* I’m still impressed with Napoleon’s stables that he built and used for his horses in the Louvre. Every time I entered that room (from the up escalator in the Denon Wing), my eyes immediately rose above so many beautiful sculptures to what I consider the real “beauty” in those stables, the original ceiling.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdwapcMkefZOJwPdaVHGrpmNNWe4TefbQO1nN6OXKrt7Hy8L4w1aa_ujrD5j-A6AeRiLsFsamqS9zDAd-E_ZDS5GZnxKvTL4xjzpxtKrmnH48UvSq-svdIbpMDRdGnCH21ItWSYqvqGVyR/s400/Picture+2393+-+3-17-07.jpg)
* Because of the thin veil that the “Mona Lisa” is wearing (how did I never notice that?), the mystery of her smile may be explained by the fact that she was mourning the death of her four-year-old child. ![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfibO2OWGtq_Ie_usAQwPyNJtojXTcgKqiteamdK5GAmo9j9VRVFOvfdr3qiW4u6lDtymc6tIzKco2d6KNd7R0p6S_Scz5gK2EH98u0NikIC_pWG-1aAm8FsHR6mRKxn0W_Apj1sqGORxn/s400/DSC07288+-+3-17-07.JPG)
* Gericault’s painting, “The Raft of the Medusa,” is a depiction of the actual shipwreck off the coast of Senegal of the French ship, Medusa. The raft had about 149-150 people aboard but when it was found two weeks later, only 15 had survived. The painting shocked the Paris Salon for two reasons: it brought up the taboo subject of cannibalism and Gericault made sketches of bodies that he visited in the morgue for the painting.
* Paolo Veronese’s painting, “The Marriage at Cana,” is the largest painting in the Louvre. And it sits in the same room as the “Mona Lisa.” The two look at each other across a huge but very crowded room. ![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcmslKryn2QWTZf6Tvgf_0GPcuPshTWI18C8d8w3689BM8a15sgONA5nXq3B5Bc4HgbobOT8lzBBMZEhnr0i2NhOvbnoT5kJjtuy0-JpgEbyZuyjrY-aqzxmtT1ksXetkdV5LvQEOjeU0G/s320/DSC07857+-+3-17-07.JPG)
* The original fiery, raring Marly horses being restrained by naked grooms stood for almost 100 years (1795-1884) at the entry of the Champs-Elysees in the soon-to-be-renamed place de la Concorde until the Louvre offered them protection from the weather and pollution.
Now concrete copies with skins of powdered marble stand in their place; and the horses and other statuary from King Louis XV’s “hunting lodge” at Marly are displayed in the Louvre’s Marly Courtyard. The horses symbolized Europe and America and the unrestrained power of nature. The artist, Guillaume Coustou, used living models to make his sculptures so realistic. He was the nephew of Antoine Coysevox, who sculpted the horses, Fame and Mercury, for Louis XIV (also for Marly) and which are now in the Louvre, too. Copies of Fame and Mercury are in the Tuileries Gardens overlooking the place de la Concorde opposite the copies of the Marly Horses. ![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjoAojM0DXXOlv0YjefweXWU4f0nrwkbkKv659WJSeQ4RRZN0IihBfdtvu-6r5Alt-jcYS20wr27ktxCTCGs6XdivR_rxkCht_NV3hSengY80xlIlRklE20PicufmAnHBZtMvWTtXwxcKd/s400/DSC07647+-+3-17-07.JPG)