It was pouring with rain on Sunday morning. I was in Paris with a friend.
We bought umbrellas, had grand crèmes and croissants and went to the Louvre, somewhere I have spent a lifetime avoiding. Although we had timed entry tickets we queued for half an hour outside in the rain, waiting to get into the pyramid. We should have gone to the entrance on the Rue de Rivoli which leads underground through the Carrousel du Louvre to a less crowded and dry way in. Now I know.
We went to the Denon wing wondering who Denon was. “Dominique-Vivant Denon (1747-1825) was a French artist, writer, diplomat and archaeologist, famous as the first Director of the Louvre Museum under Napoleon, instrumental in acquiring masterpieces, and a key figure in Egyptology.” (AI) I take “acquiring” with a pinch of salt. When I was in Libya I saw three granite columns from Leptis Magna lying on a beach, numbered for re-assembly in France. They had been acquired by the French consul at the end of the 17th century to go to Versailles but were never shipped, unlike the Leptis Magna columns at Virginia Water.
Avoiding the Mona Lisa, we pushed through the throng around Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, an inspiration for Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. It’s not an especially good painting and I thought, wrongly, that the flag waving Liberty is the main character. Well, maybe, but the boy in a cap flourishing a pistol on her right gave Hugo his character Gavroche, a name that’s now a synonym for a street urchin. He also lent his name to a Roux brothers London restaurant, 1967-2024. Now I know.
This picture depicts Renaud and Armide, characters in Jerusalem Delivered by Italian poet Tasso (1544-1595). You may not be familiar with the poem, I’d never heard of it, but it was a wow when it came out in 1581; barely believable but 2,000 copies were sold the day it was published. It has inspired many, many pictures and operas. Renaud is a 12th century crusader diverted from liberating Jerusalem to look at himself in a mirror held up by the sorceress Armide. In case her intentions are not clear there are cherubs and turtle doves (bottom left) snogging. He must decide between his chivalrous Christian mission and carnal pleasure. In the event, two other crusaders break Armide’s spell and rescue him, no doubt to his eternal regret. I must look out for versions by Poussin, Boucher, Tiepolo, Tintoretto and others.
It was a tiring morning and we were pleased to get to Le Grand Colbert for lunch: oysters, kidneys and île flottante for me.
I’ve never been able to muster much enthusiasm for either of the two famous “Armide” operas that use the same libretto, but — uncharacteristically — find I prefer the Lully, or at least the bits of it I’ve heard, to the Gluck. Though, for a full 17th C French opera, I think I would need an appropriately opulent setting and some rather good champagne.
Your vivid account does make one pine for Paris (lGColbert, but also the old Grand Vefour and other favorites). It is a pleasure to live vicariously.
What an education is your blog, Christopher, and joyously so!