Category Archives: June 18

National Gallery of Ireland: Vermeer

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Yesterday we went to the National Gallery of Ireland and saw the main museum which consisted of many different pieces of art from a variety of time periods. One piece that really struck me in the main museum was a self-portrait a modern artist did. It was an HD video of her in a bathtub almost staring into your soul, and I felt that was meant to force the audience to really captivate her emotions. I also felt that the bathtub symbolizes almost a raw emotion or even her birth. I just thought that the place in which she did her self portrait was extremely symbolic about who she is. The second part of that day was when we daw Johannes Vermeer. This exhibit was absolutely incredible. We went in the gift shop beforehand and plastered everywhere was his most famous painting the girl with the pearl earring. I was surprised to see that that particular painting was not in this exhibit but happened to be all over the gift shop. I enjoyed this exhibit more than anything we have done this entire trip. The things that drew me in were the amazing artistic abilities and the variations of technique throughout all of the artists. I also thought it was really interesting how all of these artists were constantly playing off each other’s work, and how one just constantly was inspiring the other. My personal favorite was of the men he painted of the Astronomer, and the Geographer. I thought it was interesting that they decided to feature men in this particular body of work since it has been mostly women. What I also found captivating was the fact that they do not know if he had just decided to do two paintings inspired off each other, or if he was inspired by someone else. In general, this exhibit was amazing and I felt like I had made a connection with it.

National Gallery of Ireland

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Today was a big day for all us giving the fact that it was our last day in Ireland. We decided to spent our last day in another wonderful place:  The national Gallery of Ireland, which was recently renovated . One of the things that completely blew my mind away is the architecture of this place. It was so elegant that it seem surreal. This touch of sophistication gave the artistic pieces even more life. I was absolutely beautiful how well they blended, and how the architecture added so much more context into these pieces. As I was walking through the gallery I couldnt help to realized that the pieces seemed to repeat consecutive themes: Place & Religion. I do not know whether the selection was intentional or not, but this are in fact the themes that have shaped Irish History, and literature.

One of my favorite pieces was ” The infant Saint John Playing with a Lamb” by Bartolome Murillo, which is the picture located below. I found it to be very heartwarming. This piece is a representation of the purity and innocents of Saint John. The lamb of course is a representation of Christ. There were many other painting similar to this picture, where children were the muse of inspiration that the most famous artist used to deliver  a message.

We ended our visit to the Gallery by attending to the Vermeer Exhibition. I was fascinated by all the messages hidden between these paintings. I  learned that art is inter-connectable, and that sometimes artist responded to pieces designed by others, or contributed to their improvement, even when back in that period of time it wasn’t as easy to communicate or move across the globe.

Vermeer

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Although not connected to Irish literature or history, the Vermeer exhibit at the National Gallery of Ireland highlights the evolution of Dublin from Joycean poverty and paralysis to contemporary cosmopolis. As I perused the paintings in the exhibit, one of the first things I noticed about almost all of them was the use of chiaroscuro, which gives the paintings incredible depth and makes many of them appear three dimensional.

The intertextuality of the paintings is remarkable. It is fascinating to see paintings within paintings and different renderings of the same subject matter. This intertextuality reminded me of the different scholarly approaches taken when analyzing literature. Each is beautiful, valuable, and relevant in its own right and, in most cases, analyses and theory, like these paintings, builds on what comes before it.

Among this coterie of artists there seems to have existed a healthy balance of rivalry and support. It’s reminiscent of other relationships between successful artists such as Yeats and Joyce as illustrated in Joyce’s letters at the Yeats exhibit at the National Library. What is meaningful to me in both examples is that the artists were better for being challenged and supported by their peers. Academia can be a difficult, contentious, and somewhat exclusive environment. Although I resist the urge to idealize the relationships among the Dutch masters, it’s clear that the artistic circle in which they moved engendered greater creativity and skill through amicable interaction. In the last portion of the exhibit, the older master was inspired by a younger artist, which is a good lesson in humility and is  sometimes necessary for progress.

Chester Beatty’s Presence at the National Gallery

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Today’s excursion at the National Gallery of Ireland was absolutely incredible. The Vermeer exhibit was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity and I loved it much more than I thought I would. I’m so glad we got tickets even though it’s not related to Irish Literature or History (since Vermeer is Dutch). After being fully immersed in Dublin and Irish culture, it was nice to step back for a bit and appreciate another culture in context. My favorite paintings are Woman with a Balance and the pair The Astronomer and The Geographer.

Before we went through the Vermeer exhibit, we were able to walk around the rest of the gallery, and I absolutely loved it! I am not as interested in the Picassos of the art world, but I did notice that a lot of the paintings or sculptures in one of the European Art exhibits (1850-1950 I believe, but I’m not positive) were actually donated or presented by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty – if that name sounds familiar, its because of the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle! I mentioned this in my other blog post about him, but Chester Beatty understood that art needed to be accessible to people of all classes, so he would purposely buy art just to donate it to museums and other places and people so they could be exhibited and seen by everyone. I remember a worker at the Chester Beatty Library saying that what was on display there was only 1% of Beatty’s possessions and purchases, and seeing his gifts in the National Gallery reinforced that number. It was wonderful seeing his name on a lot of the artwork, and his cause is admirable – no matter where you come from or how much money you make, Beatty wanted to make sure you were able to see these masterpieces that he loved to find and purchase.

 

 

Vermeer

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Today was a great way to wrap up our time in Dublin. Among the many firsts I’ve experienced on this trip, one of them was my first art gallery. I was pretty impressed with the Hugh Lane Gallery from earlier in the week, but I was completely caught off guard by the massive Vermeer exhibit we got to see today. As someone who has no idea how to analyze art, or where to even start, I feel like I learned so much in such a small time about Vermeer and the artists that he looked to for inspiration. The detail that they went into to explain the significance of small discrepancies was amazing. I found myself drawn into the works of art and picking up on things that I never would have noticed to pick up on before. There is definitely a certain way to look at art like this, and I am so thankful to have had this experience.

Of the Vermeer paintings we saw today, my favorites were the two male portraits; “The Astronomer” and “The Geographer.” I found it so interesting how the work he used for inspiration was so dark, yet his pieces were so much lighter and drew on other aspects to bring originality to the paintings. I was slightly disappointed that “Girl With a Pearl Earring” was not part of the exhibit, considering that everything in the gift shop had that painting on it… Regardless, I really enjoyed seeing the exhibit, as well as the other wings that were open. I could not believe how detailed some of the stained glass pieces were!

I really am going to miss Dublin, but I look forward to the upcoming adventures in Belfast!