Gulbenkian

 We visited the museum Calouste Gulbenkian today in Lisbon.  He was a wealthy Armenian/British and Portugese citizen who amassed a personal collection of priceless art. For those who watched Star Trek: The Next Generation, I imagine him as akin to the evil Saul Rubinek character who collected beautiful things or things others couldn't have. 

When he passed on he created a foundation and all his art was donated to a private museum trust. The stuff was, quite frankly, spectacular: C didn't expect much and I guess I was a half a heart but as soon as we arrived I was speechless: Egyptian antiquities in perfect condition; a Goddess Bastet cat nursing kittens cast in Bronze; heads of torsos of brilliant colours from the early dynasties. 

Then a winged guardian from Mesopotamia. 

When we get to Europe there are a few  perfect Turners featuring the obsessions painters of that time had with ship wrecks and stormy seas. In the very late 1700s and into the 1800s wealthy Europeans were terrified of the ocean but developed an almost, I would say, "horror movie" like fascination, about sea scenes. People would go to the sea and then faint because it was so scary and overwhelmingly romantic. 

I finally did get an explanation for the weird number of European paintings featuring the following: i) an ancient ruin ii) some nature and huge trees in the background iii) some peasants in hats either tending goats or fishing the in foreground. 

Apparently these were called "fantasies" and painters of that time all created these weird scenes as they were quite popular and sold well but did not represent anything they had seen. They were all created in their imagination. 

We then get to the impressionists, naturalists and realists: painting after painting, collected with the greatest of taste by Gulbenkian, and most represent the winners of the Paris salons in the late 1800s. 

This art was remarkable. 

I later went to the front desk to tell the staff about how excellent the museum was and find out how to get to the other buildings with current exhibitions. The young lad selling tickets told me that the founder had gathered all this art through corruption and nefarious mean. Gulbenkian was an Armenian, but well connected at Oxford and later made his fortune profiting from Turkish influence in Arab countries, despite the Turkish eradication of Armenians post WWI. He arranged to own the oil fields of Iraq and at least one other Middle Eastern petrol producing area. He made himself a good deal by selling all this oil to Western powers at a base commission on every deal of 5%. In fact he garnered a nickname of 5% Gulbenkian. 

The enormous painting of a cock and peacock in a fight while his hen and two frightened chicks, foolishly flapping tiny wings looked on, was one of the most intriguing canvasses I saw today. 

The museum had a beautiful impression of the chick scene printed on cotton place-mats for sale in the gift shop. However at 15 Euro per mat, ($30 Canadian these days) it was tres caro...