A woman views The Combat of Mars and Minerva at the Louvre exhibition in the National Museum of China on Friday. (Photo: Huang Tingting/GT)
Saint Sebastian Bound for Martyrdom (Photo: Huang Tingting/GT)
Cameo of Augustus (Photo: Huang Tingting/GT)
For Chinese lovers of art who have long dreamed of taking a look inside the glass pyramid museum located in central Paris it's time to celebrate - the Louvre is back in the Chinese mainland with a new exhibition that brings 126 precious artworks from the museum's collection.
An exhibition co-hosted by the National Museum of China (NMC) and the Louvre Museum, The Invention of Louvre: Eight Hundred Years of the History of France via the History of the Louvre and Its Collections kicked off at the National Museum of China in Beijing on Friday.
The exhibition is organized into five sections - the Royal Palace and Royal Collection, the Louvre and the Enlightenment Movement, the Napoleon Museum, From the Royal Palace to the World Museum, and Today's Louvre - that retrace the history of both France and the Louvre through artworks that reflect Mediterranean culture over the past eight centuries.
Crowded debut
The debut on Friday attracted a large number of Chinese visitors to the museum.
"I came on the first day because I just couldn't wait to see the Louvre collection. It has been a dream of mine," Zhang Mei, a middle school student from Beijing, told the Global Times at the exhibition on Friday.
Apart from school students, among those who were bending or crouching down to take a closer look at the art pieces sitting inside their glass cases were an elderly gentleman talking enthusiastically about the French Revolution before the Statue of A Sitting Man, a piece from the royal collection that was confiscated during the French Revolution, and a group of young women standing in amazement before Round Plate: Venus Sleeping on the Bed, an amazing carved plate from the 17th century, and talking about how it reminded them of "the luxurious style of French art."
The exhibit also inspired many parents to bring their children, many of which were toddlers sitting in strollers, to the show. Moms and dads took time to explain the artworks and share stories about them to their children whenever they stopped to appreciate one of the pieces from the collection.
Judging from the time people spent looking at the artworks, the two most popular collections on display were a fragment from the Book of Dead of Nesmin, an illustration on papyrus from ancient Egypt, and the Cameo of Augustus displayed in the Napoleon Museum section - an exquisite masterpiece carved in the likeness of the Roman emperor Augustus and decorated with precious materials including gold and marble. Visitors stopped to take pictures, staying for quite a while to study these pieces and stand amazed at their craftsmanship and beauty.
A matter of taste
Though this is not the first time that the Louvre collection has been put on display in China, the exhibition does have some special charms that set it apart from those in the past.
Pascal Torres, one of the exhibition's curators, said in an interview with Tencent Culture on Friday that the exhibition was specially made for China. He pointed out that, for example, when displaying Islamic art, they selected works that they felt fit the tastes of Chinese visitors - such as an ancient Greek statue featuring a horse head, which may remind Chinese visitors of horse statues from ancient China.
As to whether there was any chance to see the museum's three most recognized masterpieces - Italian painter Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa and the ancient Greek sculptures Venus de Milo and Victoire de Samothrace - in Beijing in the future, Torres said that taking into account the damage frequent removal may do to the artworks, the chances are small that they will be seen outside the museum.
The exhibition is scheduled to run until March 31, and each ticket costs 50 yuan ($7.2).
