art tourism

one of the curses of galleries is the art tourist .someone who has been told by a guidebook to go look at something mainly because it is the thing to say that you've seen it- . a profound example of this is the mona lisa in the louvre .both of the solar polar partnership at different times have reacted the same way when viewing this quite small painting.the imbalance of the back ground the ambiguity and the super celebrity satus of the artist give it fame beyond fame. there is huge jostle no space to really look- understand contemplate. the main compulsion is to say youve seen it. in the same room is the colossal painting the marriage at cana by Veronese .hardly anyone looks at it yet this is a technical achievement of titanic proportions .life size figures each one minutely observed both physically psychologically fill a huge canvas giving it great vigour. yet its largely ignored in the furore. the only way to really appreciate art is to pause before the pictures that speak to you ,not all will ,but some of the ones that do wont be the most famous pictures .for me and solar , the marriage at cana is the more interesting of the two. mona lisa is an enigma the marriage has the stuff of life within it . next time your in the louvre by all means view the mona lisa ,but at he same time give pause before the marriage painting or any others that may whisper something the more noisy famous paintings don't get a chance to.