PARIS.- What are myths? And how are they portrayed? How are myths passed on to us? How have artists appropriated them? Told, sung, written, and illustrated, myths are a part of all cultures and civilizations, including contemporary popular culture. Presented in the Petite Galerie throughout the school year, the exhibition “Founding Myths. From Hercules to Darth Vader” tells how illustrators, sculptors, painters, puppeteers, filmmakers, and musicians around the world have drawn inspiration from myths, given them form, and brought them to life.

In its desire to make art open to all, the Louvre provides the keys to answer these questions in the Petite Galerie.

From Hercules to Darth Vader
The exhibition displays some 70 artworks, grouped into four sections. The first gallery invites you to discover the tales told by different civilizations in an effort to explain the creation of the world. Then find out how the cycles of nature are recounted in Greek, Egyptian, and Islamic civilizations. Meet mythological heroes such as Gilgamesh, Orpheus, Hercules, and Icarus, and see how they have been portrayed by classical and contemporary artists. In the final gallery, ponder modern-day interpretations of myths and metamorphoses: from Jean Cocteau to Star Wars, Japanese manga to Fantômas, do the mythologies of popular culture not still draw from the same repertoire of stories and tales?

Innovative approach
The Petite Galerie gives visitors an opportunity to enrich the way they look at the masterpieces at the Louvre and other museums. Through samples of different materials, entertaining wall labels, maps, and timelines, it facilitates the encounter with artworks and offers visitors a new museum experience.

A booklet of games and a free application with audio description and in LSF (French sign language) ensure a comfortable visit for all audiences. Activities led by museum guides are an excellent way for families to enjoy a fun-filled and awe-inspiring discovery of the Petite Galerie.

The Petite Galerie A new space for learning and wonderment
True “education for the eye,” the Petite Galerie invites young visitors and their accompanying adults (parents, teachers, youth leaders, etc.) to explore a different theme each year through major artworks from prehistory to the present day. By dedicating a specific space to artistic and cultural education at the heart of the museum, Director Jean-Luc Martinez wanted to recall the spirit in which the Louvre was founded, a museum open to all since 1793. Also rolled out online and beyond the museum walls, the Petite Galerie gives visitors the keys to observing and explaining the artworks, thus ensuring their visit to the museum is a real pleasure.

Throughout each school year, an exhibition held in the Richelieu wing of the Louvre will focus on a chosen theme through a mix of painting, sculpture, drawing and printmaking, decorative art and design, as well as music, film, theater, and photography to reflect the diversity of artistic creation.

With an inventive design that plays with light and color, and innovative approach (entertaining wall labels, viewing itineraries, museum guides, etc.), visitors will learn how to study an artwork, compare it with another, and consider the artist’s intentions, as well as develop their general knowledge, their critical mind, and their imagination.

“I wanted to concentrate our efforts on a mission I see as essential: to accommodate museum visitors – all visitors, regardless of their background, the time they have available, or their level of knowledge,” explains Jean-Luc Martinez, Director of the Musée du Louvre. “It is no longer a matter of increasing the number of visitors, but rather knowing how to accommodate them and helping them gain as much insight as they can during their visit. The Petite Galerie is a project I feel especially strongly about, as it will allow us to give our visitors a Louvre that is more open, more welcoming and more generous.”