France has been fascinated by ancient Greece for at least two centuries. The present exhibition traces the cultural and historical links between the two countries from 1675 to 1919. It also shows how the identity of modern Greece developed.
1821 was the date of the Greek Revolution. It coincided with the year when the French king (Louis XVIII) donated the Venus de Milo statue to the Louvre.
At first French curators were convinced Venus was older than she was- possibly 4th century B.C. and of the classical school of Praxiteles. However Germans scholars argued that she was only about 100 B.C., of the Hellenistic period, and the French management of the Louvre had to concur. So Venus suddenly became a few centuries younger.
The Louvre exhibition has Venus's old rival, lent by Berlin, - a powerful statue of Hermes de Milo, messenger of the gods.
The Hermes statue was found in 1827 very near where Venus had been discovered. He is dated 1st century A.D. and is probably an ancient copy of an original work, Venus is dated around 125 B.C. and she has the advantage of a head! These two statues of gods were part of the rich store of antiquities found on Melos, the south-westernmost island of the Cycladic islands, a major trading and military landing point.
A very ancient bronze helmet, found in Milo (Melos) in 1817, 3 years before Venus's discovery, is on display.
The helmet was bought by the 2nd director of the Louvre, count Auguste de Forbin, on one of his trips. It is thought to date from the 3rd century B.C.
Also from the excavations near the Venus, comes the head of a priest, dated 100 - 30 B.C. It is on loan from Leyden.
A magnificent and very ancient head outshines the priest. It is the famous 'Rampin horserider', which is one of the pride and joys of the Louvre permanent collection.
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| "Cavalier Rampin" ca 560-540 B.C. |
It is now known that this head, which still has traces of original coloured paint on it, has a body in the Acropolis museum in Athens. However, it seems unlikely they will ever get together! It is an early find which was on display at the 1878 Paris World Fair.
Naturally, very ancient statues have not been able to be transported from Greece, so many of the works in the exhibition are plaster replicas, but the Louvre has recreated some temple settings for these plasters, with polychrome decoration, giving us an idea of what the sites may have looked like originally- colourful, not so white as subsequent centuries had thought.
The exhibition opens with an imposing depiction of the French ambassador's visit to Athens in 1674. The acropolis and Parthenon are in the background.
This large painting is usually to be found in the Beaux Arts in Chartres. It shows the marquis of Nointel- in red at the front- who had been sent to Constantinople by Louis XIV, passing by Athens. The marquis shocked everyone apparently on this occasion and displeased Louis XIV by moving his stool up the steps onto the same level as the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet and was later relieved of his job as ambassador! However the antique-loving marquis had precious sketches made of the Parthenon decoration, kept in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Some are on display here.
At the time, the Parthenon was a mosque, topped by a minaret (difficult to make out on the photo) since Athens was under Ottoman domination. It is interesting to see what the Parthenon looked like before there was a big explosion in 1687, when the gunpowder stored there by the Turks caught fire. It was not yet a ruin when this work was painted, possibly by Flemish artist Arnold de Vuez. For the moment the work is attributed to Jacques Carrey, the French artist who recorded the Parthenon decor.
One of the Parthenon metopes shows a centaur and a Lapith fighting. Here we have an ancient plaster mould, the original being part of the "Elgin" marbles in the British Museum in London.
Fighting occurred at the king of the Lapiths' wedding feast when drunken centaurs tried to carry off the women, including the bride! It symbolises men's bestial instincts against civilisation.
Dominated successively by Persians, Romans, Ottomans and Turks, Greece was attached for many years to the Byzantine tradition, which the exhibition illustrates.
A beautiful example of an icon, one of the early works of Domenikos Theotokopoulos, otherwise known as 'El Greco' is on show:
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| El Greco: Dormition of the virgin ca 1566 Tempera and gold leaf on wood |
The work dates from El Greco's early Cretian period, before he left for Venice and eventually Toledo.
The Byzantine style is also represented by 16th century painter Lambardos.
Emmanuel Lambardos used tempera (based on egg) and gold leaf in this portrait of Christ as great archpriest. Christ is wearing the orthodox bonnet-like crown and holding the Bible. Dated 1529, the work shows the continuing Byzantine tradition, despite the fall of Byzantium in 1453.
French artists were inspired by the Greeks' struggle for independence from the Ottoman empire. The pathos of the "Massacre at Scio" by Delacroix is to be found in the galleries of the museum. The exhibition contains a work by Ary Scheffer, Delacroix's contemporary, showing the tragic end of the Souliot women (a Greek tribe) who preferred suicide to being captured by the Turks.
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| Ary Scheffer : The Souliot women 1827 |
The town of Missolonghi held a strategic position on the gulf of Patras. A large work pays tribute to Lord Byron, the English poet who died in the besieged city in 1824.
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| Theodoros Vryzakis: Lord Byron at Missolonghi 1861 |
Byron is hailed as a hero, arriving to help with the Greek fight for independence in 1824. The work is on loan from Alexandros Soutsos Museum in Athens.
Such was the sentiment in France that in 1826 the traditional 'Salon' was replaced by a big exhibition on Greece. Lent by the Bordeaux Arts museum is a work symbolic of French support for the Greek people: Delacroix's "Greece on the ruins of Missolonghi".
Delacroix never went to Greece, although he later went to North Africa. He incorporates the patriotic red, white and blue in his female allegory of the Greek nation standing defiant on the ruins of Missolonghi, taken by the Ottoman troops.
From Eugene Delacroix's own collection is a Turkish robe which he may have used for inspiration. Such items were eagerly acquired by the painter from a keen traveller, his friend Monsieur Auguste.
There are several Greek costumes on display, adding richness and local colour to the exhibition, while enlarged photos of, for example, queen Olga of Greece and her ladies in waiting, add authenticity.
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| Olga Constantinovna of Russia, married to Greek king George I |
The above costume belonged to well-known Freudian psychologist Marie Bonaparte, member of the Napoleon Bonaparte family, who married queen Olga's youngest son George.
The Louvre exhibition transports us back to the Paris World Fairs:
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| 1889 Greek pavilion |
The pavilions representing Greece at the Paris World Fairs are evoked by photos and 3D screens.
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| 1900 Greek pavilion |
This moulding of the dancers' statue at Delphi which once stood on the Daru staircase alongside the Winged Victory inspired Debussy's Introduction to his 'Préludes'.
Other fascinating artefacts in the present exhibition include delicate silk embroidery depicting a nuptial procession and a chest from the island of Lesbos containing a charming love scene.
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| 18th century silk embroidery on linen (Benaki Museum, Athens) |
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| Wooden chest (18/19th century) painted with tempera |
The Louvre exhibition runs until the 7th February 2022.
Access through the main pyramid and in the basement of the Sully wing. Opening times are the same as for the Louvre: 9am to 6pm, except Tuesdays, 1st Jan,1st May and 25th Dec.
Admission includes the whole museum: 17€ (online)
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