Cork In 50 Artworks, No 41: The Progress of Human Knowledge and Culture, by James Barry

The work of Blackpool-born artist adorns the walls of London's Royal Society, and he is probably the only Cork person interred in St Paul's Cathedral

A detail from Olympics, one of James Barry murals. Image courtesy of the Royal Society of Arts, London

 James Barry’s The Progress of Human Knowledge and Culture is a series of six large historical paintings that adorns the walls of the Great Room at the Royal Society of Arts in London’s Adelphi. The art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon has described the series as Britain’s “late, great answer to the Sistine Chapel”, and it is arguably the most important cycle of history paintings in these islands.

Barry was born in Cork, in Water Lane, Blackpool – what is now Seminary Road – on October 11, 1741, yet few in the city were aware of his reputation until the Crawford Art Gallery, under its director, Peter Murray, organised a major retrospective of his work in 2005.