The Chester Beatty Library.... Where to start?
I'm not sure that I've ever seen such an amazing collection, with such variety.
This library, located next to the Dublin Castle, has a rather unassuming facade, but what it holds inside is truly amazing. The building was built in 2000, on what would have been the 125th birthday of Beatty. It was built specifically to hold the extensive collection, which includes works of art, artifacts, and manuscripts. The library is a registered charity, and was named Museum of the Year in 2002.
I'm not sure that I've ever seen such an amazing collection, with such variety.
This library, located next to the Dublin Castle, has a rather unassuming facade, but what it holds inside is truly amazing. The building was built in 2000, on what would have been the 125th birthday of Beatty. It was built specifically to hold the extensive collection, which includes works of art, artifacts, and manuscripts. The library is a registered charity, and was named Museum of the Year in 2002.
About Chester Beatty...
Chester Beatty, born Alfred Chester Beatty on February 7th, 1875 in New York City, New York, held a lifelong fascination for collections. As a child, he collected rocks and minerals, an intrest which would eventually lead him to his career. He studied engineering at the Columbia School of Mines and Princeton University. His interest in rocks and minerals brought him to Colorado, where he began working as a simple mining laborer, working as a 'mucker.' Mucking was one of the most dangerous jobs in the mines. He can be seen in the picture to the left (the man on the left of the image) with an unknown miner. (photo from the Chester Beatty Collection) His knowledge in engineering earned him a job as a consulting engineer in the mines. He was able to find profitable veins of gold and other coveted materials, and worked his way into a fortune. Ten years after he'd moved to Colorado, Beatty was a mine owner, and a millionaire.
Chester Beatty, born Alfred Chester Beatty on February 7th, 1875 in New York City, New York, held a lifelong fascination for collections. As a child, he collected rocks and minerals, an intrest which would eventually lead him to his career. He studied engineering at the Columbia School of Mines and Princeton University. His interest in rocks and minerals brought him to Colorado, where he began working as a simple mining laborer, working as a 'mucker.' Mucking was one of the most dangerous jobs in the mines. He can be seen in the picture to the left (the man on the left of the image) with an unknown miner. (photo from the Chester Beatty Collection) His knowledge in engineering earned him a job as a consulting engineer in the mines. He was able to find profitable veins of gold and other coveted materials, and worked his way into a fortune. Ten years after he'd moved to Colorado, Beatty was a mine owner, and a millionaire.
In 1900, Beatty married Ninette Grace Rickard, seen in the image to the right. (photo from the Chester Beatty Collection) Misfortune struck in 1911, when, Ninette, to whom he'd been married for elven years, died of typhoid fever. Chester was left with his two kids, a girl named Ninette, born in 1901, and a boy named Chester Junior, born in 1907. He also found himself suffering from silicosis, a disease often contracted by miners. This sickness is contracted form long term exposure to silica, found in sand. It's symptoms include coughing and shortness of breath, and a higher change of contracting tuberculosis. There was (and is) no real cure for silicosis, thought it was suggested that Beatty spend more time in dry places, away from the mines. So, that year, Beatty moved to London with his two children, and used his wealth to by a house in Kensington Gardens. Two years later, he married Elizabeth Dunn, a socialite with an interest in painting and art.
Now married to Elizabeth, and no longer working at the mines, Beatty began to travel. The entire family went to Egypt, and the two children Ninette and Chester Jr. can be seen there in the picture to the left. (photo from the Chester Beatty Collection) He bought a villa there, with a view on the pyramids, where he would spend winters, as the climate helped his health. In 1914, he returned to mining, this time founding his own mining company, the Selection Trust Limited. This mining company proved to be very successful, earning Chester the title of "King of Copper." In 1917, he traveled to China and Japan, a trip which sparked his interest in oriental art.
After 1917, Beatty began collecting in earnest. He started with Chinese snuff boxes, but his time in Egypt made him equality interested in arabic manuscripts. Over the years, he developed and entire network of agents, and his collection grew. In 1933, Beatty became a British citizen, and, during the Second World War, allowed his house to be used a a Red Cross hospital. Seventeen years later, in 1950, Beatty, whose family was or Irish descent, moved to Dublin, taking his vast collection with him. Once there, he donated much of it to the state, and was very generous in loaning parts of it to the National Gallery of Ireland on and off. His silicosis continued to plague him, and he spent his summers elsewhere, usually the south of France. Beatty continued to collect artifacts and works of art, and opened the Chester Beatty Library in 1954, to allow the public to come see his collection. The collection, which now resides in the new library building by Dublin Castle, remains free for all to visit to this day. In 1957 he became Ireland's first honorary citizen, and was even knighted for his services in 1954. When he died, in 1968, at the age of 93, he was given a state funeral. The rest of his collection was given to the Irish state after his death, where it still resides. His will states the terms for the care taking of his library and collection, which is managed by a board of trustees.
