Romanesque art at the Louvre

To the Louvre for a special exhibition on Romanesque art, sculpture and book illumination. A fantastic afternoon almost but not quite ruined by the 45 minute wait, and then the troubling sense of being herded through as fast as possible to let the next lot in. Only 450 people are allowed to view the "objets" at any one time and the number of those currently in the salle d'exposition is flashed up above the queue outside. As a result when you finally make it in you feel under an obligation not to hang around. In any case you cannot spend more than ten seconds on a display case before being surrounded by a cluster other peering heads. A reminder only to visit the Louvre on early Monday mornings in mid-winter. Still -- it was a wonderful array. The French Romanesque period is reckoned to have started in the mid 10th century and lasted 250 years. It was a time of unwonted peace in western Europe, which triggered a period of intensive church-building. A chronicler (you can see the original text) described it as a "great white cloak" of churches across the country. Many of the 300 artefacts come from obscure rural churches in central and southwestern France. Others were originally in the great monastic houses of Cluny and Citeaux. By far the most striking were the large polychrome wooden statues of local saints. Still looking you sternly in the eye today, what effect they must have had on a peasant congregation a thousand years ago heaven only knows.