The Galerie du Temps at the Louvre-Lens A unique presentation of ...

Georges de La Tour, Mary Magdalene with a Night-
Light,
c. 1640–45. Department of Paintings, Musée du Louvre,
RF 1949 11
© 2007 Musée du Louvre / Angèle Dequier
Statuette of Lady Tuya, matron of the harem of
Min, reign of Amenhotep III. African red ebony,
with shea wood base. Department of Egyptian
Antiquities, Musée du Louvre, E 10655
© 2008 Musée du Louvre / Christian Décamps
by Italian, French, Spanish and northern European artists (Perugino,
Raphaël, El Greco, Maler, and Jean Goujon, among others), thus
offering a novel perspective on the singular achievements of this period.
Complementing this strictly chronological presentation, a series of
theme-based exhibitions will also be offered, allowing visitors to
explore the development over time of artistic approaches to major
areas of interest, such as the art of the portrait, landscapes, the
representation of power, and religious practice. Only the Louvre’s
collections, in all their richness and complexity, could have made
possible this unique presentation, its rotating selection bringing a
fresh outlook on the history of art each year.
Masterpieces on loan from all of the Louvre’s departments
The selection for the Galerie du Temps is comprised of loans from all of
the Louvre’s departments: 25 works from the Department of Near Eastern
Antiquities ; 21 works from the Department of Egyptian Antiquities ; 31
works from the Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities ;
37 works from the Department of Islamic Art ; 31 works from the Department
of Decorative Arts ; 30 works from the Department of Paintings; and 30
works from the Department of Sculptures. Only works on paper, which
require very specific display conditions, will not be presented in this portion
of the museum, but will instead be featured in temporary exhibitions.
When this new satellite museum opens its doors to the public, some
of the Louvre’s greatest masterpieces by the most celebrated artists
represented in its collections will thus be exhibited in Lens:
Botticelli, Perugino, Raphaël, Goujon, El Greco, Rubens, Poussin,
Rembrandt, La Tour, Le Lorrain, Goya, Ingres, and Delacroix with
Liberty Leading the People. Beginning in December 2012, the Louvre
as a cultural institution will be as much in Lens as it is in Paris.
Three main sequences of the Galerie du Temps
Antiquity, 70 works grouped under 12 themes
1. The Birth of Writing in Mesopotamia
2. The Origins of the Egyptian Civilization
3. The Rise of Mediterranean Civilizations
4. The Ancient Near East in the Time of Babylon
5. Egypt of the Great Temples
6. City-States of the Mediterranean Basin
7. The Assyrian Empire
8. The Twilight of Ancient Egypt: Funerary Rites
9. The Persian Empire
10. Classical Greece
11. The World of Alexander the Great
12. The Roman Empire
Middle Ages, 45 works grouped under 7 themes
13. Eastern Christianity: The Byzantine Empire
14. Western Christianity: The First Churches
15. The Emergence of Islamic Civilization
16. Italy, Byzantium and Islam in the West
17. Gothic Europe
18. The Islamic Golden Age in the Near East
19. Encounters between East and West
Modern times, 90 works grouped under 9 themes
20. The Renaissance
21. Three Modern Islamic Empires
22. Arts of the Court
23. Baroque Europe
24. French Classicism
25. The Enlightenment
26. Neoclassical Movements
27. Islamic and Western Art: Assimilation and Resistance
28. Art and Power in France in 1830