Tuesday, October 16, 2007
The Museum
Finally made it to the National Museum. I decided I'd be using my feet all day and that it would be better to take cabs both ways, to and from, I arrived shortly after opening time.
There are a lot of steps up, and this building took at least some damage in the war.
The collections are 1. the Roman and Pre-Historic era, and 2. the Medieval era.
The signs and labels are just about all in Bosnian,which is not a problem for me, I do read it well enough, maybe for some foreigners it might be, the real problem for me is most signs were way too small for me to easily read in a few cases because of being placed too high or too low, that would be my only major critique actually, and they do have guided tours, it's just that I seldom do guided tours in museums unless the museum is HUGE!
This museum isn't huge. There are some wonderful Greek antiquities, and you can look pretty closely because the WONDERFUL thing about this museum is you can get close enough to really look at things.I have never seen a Roman funerary urn for example, they had one and the tombstone of the person it belong to, and a diagram of how it was set up. That was pretty cool, I've read about it and seen it in books, this however was better, because I had no idea of the actual size of a Roman urn. There were some sacrificial altars as well from the Roman times.
There are of course museum guards, they are not at all obtrusive.
When the guards realized I don't see well and wasn't going to touch anything, I put my hands behind my back so they would know that for sure, they gave me no more than the ordinary attention any other visitor would get.
The Roman artifacts included many tombstones and floor mosaics. Some right near Sarajevo, and some from a little further afield.
Medieval artifacts were marvelous as well, stone carvings from Bobovac, hoards of coins, and jewelry in bronze, silver and gold.
There was some fabric as well, from the grave of a notable person, and there were old guns, old stone cannon balls, King Tvrtko II introduced fire arms to the region.
There were Medieval tools, sickles in different sizes, axes, scissors, other such things.
Before I forget, there was a small pillar that had a Runic inscription! That was extremely exciting for me to see!
There were bits of the frescos from the church in Bobovac, and one could tell that the whole frescos were at a very high artistic standard. Beautiful brush work, I felt the hair rise on my head to be so close to things to do with Rome and things to do with the Kotramanic dynasty.
One thing that I observed in this museum is that if they have partial remains of an artifact and any idea what the whole object looked like, there is plexiglass with the whole thing drawn on it, then the parts they have are placed on the plexiglass about where they were in the original, this is really a cool idea and I haven't seen it done elsewhere, maybe it is, but I personally never saw it done.
The Bosnians were masters of all sorts of metal work, they knew how to make jewelry that both held up and was beautiful.
There were some old weapons as well, arrowheads, swords, armor, helmets, and the finest chain-mail I have ever seen.
My son-in-law is quite capable as a black-smith, he makes very good chain-mail, he would have swooned to see this work, it was incredibly fine.
There were some ancient Greek horse shoes and bridles and bits.
As well there was the stone seat that the kings of Bosnia sat on for very formal occasions, and some smaller stecci. Outside there's a BUNCH of stecci, some have moss on them, as they would in their original settings.
I found the whole thing marvelous.
Then I decided to leave, walked into Baščaršija, I decided to price the Bosnian vests, the really good ones with the most exquisite zardosi work. The cheaper ones have tinsel rather than gold and silver work, they are not ugly, but they aren't as nice as the ones I REALLY like.
The work on a real old-time Bosnian ladie's vest makes the work on bullfighter's clothes look very cheap by comparison. It's done with real gold thread and or real silver silver thread, on velvet, and it takes nearly two months to make one. I wasn't so shocked by the prices being high, I actually was expecting it to be much more expensive. There are very few people left who know how to do the beautiful work that goes into something like this.
Prices begin at 450K.M. That is for most Bosnians a bit more than a month's living expenses. These beautiful vests were part of the daily attire of people in Sarajevo at one time, and of people in other parts of Bosnia.
I looked at other embroidered articles in this shop, there were some fantastic exquisite items for not all that much.
I have to confess, I really really want one of those vests. They are utterly gorgeous.
