Aphrodite’s Love Trail At The Louvre

I was intrigued enough by the Louvre’s proposed Aphrodite’s Love  trail to follow the Goddess of Love, rather than my usual meandering around.

I would have loved to have taken you along,(yes, you who is reading this.)  Beauty should always be shared and besides I would have been interested in your thoughts too.

I never approach art with a need for intellectualization, but with a hope of being touched emotionally.

Soaking up the moment you first cast your eyes on a work of art is a sensuous experience, that can linger on if that art really engages you.

Being a therapist, I am always interested in the personality of the artist in question, because each work reveals something of that artist’s soul and feelings.

On the Louvre website is a great section called Visitor Trails, where their art historians have taken great strides to  describe each work of art.  A big plus for those of us who may not know the artist’s intent, nor story portrayed.

I briefly gazed over the itinerary, downloaded it and set forth.  Bus 68 let me off just north of Rue Rivoli and I entered the museum from the inside of the Carousel du Louvre, as it was bitter cold.

The line was surprisingly short, as most tourists enter from the outdoor pyramid and fountains.

I headed straight for the Richelieu part and climbed up the  white marble stairs to the incredibly light filled space that has more a feeling of an airy art conservatory with green filigree ceilings.

Impossible for me to not be blown away again by sublime feelings of immense beauty by the magnitude of those monumental statues that greet your eyes, even though I had seen them several times before.

Off to a smaller room is where the Louvre has their L’Amour(love) section of French sculptures. Aphrodite is the Greek Goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, desire and erotic passion, and her name means “foam arisen” taken from the account of her birth.

The most popular story of her birth is that Uranus, the Greek god of the sky, had his genitals cut off and tossed in the sea. The foam that subsequently arose gave birth to Aphrodite or Venus as she was called by the Romans.

After emerging from the sea, this beautiful woman floated to shore on a scallop shell.  One of my favorite paintings is The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, which is not in the Louvre, but housed in Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

The first statue pointed out is that of Venus the Bather by Etienne Maurice Falconet sculpted in 1768 from a live model, as most sculptures are today.   He was relatively unknown and this work created a buzz about him in art circles for the lovely sensuality Venus brings forth.

King Louis XV bought it for his mistress Madame du Barry, who he probably wanted to convey his identification of Venus with her.

Not the far from her in the same room in her very famous winged son, Cupid! First sculpted  in plaster by Antoine Chaudet, the marble version was completed  by his friend, 7 years after Chaudet’s death.

Full of symbolism, it  shows  a very young Cupid, known as Eros in Greek, holding a heart riding on a butterfly (symbol of the soul) towards a rose.  Cupid seems as playful as a young boy, unaware to the precarious nature of Love.

For me once love has  harnessed your soul, you are captive towards living that love out, hopefully within the beauty of the rose, that will keep your love fresh and vibrant  throughout your relationship, but this rarely occurs.

A slightly older prepubescent boy with his beloved and faithful dog, also in white marble reminds us of the higher  sources of pure love.

Our beloved animals and the relationship they offer are much more unconditional than any human love.

The most captivating statue in the room was of Zephyr et Psyché.  Zephyr is the Greek god of the west wind who was assigned to abduct Psyché to her fate of being married off to a hideous man( a plot devised by Venus, who was jealous of her beauty.)

The sculptor, Henri Joseph Ruxthiel, masterly sculpts the drapes to seem like they are blowing in the wind. Psyché’s face is full of anguish and grief, as she is being carried away.

Due to the lighting from the window, which overlooks the entrance to the Palais Royal, the statue appears somewhat dim by my own poor photographic skill, but is as polished white and smooth as the other marble statues.

Upon leaving for my next stops, I took some photos of two works that had for me captured an even purer expression of love:  a parent’s love for their child.

The towering impressive father nourishing his child back to life is absolutely exquisite and one of the rare examples of paternal love.

The trail then directed me  towards French painters, which at that point it became difficult to follow, as some works must have been out on loan.

I did find Nicolas Poussin’s painting of Echo and Narcissus. Narcissus, from which the word narcissist is derived, portrays an antithesis to love.

Echo, the beautiful and innocent nymph who was cursed out of jealously by Zeus’s wife to only be able to repeat the last words of someone.

Jealousy, unrelenting and controlling can have disastrous results in any relationship.

