Day Thirty-Three - 13/10/2012 - Cork

     Meng and I headed to the Crawford Art Gallery between classes today.  The Crawford, on Emmet Place, is a fairly extensive art museum with free admission.  The first floor housed an impressive collection of sculpture, most being plasters of Greco-Roman works.  Many of the sculptures were casts made by Antonio Canova circa 1816 from the Vatican originals.  There is something of an interesting story in the way that cork came to be the home of these casts.  Canova had made the casts of the Vatican sculptures for a French collection after the defeat of Napoleon, and had made extras.  These were presented to the Royal Academy of London, which did not accept them due to a lack of space.  They stayed at the London Custom House, a gift for the Prince Regent of England, who did not really want them, and eventually housed the set of over one-hundred sculptures in a large tent at the Carlton Gardens, the prince's residence.  A student at the Royal Academy of London overheard that the statues were sitting there, and immediately notified Lord Listowel, a friend of the Prince Regent and a patron of arts in Southern Ireland.  Listowel asked if he could house them, and shipped them with haste to Cork.  They were put on display in the old Apollo Theatre on Patrick Street.  The Crawford acquired them as the Old Custom House in 1830.
     The museum was featuring an exhibit of the work of Seán Keating, who made numerous paintings, establishing what some would call an Irish school of art.  Many of his paintings focus on subtle differences.  For example, a painting of a solitary man in farmer's garb, looking slightly hopefully into the eyes of the observer, is titled Man of the West.  Adjacent to this painting in the gallery is Men of the West, showing the recognizable farmer, now in a working man's outfit, holding a rifle, with two armed companions, looking alertly into the distance.  On the next wall is Men of the South, depicting IRA men, all armed, preparing to ambush the enemy.  The subtle differences in his paintings illustrate a psychological portrait of the people of Ireland in his lifetime.
     The museum also featured a screening room, which was playing a short film by Martin Healy entitled Last Man.  The film was made in the decommissioned international terminal of the Cork Airport, showing a janitor cleaning empty seats, and dusty floors.  There is a complete lack of people and airplanes as he goes about his duties.  The film is based on a Mary Shelley novel in 1826 that looks at what man would be like if he were the last man on earth.  The janitor builds model airplanes during his down time.
     The Crawford building itself was erected in 1724 as the Cork Custom House.  In 1830, the building was given to Royal Cork Institution (a predecessor of University College Cork).  It became the Government School of Design in 1850, and later extended in 1884 to accomodate students.  The extension was funded by William Horatio Crawford, lending the gallery its current name.  The School of Art relocated in 1979, leaving the building to be the Crawford Art Gallery.