Au Louvre: Les Arts Face a Face (French Edition) - Art History Book, Louvre Museum Masterpieces Collection - Perfect for Art Lovers, Students & Travel Enthusiasts

Initially a castle then a royal palace and now, since the French Revolution, a museum, the Louvre was from very early on destined for art, housing first the royal and later the national collections. The museum has always set out to be encylopaedic and today it embraces the civilisations of the ancient world – Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greek and Roman antiquity – and of the Islamic lands, as well as European art up until the mid-19th century.Instead of presenting this rich collection of works by civilisation, school or discipline, this book takes a novel approach, placing items from diverse cultures and periods side by side, creating juxtapositions that are often unexpected and invariably revealing. The works presented all touch on the eternal themes of art and range from paintings and sculptures to silverware and tapestry. The result is a thought-provoking meditation on the representation of human life since 3000 BC, from childhood to old age, encompassing moments of leisure and times of war, the totems of power and religious symbols, and our enduring love of beauty and decoration.To follow this journey through history is to relive mankind’s quest for self-expression, his never-ending search for beauty, his need for escape through nature, and his insatiable curiosity about the world around him. Erich Lessing’s photographs and Adrien Goetz’s text take us on a voyage of initiation, a visual adventure that leads us to the very heart of the vast universe of artistic creation.