Poussin has been noted to leaving hidden spiritual meanings to some of the paintings around Christian scripture and others.

He places more emphasis on lines, rather than colour, so many of his works have darker hues of subdued pastels.

Here you see poor Echo in the background dying on the rocks after being cruelly rejected by Narcissus, who is lying down looking at his reflection.  Only her last words continue to bounce off the mountains.  Narcissus was incapable of loving anybody  and had already left a string of betrayed lovers behind.

As karma caught up with him, he fell in love with his own reflection in a pool, yet each time he reached out to embrace his new love, his reflection disappeared, leaving him feeling as rejected as he had rejected others.

He finally ended up drowning trying to join his own image, and from his death sprang forth a white flower called a Narcissus.

Another of Poussin’s work left me wondering why it was included and by that time it was getting late.  The other works dealt with the utmost tragic nature of love, that often weaves treacherous outcomes.

Total despair and hopelessness following a rejection of a beloved is one of life’s most painful experiences.

This statue of Queen Dido of Carthage, who was abandoned by Aeneas, stabbing herself with her lovers’ sword by Augustin Cayot; I find more visceral than the painting by Rubens.

The Entombment of Atala, by Anne Louis Girodet Roucy Trioson, comes from a story by Chateaubriand  about  a young American who falls in love with an Indian, seen holding her legs.  Unable to carry through with a promise to her mother to become a professed religious, she preferred to kill herself rather  than live with that betrayal.

Paola et Francesca da Rimini is a true story of an ill fated couple that Dante used in his Divine Comedy.

Francesca was married off for political reasons and fell in love with her brother in law.   This impassioned couple, albeit illicit lovers were caught in their adultery and killed by her jealous husband.

Painted by Ary Scheffer, the Louvre highlights this masterpiece of carnal love that becomes transcendent of  two souls made pure by their love.  In times where marriages were arranged for financial or political agendas, these tragic unions abounded and elicited more empathy than  condemnation.

 

 

The last work of art on the trail I have admired  many times before, and is far and wide the most beautiful and graceful of all statutes depicting the mysteries of Love.

Eros and Psyché by Italian Antonio Canova is beyond sublime and I am often drawn to just sit on the bench behind it almost in a trance like state of admiration, taking in the powerful energy.

To say that this statue resonates with my own inner psyche and innate feelings of Love is an understatement.  I find this breathtaking couple in the most intense graceful and sensuous embrace ever.

Cupid’s wings reach towards the heavens and convey the immortality of love.  Their love story is too long and convoluted to explain here and worthy of an entire post.

As a spiritually oriented therapist, their union represents the “sacred marriage” in alchemical and Jungian terms and the conjunction of the divinely created souls who relentlessly search out each other as mentioned long ago in the Jewish mystical text of the Zohar.

Canova came from a family of stone cutters  where his grandfather also was a sculptor.  Young Antonio was already carving marble by the age of nine!

In a nearby room is another of my very favorite statues that I would propose along this theme of Love.  It is a wooden statue dating back to 1515, found in a monastery.

Mary Magdalene, by German sculptor, Gregor Erhart, captures her magnificent femininity and resplendent radiance.  I wanted to include her for exemplifying the purest love and devotion to her beloved Jesus.

Fortunately, I have been blessed with a good sense of orientation, but with all the immense nooks and crannies of the Louvre, I can be led momentarily astray.

Crossing back across the original royal palace, I stumbled across vast and monumental tapestries that I vowed to return to study in detail.

The ancient palace felt eerie and somewhat creepy as the parquet floor squeaked with every step, and I suddenly felt a fearful thought of what it  would be like to be lost and locked in Louvre.

I was relieved to be back into the Richelieu part where I had started and easily found my way back out towards Rue Rivoli.  The early evening darkness felt unwelcome and I wished France would abolish the autumn time change.

It was drizzling again with the lights of Palais Royal reflected in little puddles of rain accumulated across the place as I ducked down the metro stairs.

On the ride home, I felt very blessed and grateful to have these opportunities to immerse myself in such beauty, which many are deprived of ever seeing.

Art must be shared, not only for its beauty, but for all the stories they convey, that allows us present day mortals a glimpse back in time.

Eros, Psyche and Aphrodite remind us that human emotions and circumstances caught in the mysterious web of Love are constantly being played out in the hearts of lovers throughout the world.