The Louvre “ one of the most famous and spectacular art museums in the world “ now has an official iPhone app, called Musée du Louvre. And it ‘s a very good one “ extremely well presented and “ of course “ containing a lot of beautiful artwork.
Hit the jump for just a little more detail on the new app, and lots of screencaps
I was lucky enough to visit the Louvre years ago on a visit to Paris. One of my overriding impressions of it was that it is just massive. I ‘d been told beforehand that you really needed more than one day to even come close to taking it all in. Sadly, I only had one day and I think I learned how true that advice was.
Here ‘s a little slice of Wikipedia ‘s Intro to this legendary spot:
The Musée du Louvre, or officially the Grand Louvre ” in English, the Louvre Museum or Great Louvre, or simply the Louvre ” is the largest national museum of France, the most visited museum in the world, and a historic monument. It is a central landmark of Paris, located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (neighbourhood). Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet).
The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are still visible. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1672, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of antique sculpture.[3] In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years.[4] During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum, to display the nation’s masterpieces.
It ‘s a must-see if you ever find yourself anywhere near Paris. In the meantime, the Musée du Louvre app can offer you an excellent taster of some of the treasures on display.
The app is divided into these sections: Tour of the Louvre, Artworks, The Palace, and Visitor Information.
Tour of the Louvre offers video clips that show you around a little, and give you a look at some of its most famous pieces
Including this little lady
The Artworks section includes a number of famous works
If I counted correctly, there are only 20 works shown in this section. That is my one big surprise and disappointment with the app so far. I would love to see lots more content added in future updates. I think even as a free app it would be good to have a larger range of works shown, and once the default set was beefed up a bit, perhaps further sets could be offered via in-app purchase.
Again, the content that is included is presented very nicely “ through smooth coverflow-style navigation. You can bookmark favorite pieces, and easily get to detailed information on each artwork displayed. You get background on the works themselves
And on the location of the works within the museum
As well as technical information on the origin of the work and on how it was created
The Visitor Information area provides the details you ‘ll want if planning a visit
I like this app a lot, and can ‘t wait to show it to my daughter. I hope it will expand its content over time, but even if it doesn ‘t it ‘s already a very worthwhile app, and a free one at that. This is the second art museum app I ‘ve come across “ after the National Gallery app I posted on a few months back “ and I hope we ‘ll see more of these come out from some of the other leading museums round the world. I think they are great discovery tools for children and adults alike.
You can find the Musée du Louvre app in the App Store now, and it is free.
Continue reading:
- Everything New Apple Just Announced (Septembe
- Apple Watch Pre-Order
- Apple Research Kit launches with 5 Apps
- Apple TV now only $69
TAGS: iphone apps, iPhone art apps
