- Paperback: 500 pages
- Publisher: Abbeville Press Inc.,U.S.; 1st English-language Ed edition (Jun 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0789205785
- ISBN-13: 978-0789205780
- Product Dimensions: 16.7 x 13.6 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 488,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Encyclopedic in its scope and exhausting in its magnitude, the Louvre has vast collections ranging from the 6th century B.C. to the mid-19th century. Its impressive architecture goes back 800 years, to its origins as a fortress guarding medieval Paris. In its contemporary incarnation, recently reconfigured and rebaptized "The Grand Louvre", it spreads over four levels and boasts more than 30,000 works of art; its galleries, shops, and offices occupy some 1.72 million square feet, with some 645,000 square feet dedicated to exhibitions.
Such daunting dimensions can make the museum feel like an endless labyrinth to the uninitiated visitor, and so The Pocket Louvre offers invaluable help, including:
-- A handy user's guide, providing all the necessary information about access to the museum and to its many services, from cards to post office to shops.
-- Suggested itineraries for visits of varying lengths and for visitors with differing interests.
-- A history of the Louvre's long and colorful existence, with particular attention paid to the evolution of its architecture, so that modern-day visitors can orient themselves within the historical context.
-- A history of the collections, from the original royal treasure trove to Napoleon's museum for the people to its current position as one of the world's most important museums.
-- An illustrated catalog of 500 masterpieces, all in color, with brief commentaries that will lure visitors to find and enjoy these works within the museum.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Book was heavy to carry but helpful for planning our visit .We used it alot whilst in Louvre and afterwards reviewing what we had seen .The guides on edges of pages tell you which paintings in next rooms.Map was too small ,get a guide from under the pyramid.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Visiting the Louvre? This One May Help...
11 Sep 2007
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Pocket Louvre is a professionally rendered small-format paperback with two goals: first, to present a set of full-color reproductions of many of the Louvre's most famous works, and second, to assist the viewer in organizing trips to the Louvre in order to see these works in person. The book does a good job of meeting both goals. Whether you are planning on visiting the Louvre or just want a chance to see reprints of some of the more famous works held therein, you'll likely find what you need here.
The Louvre is a mega-museum so immense in size that it makes some of the world's other museums look like booths at an indoor mall. The building complex is so vast, and the museum's holdings so extensive, that it would easily require multiple return visits over some period of time to even begin to see any significant amount of it in any detail. The buildings themselves which house the Louvre have been added to and reworked over some 500 years, and so any visitor to the gallery (there were over eight million of them in 2006 alone) will be met with sprawling galleries, staircases large enough to hold small homes, interconnecting passages, an underground complex, central eating and shopping areas, and more. It can make the unprepared feel faint of heart and can be overwhelming even if one has visited more than once in the past. The Pocket Louvre helps the visitor navigate through this vast setting by breaking the complex into manageable sections by art genre, and then provides written descriptions of the path to take to see the principal works for each. In addition, the book gives us alternatives: do we want a short, or a long, trip? For each, we are provided directions, suggestions, and even some small-scale maps to help us both plan and execute our trip.
The photos in The Pocket Louvre are first-rate. Images are crisp, clear, with good color reproduction, and because the entire text is on semi-gloss paper, possess excellent overall quality. Because the book itself is small enough to be carried to the Louvre itself, it also means, however, that the photos are small, as well. You'll be able to get a very nice review of the art in the Louvre by reviewing the text, but don't think you are getting a coffee table-sized art book. Nevertheless, the photos are reproduced well enough to enjoy using the book as a virtual tour through the museum, and the descriptions of each, though minimal, are informative enough to help us understand what we are looking at.
A true bargain at its price, and a useful aid for a Louvre visit, the book should be in the library of every art lover, art historian, or past or future Louvre visitor.
The Louvre is a mega-museum so immense in size that it makes some of the world's other museums look like booths at an indoor mall. The building complex is so vast, and the museum's holdings so extensive, that it would easily require multiple return visits over some period of time to even begin to see any significant amount of it in any detail. The buildings themselves which house the Louvre have been added to and reworked over some 500 years, and so any visitor to the gallery (there were over eight million of them in 2006 alone) will be met with sprawling galleries, staircases large enough to hold small homes, interconnecting passages, an underground complex, central eating and shopping areas, and more. It can make the unprepared feel faint of heart and can be overwhelming even if one has visited more than once in the past. The Pocket Louvre helps the visitor navigate through this vast setting by breaking the complex into manageable sections by art genre, and then provides written descriptions of the path to take to see the principal works for each. In addition, the book gives us alternatives: do we want a short, or a long, trip? For each, we are provided directions, suggestions, and even some small-scale maps to help us both plan and execute our trip.
The photos in The Pocket Louvre are first-rate. Images are crisp, clear, with good color reproduction, and because the entire text is on semi-gloss paper, possess excellent overall quality. Because the book itself is small enough to be carried to the Louvre itself, it also means, however, that the photos are small, as well. You'll be able to get a very nice review of the art in the Louvre by reviewing the text, but don't think you are getting a coffee table-sized art book. Nevertheless, the photos are reproduced well enough to enjoy using the book as a virtual tour through the museum, and the descriptions of each, though minimal, are informative enough to help us understand what we are looking at.
A true bargain at its price, and a useful aid for a Louvre visit, the book should be in the library of every art lover, art historian, or past or future Louvre visitor.
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
A Wonderful Comprehensive Guide
18 July 2001
Format:Paperback
We brought this guide with us on our last visit to Paris. We hadn't been to the Louvre before, its size had overwhelmed us. Armed with this guide, we were able to focus on what we wanted to see, and had a wonderful souvenir when we got home. The pictures are tremendous and the section on the history of the Louvre was very interesting. The descriptions of the art itself were, however, frustratingly brief. Also, even though at over 500 pages, the guide is hardly "pocket", it didn't include several paintings we wished it had.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A Necessity for a true art lover
12 July 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I ordered this book because it is impossible to know about all the masterpieces at the Louvre. While it is short on description, it is very accurate as to the locations of the paintings. I could not take the book with me, but I noted the room numbers. It saved so much time. I was able to walk by entire rooms until I found the correct art work. The only painting that I found out of order was Goya's "The Marquesa de la Solana" which is not on the first floor with the rest of Goya's works. I discovered it by accident on the second floor in a room full of portrait treasures. The museum guards at the Louvre are not very knowledgeable....they told me the work was under restoration (their standard answer). This book is very valuable for the true art lover who wants to see more than the Grande Gallerie and the Mona Lisa. **Note: I was at the museum at the end of June 2011. Leonardo da Vinci's "Virgin and Child with Saint Anne" is not on display. When I asked a guard, he referred me to the "The Virgin of the Rocks"......I had to explain to him that they were two different paintings. So, I would hesitate to trust any responses from the guards at the Louvre.
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