During his collecting days, Beatty had a good reputation as someone who was fair and just in his acquisition of works. He paid people a good price for the pieces, and took care to not only restore the damaged ones, but also to ensure that they would be well preserved. While I originally wondered if his collection was not an amassing of "bought" artifacts that were essentially stolen from their respective countries, Beatty has never been accused of this. He made a point to only buy what was on sale, and for the price stated. Unlike several other collections, the works he accumulated were never asked to be returned by their native countries, as all agree he acquired them in a fair way. This was a pleasant surprise, as often times, even the most reputable collections have less then reputable origins. It was great to see a collector who not only amassed an amazing amount of amazingly important artifacts, but also respected the country they came from.
During his collecting days, Beatty had a good reputation as someone who was fair and just in his acquisition of works. He paid people a good price for the pieces, and took care to not only restore the damaged ones, but also to ensure that they would be well preserved. While I originally wondered if his collection was not an amassing of "bought" artifacts that were essentially stolen from their respective countries, Beatty has never been accused of this. He made a point to only buy what was on sale, and for the price stated. Unlike several other collections, the works he accumulated were never asked to be returned by their native countries, as all agree he acquired them in a fair way. This was a pleasant surprise, as often times, even the most reputable collections have less then reputable origins. It was great to see a collector who not only amassed an amazing amount of amazingly important artifacts, but also respected the country they came from.
The collection itself is made of over 6,000 individual pieces, and the library exhibits selections of these at a time. The two permanent exhibits examine the development of the book (and different book-making techniques) and religion around the world. These two galleries comprise of about 5% of the collection, and yet our whole group easily perused the gallery for two and half hours, and I would have stayed longer had we had the time. I could spend years describing the pieces I saw today for you. Because this is just a humble blog post however, I will try to be brief. People are not allow to photograph works in the galleries, but the Chester Beatty Library's Online Image Gallery features images of many of the works. I will provide links to works, though I highly recommend looking through the online gallery. Thes works I saw today included the earliest known copies of the four gospels, fragments of Qur'ans, copies of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Arabic translations of ancient Greek mathematical texts, Chinese imperial robes, Japanese woodblock prints (including several by Hokusai), modern prints relating to their ancient inspirations, prints by Albretch Durer, works from "The Disasters of War" by Goya, and religious works from many Eastern religions, including Buddhism (spanning Japan, Thailand, Burma, China, and more), Hinduism, and others. The amount of work there, and the quality of each and every piece was simply astounding. I don't think I've ever seen so many beautiful, diverse things under one roof.
Because I was not allowed to take photos, I brought my sketchbook and drew up a few quick sketches of pieces I wanted to keep in mind. Each of these has a more legible caption if you hover over them.
Many styles and types of work that I came across were completely foreign to me, and I plan to look into these more. One set of images that really interested me were the "Composite Pictures," (the goat demon sketch is an example) which showed large characters and animals made of many smaller animals. This art form is quite interesting, and I will definitely do some more research on it soon- maybe even another blog post.
I can now confirm that I am totally smitten with the Chester Beatty Library, and hope to return there some day. This amazing, unique collection and it's equally unique founder will certainly stay with me, and influence my art from here on out.
I can now confirm that I am totally smitten with the Chester Beatty Library, and hope to return there some day. This amazing, unique collection and it's equally unique founder will certainly stay with me, and influence my art from here on out.
After our trip to the Chester Beatty Library, the class went to the "Fullbright Inter-changes," a showcase of some of the poetry and music of previous Irish and American Fulbright Scholars. We got to hear the illean pipes, as well as some lovely poems, and our teacher Judith Coe's lovely songs about the Blasket Island people.
After the lovely reception, we headed home, and got a pizza from Mizzoni's acoss the street whose slogan, (which you can see on the box) is "Possibly the Best Pizza on the Planet." We were delighted to find that not only is it possibly the best pizza, (certainly on my top 3) it is quite certainly among the biggest. This massive pizza was the fourth size, with one option above it- we were not quite daring enough to try the XXL Mega Wheel Pizza. Instead, we stayed with the much more reasonable XL Wagon Wheel Pizza, and Josh, Austin, Jazmin, Peter, Adam and I ate like kings. After a lovely evening full of music, poetry, blogging and pizza, I am certainly ready for bed.
After the lovely reception, we headed home, and got a pizza from Mizzoni's acoss the street whose slogan, (which you can see on the box) is "Possibly the Best Pizza on the Planet." We were delighted to find that not only is it possibly the best pizza, (certainly on my top 3) it is quite certainly among the biggest. This massive pizza was the fourth size, with one option above it- we were not quite daring enough to try the XXL Mega Wheel Pizza. Instead, we stayed with the much more reasonable XL Wagon Wheel Pizza, and Josh, Austin, Jazmin, Peter, Adam and I ate like kings. After a lovely evening full of music, poetry, blogging and pizza, I am certainly ready for bed.