Looking Around At The Louvre! Trivia Quiz

Answer:

The "Great Sphinx from Tanis", sculpted from rose granite, is considered to be the most famous Egyptian statue at the Louvre, as well as the largest sphinx found outside of Egypt. Measuring 15.7 feet long (4.8 m) by 6 feet (1.8 m) high, the statue was found among the Ruins of the Temple of Amun-Ra at Tanis. It is believed to date as far back as the 26th century BC, although who belongs with the image on the creature is uncertain. Tanis was the capital of ancient Egypt during the 21 and 23 Dynasties, however, experts believe the sphinx dates back to the 4th Dynasty. It appears that several pharaohs attempted to make their mark on the statue, which was in the private collection of a British Egyptologist at the time it was acquired by the Louvre in 1826.

The "Funerary Stele of Nefertiabet" is a masterpiece of ancient Egyptian art. Dating to the 4th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, c. 2589-2566 BC, Nefertiabet was an Egyptian princess, and some believe she was the daughter (or perhaps sister) of Khufu, who is credited with building the Great Pyramid on the Giza Plateau. Her leopard skin dress tells us that Nefertiabet was likely a priestess. The stele shows all sorts of provisions for her journey to the afterlife that have been laid out on a table before her. Measuring 1.2 feet (37.70 cm) in height and 1.7 (52.50 cm) in width, the stele, found in a cemetery at Giza, is one of the oldest ever found. When donated to the Louvre in 1938, the painted limestone stele was in 1500 pieces.

Found in the Temple of Ishtar during French excavations in Mari, Syria, the "Statue of Ebih II" is believed to date to the 25th century BC. It is made of gypsum, schist, shells, and lapis lazuli, and measures 1.7 feet (52.5 cm) high and 8.1 inches (20.6 cm) long. According to cuneiform inscriptions on the back of the statue, Ebih II was the superintendent of the city-state of Mari. He appears to be praying while sitting on a wicker stool and wears a goat or sheepskin skirt called a Kaunakes skirt.

The "Stele of Hammurabi", constructed from basalt, is 7.5 feet (2.23 m) tall, and gives evidence of one of the oldest, most comprehensive written law codes in the world. At the top of the stele, Hammurabi, the leader of the Babylonians from 1792-1750 BC, is seen giving his code of 4100 lines of cuneiform text to the god of justice - sources say either Shamash or Marduk; this is symbolic of Hammurabi's power coming directly from the gods. Hammurabi's Code is the origin of the famous "eye for eye" laws; although there is no record of how these laws were administered, the presence of the code indicates an attempt to legislate an orderly society. Sometime around 1100 BC the stele was taken to Susa, the Persian capital. It was found there in 1902.

"The Winged Victory of Samothrace" is a Parian marble statue, thought to be a representation of Nike, the goddess of victory. It was probably made during the Hellenistic Age after a great victory sometime around 190 BC. It is perched on a base that looks like the bow of a ship; along with the base the statue stands 18 feet 3 inches (5.57 m) tall. Quite breathtakingly beautiful, it sits at the top of the main staircase in the Louvre. When it was discovered by a French archaeologist in 1863, the statue was broken into 110 pieces; while some parts of the statue's hands were later found, the head and arms never were. The Louvre has been the home of the "The Winged Victory of Samothrace" since 1883.

Found on the island of Melos in 1820, the "Venus de Milo" was purchased soon after its discovery and donated to the Louvre. Sculpted from Parian marble during the Hellenistic Age, the statue stands 6 feet 8 inches (2.04 m) tall and dates from 150-100 BC. A hand holding an apple was found near the statue. Consequently, archaeologists surmised that it must be a statue of the goddess of love holding the apple of discord. Both of the arms, however, were already missing when the statue was found.

It makes perfect sense that the French Crown Jewels are housed at the Louvre; it used to be a royal residence after all, beginning as a castle with a moat about 1200 AD. The oldest gem in the French Crown Jewels, called the Cote de Bretagne spinel, is believed to have belonged to Anne de Bretagne, Duchess of Brittany in 1488. There are also jewels that were once used to adorn the clothing of Napoleon's second wife, Marie Louise. King Louis XIV had the best artists of his time create a room in the Louvre from which his 800-piece collection of treasures could be viewed.

Scholars know that Michelangelo was commissioned to sculpt two statues for the tomb of Pope Julius II between 1513-1515; he included that information in a letter that he wrote at the time. They were originally known as the "Prigioni", but in the 19th century came to be known as the "Rebellious Slave" and the "Dying Slave". Ultimately, they were not used for the Pope's tomb, and Michelangelo gifted them to a friend who had housed him during a period of illness in 1546. Both statues are about 7 feet (2.15 m) tall, and are constructed from marble. The "Rebellious Slave" is shown trying to break the chains of his bondage, and appears to be in a rather intense struggle against his plight; the "Dying Slave" shows a person resigned to his fate at the moment of death. Both statues have been at the Louvre since 1794, after having been housed in home of King Frances I of France and the Montmorency and Richelieu families.

"The Coronation of Napoleon" by Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon's first painter of the court, measures approximately 32 feet (10 m) wide x 20 feet (6 m) tall, and took two years from 1805-1807 to complete. It is an oil on canvas picture that shows Napoleon's coronation at Notre-Dame de Paris, depicting the precise time when Napoleon is getting ready to crown Josephine as his empress. Experts agree that David took a bit of artistic license with the painting; Napoleon's mother could not attend, but is prominently shown in the picture. Originally displayed at Versailles, it was moved to the Louvre in 1889.

Sometimes mistakenly assumed to be a scene from the French Revolution, "Liberty Leading the People" by Eugène Delacroix actually is a representation of either the French goddess of liberty or Marianne, a personification of the French Republic, leading the July Revolution of 1830 which overthrew King Charles X. The oil on canvas painting is 8.5 feet (2.6 m) x 10.66 feet (3.25 m), and was completed in 1830.

Last, but certainly not least, is the most valuable artifact housed in the Louvre - the "Mona Lisa". It is well known that Leonardo left Italy for good after being continuously passed over for patronages there. He left for France and took with him very few possessions; among them, however, was a portrait that he is believed to have been working on since 1503. He travelled to France in 1516, where some think that he continued to work on the painting while a guest in the court of King Francis I. There is some disagreement about how the king acquired the painting; some sources say that he bought "La Gioconda" from Leonardo in 1518, and others say he bought it from Leonardo's heir after the artist's death in 1519. It has been part of France's Royal Collection since that time. Napoleon is said to have hung the painting, a portrait done with oil on a poplar panel that measures about 30 inches × 21 inches (77 cm × 53 cm), in his bedroom for a time, but it has been on permanent display at the Louvre since 1797 - except for 1911-14, of course, when it was stolen.

The incorrect choices in the quiz are all found at the equally fantastic British Museum in London!