Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci · 1503
Louvre
Paris · Founded 1793
The Mona Lisa is here, and so are the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory. Come for one of them and you will lose an afternoon to the rest.
- 9M
- Visitors a year
- 1793
- Founded
- €22 EEA / €32 other
- Admission
- Daily exc. Tue
- Daily opening hours
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Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci · 1503
The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world." The painting's novel qualities include the subject's enigmatic expression, the monumentality of the composition, the subtle modelling of forms, and the atmospheric illusionism.
Venus de Milo
The Venus de Milo or Aphrodite of Melos is an ancient Greek marble sculpture that was created during the Hellenistic period. Its exact dating is uncertain, but the modern consensus places it in the 2nd century BC, perhaps between 160 and 110 BC.
Liberty Leading the People
Eugène Delacroix · 1830
Liberty Leading the People is a painting of the Romantic era by the French artist Eugène Delacroix, commemorating the July Revolution of 1830 that toppled King Charles X (reigned 1824 to 1830).
Winged Victory of Samothrace
Pythokritos
The Winged Victory of Samothrace, or the Nike of Samothrace, is a votive monument originally discovered on the island of Samothrace in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It is a masterpiece of Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic era, dating from the beginning of the 2nd century BC (190 BC).
The Raft of the Medusa
Théodore Géricault · 1819
The Raft of the Medusa, originally titled Scène de Naufrage (Shipwreck Scene), is an oil painting of 1818 to 1819 by the French Romantic painter and lithographer Théodore Géricault (1791 to 1824). Completed when the artist was 27, the work has become an icon of French Romanticism.
The Oath of the Horatii
Jacques-Louis David · 1784
Oath of the Horatii is a large painting by the French artist Jacques-Louis David painted in 1784 and 1785 and now on display in the Louvre in Paris. The painting immediately became a huge success with critics and the public and remains one of the best-known paintings in the Neoclassical style.
The collections
Egyptian antiquities
Dendera zodiac · 50 BC
The department, comprising over 50,000 pieces, includes artefacts from the Nile civilisations which date from 4,000 BC to the 4th century AD.
Near Eastern antiquities
Stele of Naram-Sim
Near Eastern antiquities, the second newest department, dates from 1881 and presents an overview of early Near Eastern civilisation and "first settlements", before the arrival of Islam.
Greek, Etruscan, and Roman
The Greek, Etruscan, and Roman department displays pieces from the Mediterranean Basin dating from the Neolithic to the 6th century.
Islamic art
The Islamic art collection, the museum's newest, spans "thirteen centuries and three continents".
Sculptures
Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss · Antonio Canova · 1787–1793
The sculpture department consists of works created before 1850 not belonging in the Etruscan, Greek, and Roman department.
Decorative arts
Regent Diamond · 1705
The Objets d'art collection spans the time from the Middle Ages to the mid-19th century.
Painting
The Intervention of the Sabine Women · Jacques-Louis David · 1799
The painting collection has more than 7,500 works from the 13th century to 1848 and is managed by 12 curators who oversee the collection's display.
Prints and drawings
The prints and drawings department encompasses works on paper.
Artists
French · 1780–1867 · Romanticism
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ascendant Romantic style.
France · 1748–1825
Jacques-Louis David was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era.
Holy Roman Empire · 1483–1520
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, now generally known in English as Raphael (UK: RAF-ay-əl, US: RAF-ee-əl, RAY-fee-, RAH-fy-EL), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance.
French · 1798–1863 · Romanticism
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.
Italian · 1571–1610 · Baroque
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for a significant portion of his artistic life.
Italian · 1452–1519 · High Renaissance
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect.
Artworks
Dying Slave
Michelangelo · 1514
The Embarkation for Cythera
Jean-Antoine Watteau · 1717
Death of the Virgin
Caravaggio · 1603
Crown of Napoleon
Martin Guillaume Biennais · 1804
Ship of Fools
Hieronymus Bosch · 1500
Magdalene with the Smoking Flame
Georges de La Tour · 1642
Marie de' Medici cycle
Peter Paul Rubens · 1622
The Moneylender and his Wife
Quinten Metsys · 1514
The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo · 1660
Plan your visit
Hours
Open daily except Tuesday. 9am to 6pm Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday; 9am to 9pm Wednesday and Friday. Last entry an hour before closing, and the galleries clear thirty minutes before. Confirm on www.louvre.fr before you travel.
Admission
€22 for visitors resident in the European Economic Area, €32 for everyone else. Free for under-18s and for EEA residents under 26. A ticket covers the permanent collection and the temporary exhibitions, and a time slot is worth booking even when admission is free.
Getting there
The Pyramid is the main entrance; at busy times the Carrousel and the Porte des Lions also open.
On their own site
Opening hours, tickets and current exhibitions are on the museum’s own site.
More guides to explore
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95 works from this collection are available on Momentable, free to view, on your TV, phone, or tablet.
