- Incense Boat
- The Lady of Auxerre
- Capital: Daniel in the Lions’ Den
- Any of Pisanello’s Drawings
- The Card-Sharp with the Ace of Diamonds
- Peacock Dish, 1540–55
- Drapery Study
- The Blue Head
- The Astronomer
- Lion Crushing a Serpent
- St. Matthew
- Character Head
Incense Boat
Did You Know?
This brilliant piece is a brilliant fake.
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Thought to be a rare Venetian object from the 15th century, this spectacular bejeweled vessel was among the highlights of the Louvre’s collection of early silver and jewelry. Upon closer examination, however, scholars detected idiosyncrasies, such as unorthodox craftsmanship and the use of lapis, a stone unavailable in Europe at the time of its supposed creation. As a result, this vessel—exquisite in its own right and complete with its own leather case—is now attributed to Reinhold Vasters, an extraordinarily skilled 19th-century forger.
Discover more at “The Louvre and the Masterpiece,” on view October 2009.
The Lady of Auxerre
Did You Know?
This masterpiece of ancient Greek sculpture was once used as a stage prop.
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Brought to France by a collector, then purchased at an estate sale for one franc by a theater concierge, this seventh-century B.C. statuette ultimately wound up in a museum in Auxerre, Burgundy. There it was put on display, of a sort, employed as a hat rack. A Sorbonne professor spotted the statuette for the treasure it was—one of the earliest examples of ancient Cretan tomb sculptures—and had it brought to the Louvre in 1907. Today, it is prized as the consummate masterpiece of early Greek sculpture.
Discover more at “The Louvre and the Masterpiece,” on view October 2009.
Capital: Daniel in the Lions’ Den
Did You Know?
This striking capital was once seen as “barbarous and crude.”
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Such were the prejudices of the 19th century, an age when Romanesque art was deemed primitive—even by a Louvre curator. The capital likely dates from the early Middle Ages, and was reworked during the early 12th century. Although its original location remains unknown, the capital of Daniel was among the first examples of Romanesque sculpture to be accessioned by the Louvre, where the striking force of the composition makes it a masterpiece.
Discover more at “The Louvre and the Masterpiece,” on view October 2009.
Any of Pisanello’s Drawings
Did You Know?
This drawing was made by Italy’s greatest draftsman. No, the other one.
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The drawings of Antonio Pisanello were frequently mistaken for those by Leonardo da Vinci, especially as the latter’s stature grew—along with the value of his work. In his own time, Pisanello (the “little Pisan”) had been among the most revered of Italian artists. Although few of his works survive today, those that do show the artist’s gift for capturing nature and movement. His work was forgotten for more than 400 years, until an Italian scholar rescued him from oblivion in the 1880s. Today, his elegant and precise works are in a league of their own.
Discover more at “The Louvre and the Masterpiece,” on view October 2009.
The Card-Sharp with the Ace of Diamonds
Did You Know?
You’re not only witnessing the card game. You’re in on the cheat.
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A popular parable, this type of card-playing scene first appeared in the art of Caravaggio. Thanks to Georges de La Tour’s masterful lighting and dramatic composition, the action is played out to full effect and extends even beyond the frame. The victim sits at right, his finery and youthful naivety making him an obvious target. The fellow at left reveals the contents of his hand as well as the ace he has stashed in his belt. The viewer, now in collusion with the con artist, the courtesan, and the wine-server, has a front-row seat to the deception.
Discover more at “The Louvre and the Masterpiece,” on view October 2009.
Peacock Dish, 1540–55
Did You Know?
This peacock dish has every reason to strut and preen.
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This Turkish dish is one of the finest examples of Iznik ceramics anywhere. Painted with a masterful flourish, both delicate and striking, it features one of the earliest known combinations of flora and fauna in Islamic art. It was created during the zenith of the Ottoman Empire, which once ruled the lands from Central Europe to the Indian Ocean. Made and painted by hand, it is an outstanding example of what’s now known as the Golden Age of art produced under the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent.
