The best known, most photographed, most valuable: Leonardo da Vinci's Renaissance work is the painting of superlatives. While Louvre visitors have to elbow their way through rows of tourists to catch a glimpse of the Mona Lisa hidden behind a bulletproof glass, in the "Apes**t" video, the Carters pose as top icons of world culture in front of the uncovered work — as if it belonged to them.

The vaulted ceilings of the Galerie d'Apollon, one of the halls of the Louvre, were reconstructed after being destroyed in 1661 by a fire. At the beginning of the "Apes**t" video, the dramatic space leads us into the Paris museum. As a young author, Henry James once described the glory of this hall as embodying "not only beauty and art and supreme design, but history and fame and power."

Also called the Nike of Samothrace, this statue represents the Greek goddess of Victory. Created around the 2nd century B.C., it was damaged by an earthquake. Its mutilated body remains a timeless icon of art. It thrones over an impressive staircase at the Louvre, which in the clip provides a stage for dancers in bodysuits, and for Beyoncé, draped in white like the victorious goddess herself.

This larger-than-life-sized painting by Theodore Gericault is an icon of French Romanticism. It depicts an actual event from 1810: A French frigate called the Méduse was wrecked, and some 150 men tried to survive together on a raft. All but 15 died before being rescued; survivors had to resort to cannibalism. This tragic tale of survival echoes in some ways the fate of African-American slaves.

This imposing work of 10 x 6 meters (33 x 20 feet) was created by Napoleon's official painter, Jacques-Louis David. It took him three years to complete the detailed scene, in which the emperor crowns himself, facing the congregation instead of the authorities of the Church. Beyoncé and her voluptuous dancers add an impressive layer of discourse to Napoleon's own glorification.

"Portrait of a Negress" was painted six years after revolutionary France had abolished slavery in its Caribbean colonies in 1794 — Napoleon however reinstated it two years later. The painter, Marie-Guillemine Benoist, one of David's students, painted this portrait that's become not only a symbol of black people's rights but also of women's emancipation.

Juliette Récamier was one of the most famous socialites and one of the most admired women in Paris in the early 19th century. The chair she is reclining on in this unfinished portrait by David is named after her. In the video clip, models dressed just like the woman in "Portrait of a Negress" pose in front of the painting.

Featuring a scene from Dante's Inferno, Francesca embraces her wounded lover Paolo. During a suspenseful moment of silence in the video clip, this painting from 1835 is juxtaposed with images of a modern-day African-American couple kissing on a bed.

One of the largest sphinxes outside of Egypt, this monumental sculpture of a lion with the head of a king is at least 4,000 years old. As the guardian of temples, the figure of the sphinx was believed to protect against hostile forces. Experts believe that the term sphinx derives from "living image"; the Carters also contribute to reviving the iconography of the artwork acquired in colonial times.

This Greek representation of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty and pleasure, is another one of the most famous statues of the Louvre, and its missing arms have certainly contributed to its fame. In the video, Beyoncé shows us how the Venus' body might groove if it had all of its limbs — and if it weren't a marble sculpture.

Da Vinci first came to anatomy through art. He studied the structure, function and proportions of the body, which he wanted to understand and depict as realistically as possible. The Renaissance no longer sees the body as a shell of the soul, as it was viewed in the Middle Ages, but celebrates the beauty of the human body.

From 1489, the Renaissance artist began to work with the head. He opened different skulls and drew them from different angles. His sectional view through the skull shows an anatomically correct representation of the large veins for the first time. Da Vinci was particularly fascinated by the fluid-filled cavities in the skull, the ventricles.

Leonardo considered the eye to be the most important sensory organ because it coordinates all other impressions. He was the first to recognise that the optic nerves cross over to the other half of the brain. He called the node "senso comune" and believed it was the home of the human soul. Today we know it's where the hypothalamus, which controls important bodily functions, is located.

In 1506, a dying old man allowed Da Vinci to dissect his body after death. The artist recorded all the steps of the process in detail. Da Vinci noted that the blood vessels become increasingly narrow and crooked with age. In mirror writing, the artist described an arteriosclerosis for the first time. In addition, da Vinci drew the first cirrhosis of the liver in medical history.

The first anatomical studies were carried out in Egypt as early as 1550 BC. However, most anatomy knowledge was gained through animal dissections and then transferred to humans, with all sorts of mistakes. Nevertheless, the findings collected this way by the Greek physician Claudius Galen in the second century A.D. remained influential for centuries.

What Leonardo couldn't draw, he tried to describe in writing. He didn't use a secret code, but mirror writing, which is why many things remained hidden for a long time. He only used normal writing when others were supposed to see the manuscripts. The original left-hander was reeducated as a right-hander as a child, but ended up being ambidextrous.

At the University of Pavia, south of Milan, the artist was allowed to examine over 30 corpses. The dissection was only tolerated in the case of executed criminals or suicide victims that were not allowed to be buried in cemeteries. Since there was no cold storage yet, the investigations took place mainly in winter.

Da Vinci was the first to discover the appendix. During his lifetime, many people died of the "side disease," which was only treated with castor oil, which didn't really help. It was not until 1735 that a London physician succeeded in the first documented removal of an inflamed appendix.

The Renaissance artist studied the organs and the entire nervous and muscle system of man. He skillfully used hatching to make his works appear as three-dimensional as possible. As an anatomist, he sketched the first known representation of a human spine with the typical curvature and the correct number of vertebrae.

Since he was not a doctor, the hospital denied Da Vinci further access to corpses, so he had to continue his anatomical studies on animal organs. He didn't have a human model for depicting the uterus with the unborn child either, but reconstructed the image after the dissection of a cow.

However, DaVinci also combined his new insights with traditional ideas. He combined the woman's uterus with her breast because people back then believed that a woman's menstrual blood was converted into milk. This idea goes back to the Greek physician Claudius Galen from the 2nd century AD.

Contrary to the traditional idea, Da Vinci recognized the human heart as a muscle. For his studies, Da Vinci even built an artificial heart out of glass. In order to understand the flow dynamics of the organ, he probably also used his knowledge as a fortress engineer. The blood circulation was only described in detail in 1628, by English physician William Harvey.

Da Vinci's findings could have revolutionized anatomy and thus medicine as a whole, but unfortunately he did not publish his notes during his lifetime. Many of his early discoveries were not described again until 300 years later. After his death in 1519, many drawings were lost. The rest was only rediscovered in the 20th century and is now mostly part of the British royal family's collection.

Real scientific anatomy studies only began with Flemish surgeon Andreas Vesalius, whose sections expose all muscles, tendons and nerve tracts down to the smallest detail. The then 29-year-old published his well-founded investigations in 1542 in his main work "De Humani Corporis Fabrica" — " On the fabric of the human body."