Greek masterpieces from the Louvre

last Saturday we visited the Greek masterpieces with the school

these Greek masterpieces were imported from the Louvre-- a prestigious museum made famous(in my opinion) through the book "The Da Vinci Code", but that’s not what we would be talking about today.

the lourve is famous for their many exhibits and the national museum was ecstatic to be able to loan artifacts for exhibitions in Singapore. most of the exhibits were seldom seen together due to the categorization at the louvre-- they placed heavy artifacts such as sculptures on the first floor while lighter objects such as vases were placed on higher levels.

on walking into the exhibition area we were brought into the world of ancient Greece, we viewed many sculptures that were taller than us and we were able to see how intricate some of the sculptures were.
some sculptures were flat and "2D" as they were carved onto a slate of stone instead of "3D" where you could walk around the whole sculpture and view it from many different angles.

the exhibit showed us how the people of Greece lived in ancient times, how sports were an important part of their lives ( hence the start of the Olympics?) and how small a role females had at the time. we could even see how funerals were decorated at the time.

we were also exposed to many Greek myths as ancient Greece had carved almost everything with Greek myth stories as they believed deeply in the gods such as Zeus and Aphrodite. I personally enjoy Greek myths a lot so it was pleasing for me to be able to see their "first versions" and not the illustrations we normally see in books. I was actually quite disappointed that Aphrodite then was not pictured the way she is now. it just goes to show how beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

the Greek goddess Aphrodite was even given a special place in the whole exhibit where they placed all her statues. I personally liked this section most as the sculptures here were very intricate and much more detailed than the rest of the exhibit. there were even special techniques used such as carving wet cloth on Aphrodite. this was especially amazing as you could feel a wet material clinging to her body yet you know it is all made from the same piece of stone.