Stay in the Denon wing
This is deliberately a painting-only visit. The Venus de Milo, Winged Victory and Egyptian antiquities are excellent reasons to return, but they belong to other routes and would turn two hours into a sprint.
The sequence stays on Denon level 1: rooms 700, 702, 708, 710, 711 and 712. Allow a little flexibility at room 711, home to the Mona Lisa.
1. Room 700 — Géricault and Delacroix
Start in room 700, the Salle Mollien. The Raft of the Medusa (1818–19) is 4.91 metres high and 7.16 metres wide. Its subject is the 1816 wreck of the Méduse: 150 people were left on a makeshift raft and only 15 were alive when the Argus found them twelve days later.
Liberty Leading the People, whose collection title begins 28 July 1830, is in the same room. The Louvre places both works in Denon, level 1, room 700.
2. Room 702 — David and Ingres
Room 702 is the Salle Daru. David’s Coronation of Napoleon was painted in 1807 and has been displayed in this room since 1994. Its full title records the coronation of Napoleon and Joséphine at Notre-Dame on 2 December 1804.
Grande Odalisque is also here. Ingres painted it in 1814 for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples; it was shown at the Salon of 1819.
3–5. Rooms 708, 710 and 711 — Italian painting
In the Salon Carré (room 708), stop for Cimabue’s Maestà: a 13th-century tempera on poplar, 4.27 metres high, which arrived at the Louvre in 1812. Then enter room 710, the Grande Galerie, where the Louvre presents one of its great Italian-painting collections.
Raphael’s Saint Michael, commissioned by Francis I in 1518, is in room 710. In room 711, the Salle des États, look beyond the Mona Lisa: Veronese’s Wedding Feast at Cana fills the wall opposite and, at nearly 70 m², is the Louvre’s largest painting.
6. Room 712 — Caravaggio
Finish in room 712, the third bay of the Grande Galerie. Caravaggio’s Death of the Virgin dates from around 1601–06 and was commissioned for Santa Maria della Scala in Rome.
The Louvre’s record states that the clergy rejected it. Its subsequent route was remarkable: Mantua in 1607, Charles I of England in 1627, then Everhard Jabach in Paris before Louis XIV acquired it in 1671.
Sources and verification
Room numbers, locations and the factual details below were checked against the Louvre’s collection database and visitor pages.
- Louvre: Room 711, Mona Lisa and The Wedding Feast at Cana
- Louvre Collections: The Raft of the Medusa
- Louvre Collections: Coronation of Napoleon
- Louvre: the Grande Galerie
- Louvre Collections: The Death of the Virgin
Displays and room openings can change. Check the Louvre website on the day of your visit before following a route.
Listen to the commentary in the gallery
This route gives you a thread to follow. In front of an artwork, CulturAll adds the audio commentary: photograph the work or its label, listen, then ask your questions.
