Adrian le Harivel, Curator of British Art at the National Gallery of Ireland, talks about one of the Gallery's most popular paintings, Caravaggio's 'The Taking of Christ'.
I fell in love with this painting in secondary school when I saw it in a history book. I used to flip to that page when bored in class and stare at it for a long time. Time moved on and life got busy and I forgot about the painting. I never really thought to look online when the internet became so widely available to see where it was based, I always assumed somewhere in continental Europe. Then one way I was walking through the National Gallery and I couldn't believe it - THERE IT WAS. Right in front of me. I moved to Dublin aged 17 and walked by the National Gallery every day for 7 years before one day stumbling upon it. Needless to say I stood starting at it for a long long time. I'm not even that big into art, but this painting just struck me the day I saw it in my book aged 12/13. And to think all the while it was based in a museum only 50 miles from my secondary school! Crazy, huh?
Hi David, I know, it's not ideal, apologies for the poor sound quality! Hopefully the next time we'll be able to choose a quieter period to record in when there aren't so many visitors around. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment! We always appreciate artistic critique!
There should be a protective shield around that painting, Perspex or something. Gallery folk are too trusting----theres a lot of attention seeking nutters out there who would love their 15 minutes of fame by slashing this beauty to shreds.
A pity we cannot see the picture properly since the narrator of this video is standing directly in front of the picture. Makes it difficult to absorb what he is telling us about this famous picture.
I don't mean any offence by this...but wouldn't it have been best to record these episodes outside of public hours...the noise beyond the commentator is soooo distracting and unnecessary. Just a bit of artistic critique ;)
