des Dessous’, showcasing how undergarments and clothing has been used to modify the body to create different silhouettes in Western fashion. The lights are quite low throughout this space for conservation reasons and photos weren’t allowed. It’s a fantastic show of incredibly rare pieces- undergarments are generally used until they are worn and thrown away (or sold to the rag man to make paper centuries ago). There are also a number of replicas with motors that illustrate how they would have been put on. And in one gallery, there were replicas that visitors could try on- I was impressed how heavy some of the pieces were.

Needless to say, I was in my happy place. If you like fashion, you should come to Paris and see this show. But if you can't, watch this video to get a taste of it (the curator is standing in the middle of the replicas you can try on, in case you wonder)...

http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/francais/mode-et-textile/expositions-70/actuellement-447/la-mecanique-des-dessous-une/presentation-3136