Time travel through centuries, civilisations
The Louvre Abu Dhabi is not just a museum. It is an artwork in itself, and the cultural world had waited with bated breath for the moment this masterpiece will be unveiled to the world.
For the first-time visitor, the jaw-dropping movement is definitely the spectacular architecture of the museum itself. But walking through the galleries — displayed in 12 different chapters — is indeed a cultural as well as philosophical journey that reveals the interconnectivity of civilisations. The gallery space is designed to take visitors on a journey back in time, an interconnected chain linking pre-historic times to the modern era.
The visitor is made to feel he or she is interacting with civilisations. This engagement is moderated by the 600-plus priceless artefacts that include a 800-400BC bronze structure of Egyptian Goddess Isis, a14th century Virgin and Child statue, a white marble head of Buddha dating back to 534 -550CE from China’s Eastern Wei Dynasty, an oil on panel creation of Madonna and Child by Giovanni Bellini, La Belle Ferronniere (portrait by Leonardo da Vinci) and an 1887 self-portrait by Vincent Van Gogh, to mention just a few.
What distinguishes Louvre Abu Dhabi from other museums is its emphasis on similarities and not the difference in cultures. Its message is that cultures can coexist seamlessly. Even within the same display case, there are artefacts that reveal the connectivity between civilisations.
The 12 Chapters
The galleries spanning 6,400 square metres, is divided into four wings — Ancient World, Medieval Time, First Globalisation and Modern Time. The artefacts are displayed under 12 galleries, each chapter telling a particular phase of human history.
The visitor begins the journey of evolution from The Great Vestibule, a space that presents similarities between early civilisations. A sprawling map on the floor and mixing artefacts from medieval France and ancient Egyptian statues, the Vestibule is a prelude to the museum. In Gallery 1 ‘The First Villages’, the space is dedicated to the first vestiges of shared communities that formed villages. Gallery 2 and 3 showcases the ‘The First Great Powers’ and the ‘Civilisations and the Empires’ shown through, for example, a painted 950-900 BCE Egyptian mummy in wood and a statue of the King Ramesses II. The relics of the emergence of first great Kingdoms in the valleys of Tigris, Euphrates, Nile, Indus and Yellow River are also displayed.
The fourth gallery is dedicated to the story of the Universal religions — Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. This is where a bronze Shiva statue from ancient India resides next to a display of verses from the Holy Quran and Christian relics and Buddhist images. Chapter 5 traces the Ancient Silk routes and spans the 7th and 8th centuries when Islamic civilisation were at the crossroads of Asia, Europe and Africa. The pieces that stand out is a silver-inlaid piece with astrological decoration from Afghanistan, an Ushak medallion and a Turkish carpet.
In Gallery 6, late-Roman treasures include an exquisite bust of the Emperor Constantine (r.306-337) a bronze Islamic lion (1000-1200) and Giovanni Bellini’s renowned Madonna and Child. This is from where the visitors enter a period of intersection — when people were eager to travel and explore the world. In Gallery 7, where the new perspective of the world is offered (the 15th century, when Islamic civilisation had a growing influence on European art) stands one of the museum’s most coveted works — Da Vinci’s La Belle Ferronniere (14951499). In the same gallery is Francesco Primaticcio’s bronze Apollo Belvedere (1541-43), and the Venetian masterpiece, Woman with a Mirror.
A New Art of Living is explored in the next gallery, where the masterpiece Gilles Guérin’s colossal Horses of the Sun (16651672) shares room with Jacques Louis David’s magnificent portrait of Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1802). The next three galleries showcase modernity, orientalism and abstraction with major works by Van Gogh, Cezanne and Caillebotte.
At the end of the one hour tour of the museum is the last gallery — A Global Stage — represents the world is in a state of constant self-reflection. Taking centrestage here is Weiwei’s chandelier-like Fountain of Light (2016) from China.
anjana@khaleejtimes.com