A lot of people were out and about, I had a hell of a time getting a taxi back, and by the time I got back, I really was tired.
There are a lot of steps up, and this building took at least some damage in the war.
The collections are 1. the Roman and Pre-Historic era, and 2. the Medieval era.
The signs and labels are just about all in Bosnian,which is not a problem for me, I do read it well enough, maybe for some foreigners it might be, the real problem for me is most signs were way too small for me to easily read in a few cases because of being placed too high or too low, that would be my only major critique actually, and they do have guided tours, it's just that I seldom do guided tours in museums unless the museum is HUGE!
This museum isn't huge. There are some wonderful Greek antiquities, and you can look pretty closely because the WONDERFUL thing about this museum is you can get close enough to really look at things.I have never seen a Roman funerary urn for example, they had one and the tombstone of the person it belong to, and a diagram of how it was set up. That was pretty cool, I've read about it and seen it in books, this however was better, because I had no idea of the actual size of a Roman urn. There were some sacrificial altars as well from the Roman times.
There are of course museum guards, they are not at all obtrusive.
When the guards realized I don't see well and wasn't going to touch anything, I put my hands behind my back so they would know that for sure, they gave me no more than the ordinary attention any other visitor would get.
The Roman artifacts included many tombstones and floor mosaics. Some right near Sarajevo, and some from a little further afield.
Medieval artifacts were marvelous as well, stone carvings from Bobovac, hoards of coins, and jewelry in bronze, silver and gold.
There was some fabric as well, from the grave of a notable person, and there were old guns, old stone cannon balls, King Tvrtko II introduced fire arms to the region.
There were Medieval tools, sickles in different sizes, axes, scissors, other such things.
Before I forget, there was a small pillar that had a Runic inscription! That was extremely exciting for me to see!
There were bits of the frescos from the church in Bobovac, and one could tell that the whole frescos were at a very high artistic standard. Beautiful brush work, I felt the hair rise on my head to be so close to things to do with Rome and things to do with the Kotramanic dynasty.
One thing that I observed in this museum is that if they have partial remains of an artifact and any idea what the whole object looked like, there is plexiglass with the whole thing drawn on it, then the parts they have are placed on the plexiglass about where they were in the original, this is really a cool idea and I haven't seen it done elsewhere, maybe it is, but I personally never saw it done.
The Bosnians were masters of all sorts of metal work, they knew how to make jewelry that both held up and was beautiful.
There were some old weapons as well, arrowheads, swords, armor, helmets, and the finest chain-mail I have ever seen.
My son-in-law is quite capable as a black-smith, he makes very good chain-mail, he would have swooned to see this work, it was incredibly fine.
There were some ancient Greek horse shoes and bridles and bits.
As well there was the stone seat that the kings of Bosnia sat on for very formal occasions, and some smaller stecci. Outside there's a BUNCH of stecci, some have moss on them, as they would in their original settings.
I found the whole thing marvelous.
Then I decided to leave, walked into Baščaršija, I decided to price the Bosnian vests, the really good ones with the most exquisite zardosi work. The cheaper ones have tinsel rather than gold and silver work, they are not ugly, but they aren't as nice as the ones I REALLY like.
The work on a real old-time Bosnian ladie's vest makes the work on bullfighter's clothes look very cheap by comparison. It's done with real gold thread and or real silver silver thread, on velvet, and it takes nearly two months to make one. I wasn't so shocked by the prices being high, I actually was expecting it to be much more expensive. There are very few people left who know how to do the beautiful work that goes into something like this.
Prices begin at 450K.M. That is for most Bosnians a bit more than a month's living expenses. These beautiful vests were part of the daily attire of people in Sarajevo at one time, and of people in other parts of Bosnia.
I looked at other embroidered articles in this shop, there were some fantastic exquisite items for not all that much.
I have to confess, I really really want one of those vests. They are utterly gorgeous.
A lot of people were out and about, I had a hell of a time getting a taxi back, and by the time I got back, I really was tired.
# posted by Katja R. @ 5:45 AM 
