The National Gallery was at the top of our list of places to visit on our short trip to Dublin. Can you guess why? Yes! They have a Caravaggio! The Gallery is centrally located, right on Merrion Square just to the east of Trinity College. We trudged here in the absolutely pouring rain. Unfortunately, they did not have an operating cloak room or lockers, so we had to carry our wet jackets and umbrellas around. The National Gallery is free, though, so it’s a nice, easy stop to make to see some really incredible art.

We, of course, went straight to the Caravaggio. Check out the details of our Worldwide Hunt for Caravaggio Paintings here if you are new to the site! “The Taking of Christ” was painted in 1602 and is a very large and detailed painting. We sat here admiring it for nearly 30 minutes. Some of the cool things that we absolutely loved about this painting were Caravaggio’s self portrait in the upper right hand corner. He is the dude holding up the lantern lighting the scene. You also have the really bright reflective pauldron, or armor, of the soldier in the very center of the painting – meant to symbolize self-reflection and examination of conscience. We are to see ourselves as Judas, constantly betraying Jesus. Weirdly, Jesus and St. John’s heads seem to meld together even as St. John runs away from the scene. To me, it looks like Jesus’s hands are meshed together in a way as if to say, “Well, here we go!” What a cool addition to our list! Apologies for the weird glare on the photo of the painting – it was behind glass, so it was tough to get a good picture without any glare.

We walked around the rest of the museum, checking out a TON of baroque art that they have on display here. They also have a ton of stuff by Irish artist Jack Yeats. They have a Vermeer here, as well as a very freaky El Greco painting of St. Francis that I absolutely loved. There was also a smattering of impressionists and a very cool Picasso.

The museum has a good cafe offering food and beverages, and you can enter off of Merrion Square or on the street. Luckily by the time we left, it had stopped raining!