In the Richelieu Wing, we take our flight,
Down to Cour Puget in morning light.
Here stands young Jeanne d’Arc, listening near,
Voices divine that only she can hear.
François Rude carved her, inspired by kin,
Commissioned for women, her story begins.
Step by step through marble halls,
Heroes, heroines, history calls.
Philopoemen, Velléda, Spartacus too,
Theseus and Hercules, Daphnis and Chloe in view.
In Cour Puget, their stories shine,
Art and myth in perfect line.
Next we see Philopoemen, brave and bold,
“Last of the Greeks,” his story told.
Pierre-Jean David’s marble shows the pain,
A javelin he removes, courage in the strain.
Velléda the prophetess, visions of old,
By Maindron sculpted, a story unfolds.
From Chateaubriand’s novel, she comes alive,
A druidess and seer, her marble will survive.
Spartacus stands, defiant and free,
Denis Foyatier carved him in marble decree.
Arms bound, yet ready to rise and fight,
Against the Roman Republic, he claimed his right.
Theseus strikes the Minotaur down,
Jean-Baptiste Roman’s marble, a hero’s renown.
Club raised high, the monster defeated,
Greek myth in stone, power completed.
Hercules wrestles with the serpent’s might,
Achelous transformed in a fearsome fight.
François-Joseph Bosio cast bronze so bold,
Commissioned by Charles X, a tale retold.
Gentle Daphnis and Chloe, love in their eyes,
Cortot sculpted tender Greek skies.
Soft marble skin, Neoclassical grace,
A pastoral romance, frozen in place.
Step by step through marble halls,
Heroes, heroines, history calls.
Philopoemen, Velléda, Spartacus too,
Theseus and Hercules, Daphnis and Chloe in view.
In Cour Puget, their stories shine,
Art and myth in perfect line.
So wander the Cour Puget, in open-air light,
Marble and bronze shining bright.
Every hero and legend in sculpture speaks,
The Louvre’s stories for all who seek.
