Paris (II)

[i have 2 computers running for me now, so i can relax and write the next chapter...:) ]

After a great lunch, we took the metro to the Louvre.

we didn't have a lot of time to see it, and even if we did have all day - the book says that in order to see it all you need 3 months. it's huge.
i'll only talk about the things that i was moved by in some way.

first, the Mona Lisa. don't think less of me, but i was really, really not impressed. i know, people told me not to get my hopes high, i knew ahead of time that it's a small piece, but still - i found nothing special about it. to me it was just another one of those commissioned renaissance portraits - and i've seen others that have touched me more. maybe it's the fact that there were lots of people around and we couldn't see it from very close (trying to justify... hmmm...).

my favorite item that afternoon was a sculpture, "The Rebellious Slave", by Michelangelo. The sculpture seems to be unfinished, and the figure of a mostly-naked man is emerging out of the rock that it's carved from. i like the italian sculptors, and Michelangelo in particular - the attention to details and the anatomic accuracy are mind blowing. but those unfinished sculptures, like this one and the four that i saw last spring in the Accademia Gallery in Florence, i can look at them for hours. they are, to me, more interesting than, say, the David.

i can't help but think about the artist's state of mind when he was working on this piece. some parts of it are highly finished - muscles and veins come out of the marble and almost come to life. other parts are rough and unpolished, including the face and hair. it's as if Michelangelo was done working on the interesting bits (to him), and then got to bored to do the obvious parts. like "eh, this is too boring. i'll finish it some other time".
you can really see the process in this sculpture, and not only the finished artwork.