Museum Time, March 30, 2023

 Rita had a couple of hotel site inspections to do today and so I had picked out a museum I wanted to go see.  According to my travel guides, Lisbon has 40 museums and if you can only see one, then you should go see the Gulbenkian Museum.  Luckily it was on the way to Rita's first hotel stop so she ordered an Uber and dropped me off at the entrance at 10:00am.  The Museum spans 5,000 years of European, Egyptian, Islamic and Asian art in 9 separate rooms.  Calouste Gulbenkian (1869-1955) was an Armenian oil tycoon who gave Portugal his art collection for the hospitable asylum granted him in Lisbon during World War 11 (where he lived from 1942 until his death).  He spent 10 percent of his fortune on purchasing art objects and built the building to show them off, then left it as a gift to posterity.  His billion dollar estate is still a vital arts foundation promoting culture in Portugal.

The Canopic Jar of Lunefer was recovered from a tomb in Hawara, Egypt and would have contained one of the dead man's organs.  There were four of these jars, each of which was dedicated to a god who would protect the tomb and the organ within the jar.  This jar has the inscription of the man's name Lunefer, and mentions the Son of Herus Duamutef-the god that protected the stomach.  It is believed to be from the Egyptian Old Kingdom (2570-2450 B.C.E.) and due to its extremely expressive face, from its latter period.  

One of eleven gold medallions created in the 3rd century AD in northern Greece which was part of the Roman Empire.  They were unearthed in Aboukir, Egypt in 1902 and are known as the Aboukir Medallions.  These very rare two-sided medallions present images related to Alexander the Great, who's side profile is portrayed above.  

A mosque lamp made for Sultan al-Nasir Hassan ibn Muhammed around 1361.  Made of gilded and enameled glass these lamps were filled with oil and suspended from the ceiling to light the interior of the mosque. 

Armenian Bible with illuminated manuscript created in Constantinople in 1623 (now Istanbul).  This double page illustrates the six days of the creation of the world from the Book of Genesis.

The 9ft by 20ft Coromandel Screen was created in China during the 17th century and is believed to have been as a sumptuous gift for a high official, probably a major or general for his 50th birthday.  This highly unusual screen has been decorated with paintings on paper, a rare feature, which were then covered with several coats of laquer.   

Rembrandts Figure of an Old Man, painted in 1645, was acquired by Gulbenkian in 1930 from the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the work formed part of the collection of Catherine 11 of Russia.

The magnificent tapestry set "Children Playing" was produced in Italy for cardinal Ercole Gonzaga in the 16th century

View of the entrance to the "Europe 18th Century" room showcasing paintings, clothing, furniture and rare pieces of silverware, mostly from France.  

It was a very informative and enjoyable experience to have been able to see what many describe as one of the best private art collections in the world.  His total collection of over 6,000 pieces are rotated through the gallery with about 1,000 pieces being displayed at any one time.