The works of art not to be missed at the Louvre Museum in Paris (and where to find them)

You can admire masterpieces of French painting, but also Italian, Flemish and Greco-Roman sculptures that tell of classicism

ROME – It is among the most important museums in the world, it houses the most famous painting in the world, it is located in one of the most famous cities in the world. It doesn’t take a riddle wizard to understand that we are obviously talking about the Louvre in Paris. A cultural icon of the City of Light and a concentration of history and art.

The numbers

Founded in 1793, during the French Revolution, it is located in the heart of Paris, in Rue de Rivoli, overlooking the Seine. It is the most visited museum in the world: 2022 data speaks of 8 million tickets in a year. Among the three entrances, one is represented by the suggestive Pyramid, inaugurated in 1989 and designed by the architect Ieoh Ming Pei.

Inside, the Louvre presents itself as a fascinating labyrinth of rooms, sculptures, paintings, works from the Renaissance, Romanticism and Baroque. You can admire masterpieces of French painting, but also Italian, Flemish and Greco-Roman sculptures that tell of classicism. Visiting it all carefully would take about ten days.

The paintings in the Louvre are an absolute must-see

The average stay in the museum is half a day: here are the works not to be missed if you only have a handful of hours available for the visit.

The Louvre’s paintings section houses a staggering collection of around 7,500 works that guide your journey through the history of Western art.

Starting from the Italian Renaissance, the museum boasts paintings by Leonardo, Raphael, Titian, Botticelli. Continuing through the Baroque of the seventeenth century we can admire works by Rubens, Rembrandt and Vermeer. The collection is enriched with the important section of French paintings, which range from the classicism of Jacques-Louis David to the Romanticism of Eugène Delacroix.

The Mona Lisa – Leonardo Da Vinci

We can call it the most famous painting in the world. Also called Mona Lisa, it is the portrait of a woman with an enigmatic smile, painted by Leonardo between 1503 and 1506. A crowd of visitors always gathers in front of the painting who want to look at it, photograph it or capture the essence of that mysterious gaze . The Mona Lisa is located in the Denon Wing, in room 6, on the first floor.

Freedom leading the people – Eugène Delacroix

A very important painting for national history, because it represents a crucial moment: the French Revolution. Painted in 1830, this painting expresses the power, fury and dynamism of the revolutionary phase, which subverted political and social barriers, forever changing the structure of France. It is located in the Denon Wing, room 77.

The Wedding at Cana – Paolo Veronese

Created in 1563, it illustrates an important miracle told in the Gospel of John: during a wedding in Cana, Jesus transformed water into wine, which the banquet did not have. The painting has a complex construction, is rich in colors and details and measures almost 10 metres. It is located in room 6, in the wing of Italian paintings.

The Raft of the Medusa – Théodore Géricault

Painted in 1818-1919 by Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa tells the story of the shipwreck of La Méduse which dates back to 2 July 1816 around the coast of Senegal. Many passengers escaped to safety, but 147 of them found a makeshift solution on a raft that drifted and remained at sea for 17 days.

Following the high number of deaths, the episode shocked French public opinion. The painting is famous for the drama of the art which tells of a terrible news story, and presents a pyramidal construction of the figures which is striking at first glance. It is located in room 77 of the Denon wing.

The Virgin of the Rocks – Leonardo Da Vinci

Less known but equally important in the poetics of Leonardo Da Vinci, the work recounts the meeting between Mary, John the Baptist and Jesus in a cave, during the escape into Egypt; the episode is told only in the apocryphal Gospels. Through the rocks, a granite and mysterious element, the artist expresses the great mystery of Mary’s motherhood. The painting is located on the first floor, in the Denon wing, near the Mona Lisa.

The great Odalisque – Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres

Work from 1814, it represents the perfect canon of idealized beauty. The woman portrayed in the painting, lying on a bed adorned with white sheets, is known not only for her exotic sensuality and harmonious proportions but also for her autonomous and dominant attitude. The painting is located in room 75.

The sculptures of the Louvre not to be missed

In addition to the extraordinary collection of paintings, the museum is famous for the important sculptures kept mostly on the ground floor. The works start from the most ancient times, classical Greece, up to the Baroque era, including a series of French works. The elegant and important context only adds charm to these sculptures.

Venus de Milo – Alexander of Antioch

A famous classical statue attributed to Alexander of Antioch and dating back to 110 BC. It represents Aphrodite or Venus, the goddess of beauty in Greco-Roman mythology. Extremely famous throughout the world, it is appreciated for its shapes and proportions which indicate total harmony. The Venus de Milo is located on floor 0, room 345.

Nike of Samothrace

This famous sculpture represents the Greek goddess of the same name (the word Nike in Greek means “victory”). Due to its importance, Nike is placed right at the entrance to the museum, on a monumental staircase. The statue is a celebration of the winged goddess, daughter of the titan Pallas and the nymph Styx.

Cupid and Psyche – Canova

Considered a perfect sculpture for its shapes, harmony and proportions, it tells of a moment of love between Cupid and Psyche, protagonists of the Greek myth. The finesse of the marble processing expresses exceptional mastery, as well as the artistic sensitivity in capturing a moment of passion and devotion. The sculpture, created between 1788 and 1793, is located on the ground floor in room 4 of the museum, inside the Galérie Michel Ange.

Dying Slave – Michelangelo

Dating back to around 1513, this marble statue is 213 centimeters high and represents a young naked slave, in a harmonious pose, at the moment in which he is overtaken by death. The main theme of this work is the movement-stasis tension of a crucial moment such as that of passing. The work is located on the first floor, room 4.

The ticket office

One way to save time, concentrating it as much as possible on the wonderful treasures inside, is to buy tickets for the Louvre Museum online, in order to avoid queues at the ticket office.