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The opening of the Louvre-Lens is an exceptional opportunity
to rethink the centuries-old relationship between
the collections in the Louvre Museum and its visitors. This
publication presents the outstanding instances in this
innovative project, made possible by the création, over a
former pithead, of a new architectural complex by the Japanese
firm SANAA and its internationally renowned architects
Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa.
At the heart of this museum is the « Galerie du Temps »,
whose design was entrusted to Studio Adrien Gardère.
It présents 205 exhibits from all the departments in the
Louvre in a single space. Displayed in chronological order,
these works have previously always been seen in separate
exhibition spaces, being issued from différent civilisations,
schools or techniques.
The « Galerie du temps » offers a comparative and transversal
view of the history of the arts, spanning the period
from the invention of writing in Mesopotamia in the 4th
millennium BC to the Industrial Révolution in the mid-19th
century. On this journey through different civilisations,
the gallery allows visitors to compare universally recognised
masterpieces, such as Gudea, Prince of Lagash,
the statuette of Queen Tiye Beside King Amenhotep III,
the Discophoros, the Angel's Head mosaic from the basilica in Torcello, Self-Portrait with a Friend by Raphael, the
Bather by Falconet and Oedipus and the Sphinx by Ingres.
This guide to the Louvre-Lens discusses and reproduces
in their entirety the works exhibited in the « Galerie du
Temps », allowing us to prolong and deepen our visual
encounter with art and history.
