Paris, Day 5

H and I went to le Louvre, for many hours.

Mona Lisa Revealed!
I was in the room shared by la Gi0conda. She was behind the plastic screen for protection. There was a horde constantly gazing, reaching and flashing.
There is something that I sense about that painting that is not possible to perceive by looking at pictures of it. It is a painting of two halves, left and right, with Her in the middle.

I was looking, from a distance since getting close was very difficult, at that enigmatic countenance, this knowing, almost smug look. She knows what is behind her. Then it occurred to me that the answer to the riddle of Mona Lisa is that it is a self-portrait.

It is a characterisation of da Vinci of himself, by himself. The look is of the knowledge of his mastery of the natural and manufactured worlds, mixed with recognition that he is subject to its vagaries. That mastery was far beyond, and gained independently of, the efforts of his earthmates. The choice of gender for the portrayal is a reflection of his feeling 'otherness', of being separated from the society in which he lived, for surely da Vinci, possibly the smartest creature to ever walk the earth, must have felt a disconnection from the world of ordinary people.

So, there it is.

Other Observations in Le Louvre

Digital Cameras seem to have destroyed more than just the photographic film industry. People were seen, many times, walking to an object or a room, flashing their camera at it after some deliberation over the composition of the photograph, then walking on without giving the thing observed any consideration. Any such activity must be delayed until the image is displayed ( see Mona Lisa Revealed, above).

One man, with his wife and one or more children, had a small digital camera and, what I gather was, an iPad with its very large image screen. His wife was loudly exhorting him to stop using at least one of them, claiming that it was stupid of him to be taking photographs with two cameras at once. He refused, telling her that one took better photographs than the other. One can only infer that one camera took better pictures in some places, the other in others. Which was which could not be determined in advance, obviously.

Favourite Things Du Louvre

This is a knife, made from stone and the canine tooth of a hippopotamus; the blade is stone and the handle, tooth. It was made about 5,300 years ago. The handle has carved decorations, on one side depicting scenes of war, the other depicting scenes of a hunt.

The blade was shaped and sharpened by chipping the stone.

It was found in Abydos, an ancient Egyptian city.

A depiction of the gods of ancient Egypt, Isis, Osiris and Horus, rendered in gold and lapis lazuli.

Horus is their son and is the little god on the pedestal of lapis lazuli. Isis and Osiris were related through more than marriage; they were sister and brother.

The height of the statuette is about 15cm.