Mona Lisa at the Salle des Etats
Vacation notes: Here’s a view of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. It was recently moved from its temporary location elsewhere in the museum to its new permanent home in the refurbished Salle des Etats , with non-reflective (and probably bulletproof) glass, climate controlled environment, and presumably, assorted security features. (In the past, it’s been stolen, as well as been attacked by acid and by stone throwing.)
Something like 90% of the Louvre’s 6 million annual visitors stop by to see the Mona Lisa, including Ron Howard and a crew filming a movie adaptation of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code who were there a couple of weeks before us. Visiting locations mentioned in The Da Vinci Code is apparently popular enough that there are tours for it.
The Louvre is immense, so it takes a bit of walking around and following signs before you get to the right section of the Denon wing, which houses the Italian painting collection.
The painting itself is not very big (21 x 30 inches), and a rope barrier prevents you from getting close enough for a good look. It’s quite possible they’re not even exhibiting the actual painting, in the interest of security. Hard to tell from a distance, behind all the protective apparatus. Given its iconic status, however, going to see the Mona Lisa isn’t really about seeing the painting. To me, the exhibit and its visitors seem like its own piece of performance art, and I enjoyed my visit in the Salle des Etats looking at almost everything except the Mona Lisa. There was a recurring forest of digicams at the far end of the room, sprouting up on outstretched arms, wobbling around for a few moments, then coming down, over and over. There were kids playing GameBoy. There were people coming into the room and having trouble finding the Mona Lisa, poring over tour books in every language to determine whether they were in the right room. As you can see from the photo, it’s not immediately apparent when you walk in.
If you want a good look, they have excellent larger-than-life-size poster prints at the Louvre gift shop.
According to my sister, an art historian, I’m sort of an art barbarian — my taste runs more to the bourgeois (I really enjoy the Impressionists gallery at the Orsay, and tend to judge art by whether I personally like it), and our 8-year-old has a predictable level of interest in Renaissance art, i.e. not much. We kept her moderately engaged for a while by having her count naked people as we walked through the galleries. For a lot of people, including us, I suspect that going to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa is sort of a scavenger hunt in search of Art or Culture or Must-See Places.
In a clever bit of curating, the opposite wall from the Mona Lisa holds the Louvre’s largest painting, Veronese’s The Wedding Feast at Cana, which is 22 feet high x 32 feet wide. So you don’t see it when you walk in, but when you turn around after viewing the Mona Lisa on the far end of the room, you’re just about far enough away to view the whole painting. I’d heard about the installation before going, so I walked all the way up for a quick look at the Mona Lisa without turning around, to get the full experience. Highly recommended. Think of an HDTV display bigger than some movie multiplex screens, in a room full of normal-sized displays. After looking at the small, dark, distant, and heavily shielded Mona Lisa, the effect of the sheer scale and vibrant colors is stunning.
I spent most of my time looking at the Veronese, walking forward and backward and sideways, “zooming and panning” on the painting. I found myself wishing for some rope scaffolding or something to “pan up” in addition to side to side. Not being much of an art student, I’d never heard of the painting before, but it was my personal Art highlight for our visit to the Louvre, and I may need to go back to the Salle des Etats next time just to look at it again. Ridiculously detailed. Great fun. Unless you’re 8.
Final count: 1 cool new art experience. 230-something naked people.
