Nestled away amidst the hustle and bustle of Dublin's city centre is the wondrous Aladdin's cave of the Chester Beatty library. Alfred Chester Beatty was an American mining magnate and businessman and was made an honorary citizen of Ireland in 1957. In 1950, he had opened his private collection of objets d'art to the Irish public and on his death in 1968, bequeathed it to the people of Ireland. Fifty years on, his spirit is alive and well in the library, and there are some very special events taking place to mark the occasion. Kay Sheehy was joined on Arena by its director, Fionnuala Croke to learn about some of the individual exhibitions.
An exhibition taking place in March is entitled Miniature Masterpiece which focuses on an elaborate 15th century Book of Hours.
"It's a little private devotional prayer book and the central text is the divine office, which are… times of the day set aside to recite certain prayers starting with Matins. This particular Book of Hours is really the masterpieces of 15th-century illumination. It was commissioned in 1443 by a man called Prigent de Coëtivy… It was actually gifted by Chester Beatty's wife Edith to Chester on their wedding anniversary in 1919. Coëtivy was a really wealthy patron so this manuscript contains a staggering 148 full-page illuminations or three-quarter illuminations, exquisitely executed."
Another jewel from the vast collection within the museum is a pair of Rembrandt drawings inspired by India's Mughal art which are going on loan in the Getty Museum in LA.
"They're mounting a very important exhibition called Rembrandt and The Inspiration of India and we don't always think of these crossovers in art and 20,30 years ago we weren't really talking about them too much. Rembrandt, in fact, made a series of drawings (in which) he was literally copying Mughal images and we have two exceptional examples… The Rembrandts will be placed side by side with these Mughal images from the Chester Beatty collection… He was being influenced by Mughal artists and we also find great influences by western art… which made their way to India… so it would be happening both ways"