Blogging Paris - Sunday 5-9-10

Notre Dame de Paris

Started out this morning at St. Michael's Paris, an Anglican church (the service was in English, voila!) close to the British Embassy and recommended to me by an artist friend in Washington.  Ended today downtown at Vespers (by accident? or not?) at Notre Dame de Paris on the Ile de la Cite.  Both were wonderful!

Then - on to the Louvre - a little bit of heaven there, too!

Fresco Antiquity - The Louvre

Yes, I saw La Joconde (The Mona Lisa)and the Winged Victory and the Venus de Milo among other famous and sundry masterpieces. I'll probably go back Wed evening when the Louvre is open until 10pm.  It's way too much to take in at one time. I was also surprised that photos (no flash) and videos are allowed - I've uploaded a wonderful fresco fragment - I've been fascinated by fresco the last few years and have almost completed my artwork on a related theme for Passing Notions, a multi-media show coordinated and hosted by Artist on Fire and officially sponsored by Piccolo Spoleto later this month, so I was excited to see several fresco fragments today.

I also saw a special exhibit at The Louvre on Russian icons and treasures from the time of Peter the Great - absolutely stunning. Lots of references to the famous Russian iconographer Andrei Rubliev, who a friend of mine thought he was going to meet in Washington a few years ago - until I broke the news that Rubliev worked in the 15th century and so had been dead for a long time.  Anyway, we've had discussions about viewing a DVD of the 1966 Russian movie "Andrei Rubliev" or "The Passion According to Andrei" directed by Andrei Tarkovsky which is loosely based on Rubliev's life - it's a bit strange and difficult to follow but it is a masterpiece and hailed as such and won the FIPRESCI prize at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival (which does not make it any easier for me grasp...).  Well, fortunately, the Louvre bookstore (I could have spent days in there), had a book on Andrei and the movie so I bought it to help us back home understand the film.  The fact that the book is written in French should not hold us back from understanding the film.  After all, the book does have pictures.

And by the way, the Metro even does the arts, especially on Sundays.  In one underground station, I came upon 10-12 members of the symphony playing wonderful classical pieces.  Then in another, there was a rock band and the Metro passengers were spontaneously dancing - what fun!