/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

Is it ugly? No. Is it the best that the Louvre has to offer? No. Is it overrated? Yes yes yes.
I go to the Louvre on a weekly basis since 2010. Before global lockdown, the museum has gotten very difficult to get in unless you have a member card. You need to book tickets days before your visit during summer last year, it never happened. And when I went in to see the usual Mesopotamian art (the museum has 4 entrances and the fastest way to reach Mona Lisa is to take the entrance that starts with a bit of Mesopotamian art), it was overcrowded. Everybody was blindly following the small sign that tells you how to get to Mona Lisa. Everybody was ignoring all the beautiful paintings by Guido Reni, Valentin of Boulogne, even Caravaggio. I don’t even want to mention all the rooms not connected or neighboring Mona Lisa’s: the big 19th century “red room”? Empty. 18th century French masterpieces? Empty. 17th century Nicolas Poussin and his pals room? Empty.

What happened was that art historians had huge boners for da Vinci during the 19th century and early 20th century. That’s pretty much it and the myths around famous paintings perpetuate themselves. Fuck Puta Lisa.

t. art history phd