Around him, other people of colour replace the white figures from the original paintings, while the Mona Lisa becomes (who else?) Nicole Scherzinger. In one scene of Mona Lisa Smile, a diverse group of gallery-goers watch as Will.i.am's decapitated head croons from a silver plate (replacing John the Baptist in Bernardino Luini's painting). The deadlines were very tight but the Louvre was quickly convinced because the synopsis showed a real attachment to the museum and its beloved artworks.' 'Beyoncé and Jay Z visited the Louvre four times in the last 10 years,' they said. 'During their last visit in May 2018, they explained their idea of filming. In a statement given to the Telegraph, however, a museum spokesperson said they were impressed by the affection the Carters had shown for their 'beloved' art. When contacted, the Louvre initially declined to comment on the video. Cropped to show a close-up of the woman's face, it becomes a Mona Lisa for our times.Īpes-t is not just a good tune, it's a visual lecture in art history – although one might wonder how the Louvre's staff have taken its implicit criticisms of the museum's collection.

In Apes-t, however, Benoist's painting is put on equal footing with Da Vinci's.

As soon as the Mona Lisa comes into shot, it's relegated to the background, while the Carters (the name the husband-wife duo are currently performing under) stand in front of it with enigmatic stares that rival La Gioconda's own.īut the painting has also been criticised by recent scholars for treating the subject as a sexualised, exotic 'other' the sitter appears with her breast exposed, and is not granted a name. Jean-Luc Martinez, the museum's director, said: “The Beyoncé video, like the opening of the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi, ensured that the Louvre was talked about across the world, and one of the consequences of that is the spectacular rise in visitor numbers last year.'Īnd the video that made such an impact did so by snubbing the museum's most famous painting. New figures released this week show a record-breaking 10.2 million people visited the Louvre in 2018. The video's popularity has been credited with boosting the museum's popularity.

In Apes-t, the first music video from their new collaborative album Everything Is Love, pop's reigning power-couple used the Louvre as their private playground, celebrating its most famous artworks – while also using them to make a subtle political point.ĭa Vinci's masterpiece appears early on in the video, which has been watched almost 150 million times since it landed on YouTube in June. 'The deadlines were very tight, but the Louvre was quickly convinced because the synopsis showed a real attachment to the museum and its beloved artworks.It's not easy to upstage the Mona Lisa, but Beyoncé and Jay-Z have managed it. 'During their last visit in May 2018, they explained their idea of filming,' the Louvre added. In a statement, the museum said Beyoncé and Jay Z had visited the Louvre four times in the last 10 years. 'And they're recognizing their history and how far they've been able to come despite all the oppression that they've faced historically and currently, which I think they speak a lot to in the video.' 'They're relating it back to art history, back to those pieces, and showing that 'Look, we are here, this is our presence, this is our history,' and they're recognizing the facts that this is how black individuals have often been portrayed in the history of art,' Herrera continued. 'So to retake that space, they're presenting black bodies and black art and they're bringing popular culture which is often looked down on by academics and showing them this is real art, this is the current art,' she said. Herrera said that the music video is especially powerful because 'most representations of people of color has been portraying them as exotic or as less than human.'

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