Discover more at “The Louvre and the Masterpiece,” on view October 2009.
Drapery Study
Did You Know?
Even da Vinci’s homework is considered a masterpiece.
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Believed to be drawn while the teen-aged Leonardo apprenticed in Florence, this drapery study instantly establishes the artist’s outstanding ability to shade and model form armed with nothing more than a student’s black and white tempera brushwork on linen of a mannequin draped in cloth. It is an icon of Western art, one of six such studies held in the Louvre’s collection. Its masterly technique foreshadows da Vinci’s most famous work, the Mona Lisa, which he painted some 30 years later and is also at the Louvre.
Discover more at “The Louvre and the Masterpiece,” on view October 2009.
The Blue Head
Did You Know?
This one-time “star” of Egypt is an artful imposter. Big time.
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For decades, this fascinating blue glass head captured the imaginations of all who entered the Louvre’s Egyptian galleries. Sculpted in the round, it is characteristic of a period of ancient Egyptian art that grew enormously popular in the early 20th century, upon the 1922 discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb. Its undoing came with the discovery of similar busts, and scientific analysis of its composition has proved it to be of modern construction. It is a masterpiece, really, of dazzling deception.
Discover more at “The Louvre and the Masterpiece,” on view October 2009.
The Astronomer
Did You Know?
It took 200 years before Vermeer became a bold-faced name.
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Although his work was always esteemed, Johannes Vermeer’s reputation languished for more than two centuries as tastes changed and art lovers looked elsewhere. In the mid 19th century, a connoisseur and author returned the Delft master’s paintings to prominence, where they have remained ever since. The painting is one of a diptych—or pair—featuring scientists, long separated by a French royal who believed that owning a single work of the type was plenty. Thus proving that hindsight—even for Louis XVI—is twenty-twenty.
Discover more at “The Louvre and the Masterpiece,” on view October 2009.
Lion Crushing a Serpent
Did You Know?
This sculpture was hailed a masterpiece from the moment it was finished.
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To ensure authenticity, Antoine-Louis Barye went straight to the source, making hundreds of sketches of live and autopsied lions, a study he undertook with fellow artist Eugene Delacroix. Barye also pushed the boundaries of his medium, bronze. Instead of its being assembled from several smaller pieces, as most large-scale works are constructed, Lion Crushing a Serpent was created by one bronze pour into a single mold. Commissioned for the Tuileries Gardens in Paris by King Louis-Philippe, this original sculpture won instant popularity. Barye copied it hundreds of times in many sizes.
Discover more at “The Louvre and the Masterpiece,” on view October 2009.
St. Matthew
Did You Know?
This magnificent figure was likely made for a monastic order vowed to poverty.
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This gilt-copper appliqué figure of Saint Matthew is believed to be one of six existing apostle figures originally from the high altar of the abbey church of Grandmont, France. Made in the early 13th century, it is one of the finest examples of Gothic metalwork ever known. Curators speculate that it must have cost a pretty penny, too, prompting a curious paradox—that a monastic order would have sought out the best artists of the time to commission such a sumptuous altar decoration.
Discover more at “The Louvre and the Masterpiece,” on view October 2009.
Character Head
Did You Know?
The artist who made this self-portrait looked in the mirror every half minute.
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Franz Xaver Messerschmidt created his Character heads series in the late 18th century, during the Age of Enlightenment, a period of moral and social reform throughout Europe. They have been viewed as both “an outward expression of the artist’s melancholic genius,” as well as a reflection of his time. Mental illness forced Messerschmidt into seclusion, yet it was a period of heightened creativity for the artist; his self-imposed exile yielded this remarkable grimacing bust of himself, and dozens of others that are similarly masterful.
Discover more at “The Louvre and the Masterpiece,” on view October 2009.