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The Art Collections at Trinity College, Dublin comprise several thousand works dating from the sixteenth century to the present day. Lastman’s Coriolanus and the Roman Women, signed and dated 1625, is the earliest painting in the collections. This work in oil, on a single wooden panel with a width of over 130 cm, is possibly the artist’s largest single-panel piece. While painting it, Lastman was mentoring Rembrandt van Rijn, who had actively sought him out. Indeed, the composition and choreography of figures in this painting would become a vital source of inspiration and exploration for Rembrandt throughout his life.
The Old Library of Trinity College is home to the Fagel Collection, one of the largest and most culturally significant libraries assembled in the Dutch Republic that still survives today. It has been preserved there since its acquisition from griffier (chief administrator) Hendrik Fagel the Younger in 1802 and comprises some 18,000 volumes dating from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The Fagel Collection represents a broad spectrum of early Dutch printing and book arts, from the ephemeral to deluxe editions. It includes numerous cartographic works as well as prints, albums, architectural plans, and anonymous drawings.
The Library also houses a series of sculpture busts dating from the 1740s to the present day, complementing the neo-classical spatial procession of the Long Room in two parallel rows flanking the bookshelves. The first fourteen sculptures were commissioned as a group funded by the academic Claudius Gilbert and are attributed to Peter Scheemakers. The bust of Shakespeare is signed in full by Scheemakers, with seven others signed “P.S.” The remaining six are unsigned, thus inviting further research into the authorship and commissioning process of this sculptural group.
Ann-Marie Hansen, PhD Unlocking the Fagel Collection Project Manager; Catherine Giltrap, Curator and Head of the University Art Collections (December 2025)