All In a Day At the Louvre

Magnetic attraction, enchanting dream of a lifetime - majestic pyramid attracts my eye, mystique draws me in O, your architecture! Pavilions, colonnades; art enclosing art, every square inch deliberately designed, ceilings pour forth scintillating splendor Antiquities from Rome, Egypt, the Orient: trying to wrap my head around art created in Mesopotamia 6,000 years ago Dazed and captivated in your Greek sculpture hall: Bronze beauty, marble magnificence, Venus de Milo seduces still What history you have archived on your walls and pedestals! Charlemagne holding his scepter, Louis XIV in regal resplendence Oil on canvas communicates genuine genius Rembrandt, Rubens, Raphael, Vermeer, Van Dyck, Vigée-Lebrun Mythology awakened to life in marble: Hera, Hermaphrodite, Neptune, Nymph, Psyche and Cupid Even commoners respectfully regarded: Messina's military man, Brueghel's beggars, Michelangelo's dying slave Centuries of religious faith expressed with grace and grandeur: Moses in the bulrushes, Islamic ivory, the penitent Magdalene, Virgin and child Artistic vision reflects and redirects history: Renaissance masters forecasting the future, Monet's Impressionism a daring new style Fifteen minutes till closing, where have the hours flown? What of tapestries, textiles, drawings, decorative arts? Alas, another day. Highlight of the day, world's most famous painting: mysterious Mona Lisa smile thanks me for coming to visit Louvre: timeless testimony to artistic aesthetic cathedral of contemplation history of humanity Written 15 Sep 2020