In June 2018, Beyonce and Jay-Z released a music video filmed entirely inside the Louvre after it closed for a private shoot. The video, called APESHIT, places the couple in front of some of the most famous paintings in the world. Every choice was deliberate. Here is what each one means.
The video opens in front of the Mona Lisa. The couple stands with their backs to her, facing the camera. The message is direct: we are now the subject. The most viewed painting in the world becomes the background.
The Raft of the Medusa by Gericault is one of the most politically charged paintings in the Louvre. It depicts the survivors of a French naval disaster, abandoned by their officers and left to die. The figures in the foreground who are most visible and most active are Black. When the painting was made in 1819, this was a deliberate challenge to the conventions of the time. Beyonce and Jay-Z positioning themselves in front of it is a continuation of that challenge.
The Winged Victory of Samothrace, the ancient Greek statue of a headless winged woman, appears in the video as a symbol of triumph. It is also the direct visual inspiration for the Dior logo.
The Wedding at Cana by Veronese is the largest painting in the Louvre, painted on a canvas over ten meters wide. Napoléon had it cut in half to transport it from Venice to Paris. The scene depicts a miracle: water turned to wine. The couple appears in front of it during a quieter passage of the song.
The Consecration of Napoléon by David shows the moment when Napoléon took the crown from the Pope’s hands and placed it on his own head. The symbolism of self-coronation, the refusal to accept authority from any external source, resonates directly with the themes of the video and the album.
The Sphinx of Tanis, an ancient Egyptian artifact, represents a return to origins before colonialism, before the Atlantic slave trade, before the forced dispersal that created the Black diaspora. In front of an Egyptian artifact housed in a European museum, the couple reclaims something.
