IRELAND, DUBLIN: THE NATIONAL GALLERY

 July 12, 2024

Our next stop was the National Gallery of Ireland, located in Merrion Square, which is in walking distance of Grafton Street. Opened in 1864, the museum has quite an extensive collection of European and Irish art.

This is going to be a simple post of photos of some of my favorite artworks from the museum--some by well-known artists, and others that are relatively unknown or at least new to me. I like keeping a record of my favorite art, and it is fun for me to see how my favorite artists keep popping up in various museums. So here we go.

Bust of Diego (1955/56)
by Alberto Giacometti

Still Life with a Mandolin (1924)
by Pablo Picasso 

Saint Peter Denying Christ (c.1610-1625)
Artist unknown

The Immaculate Conception (early 1660s)
by Francisco de Zurbaran

(Poor little angels being crushed by the Virgin's feet!)

Saint Joseph with the Christ Child (c.1637)
by Guercino

Saint Jerome in the Wilderness (1570s)
by Luis de Morales

Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata (1590-1595)
El Greco

Ecce Homo (1558-1560)
by Titian

Triptych with the Crucifixion and Donors (1540s)
by Pieter Coecke van Aelst

The Virgin (1530s) by Ligier Richier

Rest on the Flight into Egypt with the
Infant Saint John the Baptist (c.1494)
by Francesco Granacci

The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c.1495)
by Perugino (left to right: Nicodemus, St. John
the Evangelist, body of Christ, Virgin Mary, Mary
Magdalene, Joseph of Arimathea)

The Arrest of Christ (c.1641) by Matthias Storm

The Assumption of Saint Mary
Magdalene (1380s)
by Silvestro del Geraducci

Frances Katherine Chadwyk-Healey and
Her Daughter Elizabeth (1900)
by Walter Frederick Osborne

For a quick break from the artwork, take a look at the architecture of the museum. I love this shot, which looks like a piece of art itself! I really love the rich colors of the walls as well.

Only 35 paintings by Vermeer are known to exist today, and there were at least two in the National Gallery that were part of a traveling exhibit.

Mistress and Maid (c.1666-1667)
by Johannes Vermeer

Woman Writing a Letter with Her Maid (c. 1670)
by Johannes Vermeer

And another pause to check out the architectural details of this beautiful gallery:

To finish off our quick tour of the museum, we visited a gallery of portraits of great writers and one theater luminary. Seeing a room full of Ireland's artists made me realize the substantial contributions Ireland has made to the literary world.

William Butler Yeats (1900)
by his father, John Butler Yeats

Garry Hynes, Theatre Director,
Co-founder of Druid (2017)
by Vera Klute

Seamus Heaney, poet, playwright, translator,
Nobel Laureate (2007)
by Jackie Nickerson

The Composition--A Portrait
of Marian Keyes (2023) [Irish author]
by Margaret Corcoran

Samuel Beckett: Novelist, Dramatist,
Theatre Director, Literary Translator (1961)
by Reginald Gray

MALTA, DAY 3: DAPHNE GALIZIA MEMORIAL AND VALLETTA'S CO-CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOHN

 March 20, 2024

On our last day in Malta, our first stop was at a makeshift tribute to Daphne Galizia. Before the trip I had read the book A Death in Malta by her son Paul Galizia, so I was excited to see the monument. 

Daphne Galizia was an outspoken investigative journalist and activist who spoke out about financial and political corruption in the Maltese government and other places. She was also known for her investigative reporting on the Panama Papers, which exposed international financial graft, fraud, and tax evasion involving many prominent figures worldwide, including many Maltese officials.

Galizia was extremely popular and respected. Her blog attracted over 400,000 views, more than the combined circulation of all the country's newspapers. Tragically, her popularity got her killed. In October 2017, Galizia was killed by a car bomb just a few meters from her home. She was 53 years old.

This memorial to her is placed around the base of the Great Siege of 1565 Monument, a bronze created in 1927 by Maltese sculptor Antonio Sciortino to honor the successful resistance of the Maltese Knights when the island was invaded by the Ottoman Empire. The three figures represent the virtues of Faith, Civilization, and Valor--appropriate virtues to relate to Daphne Galizia.

One corner of the memorial included photos of Alexei Navalny, a Russian who similarly fought corruption in his own government and who died while in a Russian prison, presumably at the hands of his captors.