Choir hangs out with Mona and Venus at the Louvre

On its last full day in France the Yuma Youth Choir enjoyed an audience with the three most beautiful women in Paris.

Well, if they aren't the most beautiful, they're certainly the most famous.

This trio of lovely characters is often called the Three Ladies of the Louvre. Certainly no one visits the Louvre, the largest art museum in the world, without spending a few must-see moments in front of the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace.

But first, a few facts to put everything into context:

* The Louvre was once a castle, the king's residence before the famed royal residence Versailles was built.

* The modern structure reflects seven centuries of design and redesign.

* The museum boasts six miles of exhibitions.

* If a visitor to the Louvre spent 30 seconds in front of each painting their visit would last three years.

Entering the Louvre feels like being welcomed into any large building. But you're not more than a few minutes into the tour before you find yourself deep inside a stone hallway that once served as the castle's moat.

The art we saw was obviously amazing, but given the size of the place and its human herds, truly soaking up the artistic experience ends up being pretty difficult.

But spending some time with these famous pieces of art, even if we were a bit rushed, amounted to a fantastic afternoon.

But don't just let the choir and its entourage enjoy these fantastic pieces of art. Here is some information specially sent to The Sun by the Louvre's public relations team.  Links to the Louvre's online interactive pages on these masterpieces are also available below - and they're pretty cool!  Enjoy:

All about Mona...

Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo.

This portrait was doubtless painted in Florence between 1503 and 1506. It is thought to be of Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine cloth merchant named Francesco del Giocondo - hence the alternative title, La Gioconda.

However, Leonardo seems to have taken the completed portrait to France rather than giving it to the person who commissioned it. It was eventually returned to Italy by Leonardo's student and heir Salai. It is not known how the painting came to be in François I's collection.

The history of the Mona Lisa is shrouded in mystery. Among the aspects which remain unclear are the exact identity of the sitter, who commissioned the portrait, how long Leonardo worked on the painting, how long he kept it, and how it came to be in the French royal collection.

All about Venus de Milo

This graceful statue of a goddess has intrigued and fascinated since its discovery on the island of Melos in 1820.

Is it Aphrodite, who was often portrayed half-naked, or the sea goddess Amphitrite, who was venerated on Milo?

The statue reflects sculptural research during the late Hellenistic Period: classical in essence, with innovatory features such as the spiral composition, the positioning in space, and the fall of the drapery over the hips.

The Marquis de Rivière presented it to Louis XVIII, who donated it to the Louvre the following year. The statue won instant and lasting fame. Essentially two blocks of marble, it is comprised of several parts which were sculpted separately (bust, legs, left arm and foot) then fixed with vertical pegs, a technique which was fairly common in the Greek world.

The goddess originally wore metal jewelry - bracelet, earrings, and headband - of which only the fixation holes remain. The marble may have been embellished with (now faded) polychromy. The arms were never found.

All about Winged Victory of Samothrace...

The winged goddess of Victory standing on the prow of a ship overlooked the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on the island of Samothrace. This monument was probably an ex-voto offered by the people of Rhodes in commemoration of a naval victory in the early second century BC. The theatrical stance, vigorous movement, and billowing drapery of this Hellenistic sculpture are combined with references to the Classical period-prefiguring the baroque aestheticism of the Pergamene sculptors.

This exceptional monument was unearthed in 1863 on the small island of Samothrace in the northwest Aegean.

The goddess of Victory (Nike, in Greek) is shown in the form of a winged woman standing on the prow of a ship, braced against the strong wind blowing through her garments. With her right hand cupped around her mouth, she announced the event she was dedicated to commemorate. The colossal work was placed in a rock niche that had been dug into a hill; it overlooked the theater of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods.

This niche may also have contained a pool filled with water in which the ship appeared to float. Given its placement, the work was meant to be viewed from the front left-hand side; this explains the disparity in sculpting technique, the right side of the body being much less detailed. The highly theatrical presentation-combined with the goddess's monumentality, wide wingspan, and the vigor of her forward-thrusting body-reinforces the reality of the scene.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace is one of the masterpieces of Hellenistic sculpture. The figure creates a spiraling effect in a composition that opens out in various directions. This is achieved by the oblique angles of the wings and the placement of the left leg, and emphasized by the clothing blowing between the goddess's legs. The nude female body is revealed by the transparency of the wet drapery, much in the manner of classical works from the fifth century BC, while the cord worn just beneath the breasts recalls a clothing style that was popular beginning in the fourth century.