Glasgow's Burrell Collection
Visit Art and Architecture Museum in Scotland's Second City
Aug 12, 2007
Some attractions don't get the attention they deserve. If the Burrell Collection were, say, in London or in Paris, it would be acknowledged as one of the finest small museums in the world.
But, alas, the Burrell's home is in Glasgow -- a place that despite an all-out campaign to lure tourists, still suffers a sooty, industrial-town image.
A Consumate Collector
The museum’s treasures were collected over a long lifetime by wealthy shipowner, Sir William Burrell. As a teen-ager, he spent his money for paintings when other boys were buying cricket bats. In 1944, Burrell donated his 6,000-item collection to the city of Glasgow. Still collecting art and architectural elements when he was 96, Burrell donated 2,000 more items “to fill in the gaps” before he died in 1958.
A Study in Contrasts
Completed in 1971, the museum’s exterior looks rather like a huge warehouse made of glass, stone and stainless steel. Much of the flooring is also of stone. Among the architectural treasures incorporated into the building are three windows from a 13th century house in Provence, and an elaborate portal from Hornby Castle in Yorkshire.
Contrast is the leitmotif running throughout. Polychromed saints on their pedestals look beyond huge panels of plate glass to the forest of chestnut and sycamore trees surrounding the gallery. Levi-clad art students on their way to sketch an alabaster pieta from 15th century Germany pass through a late 12th century limestone portal that originally formed the west entrance to the nave of the parish church at Montron in eastern France.
The stained glass stands comparison with the holdings of the Cloisters in New York. "Solomon and the Queen of Sheba," "St. Nicholas Preventing an Execution," "The Prophet Jeremiah" and "St. Stephen" are among the masterpieces which originally decorated European cathedrals. The secular pieces chronicle everyday life, with such themes as "Making Roof Tiles."
Tapestries and Tang Dynasty Dragons
Sir William, with justification, regarded his tapestries as the most valuable part of the entire collection. The "Tapestry Gallery", arranged like a medieval great hall, contains a late Tudor and Jacobean needlework collection second only to that of London's Victoria and Albert Museum. Most of the more than 150 pieces date from the 15th and 16th centuries.
Oriental art comprises approximately one-quarter of the collection. The selection of Chinese ceramics is especially strong, with painted pots from the neolithic Yangshao culture as well as a number of pieces from each of the dynastic periods. Blue and white porcelains from the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Henan black-ware jars from the Sing Dynasty a model of a storehouse from the Han Dynasty and a Tang Dynasty ewer with a dragon's head handle are among the most outstanding pieces.
The "Medieval Europe" section reflects Sir William's first love -- Northern European art from 1300-1500 AD. Sculpture and church art, with a beautiful array of wood and polychrome saints, form the most memorable part of his acquisitions in this area. Highlights of the decorative arts section include a trio of steeple cups from 17th century London, a 15th Century tin-glazed earthenware dish from Spain and German glassware.
Open on Monday through Thursday and on Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. To experience the museum to the utmost, be sure to pick up a museum guide.
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