Watercolor 565

Christmas Card

Tropical, for my sister

Happy Silvester - last day of the year 2022. 

Fireworks are bursting all over outside.

Landesmuseum, Again

The Permanent Exhibit 

It had been quite a long time since I had seen it, so we walked through on our way out. It was much more “professionalized,” with barriers, glass cases, ramps over those dangerous door sills that houses don’t have any more - except ours or other such oooooold ones.

If you follow the next picture sequence, you will see a whole room, starting from to the left of the door.

Wash basin

This little bed would hold two short people, dad and mom.

Imagine the quill pen and thick papers. 

The benches along the wall hold the overflow.

For linens and crockery



A close up of the Kachelofen (heating stove). I was standing right beside it so could not get the whole view. 

But here is a different one in a different room. 

That would be a literal hot seat. 

Instead of a designer handbag, one would have a fancy decorated stove. Probably more worth the expense.

And lovely woodwork.

And cumbersome clothes. 

Could you see your gents in these, driving big trucks and wrangling cattle? 

And an exhibit of stove tiles

And further on, a simply gorgeous set of dinnerware, 300+ pieces, made in a factory once by where the Lindt chocolate factory is now in Kilchberg. 





Entirely handmade and painted,  Every piece was unique. Every plate with a similar but different floral design.

And a random pillar holding up the building in the old part. No flat concrete here. 

A piece from an old church. 

Auf Wiedersehen, Herr Tell. 

Until next time. 

Landesmuseum, Continued

Baroque Exhibit 

The next exhibit was the one I had wanted to see for awhile. It was almost done, but better late than never. 

The exhibit was well presented, and offered some interesting information, especially about Swiss contributions to the Baroque period. It was somewhat marred by the current propensity to disparage one’s own country and people for political correctness’s sake. I didn’t get many pictures, but some of the paintings showed the turn art took toward displaying the luxuries of everyday life, such as in sumptuous still life arrangements. These were accompanied by tut-tutting on disparities between the rich with their new fruits, and the poor living on “grains and cabbage, though the introduction of the potato helped their diet.” Yes! So acknowledge some good from that colonizing. 

Another painting showed a prosperous gentleman - “having worked for the East India Company” - in fine brocades with his fine horse, and…..gasp….two “enslaved men” also in fine clothes, well-fed, obviously in good spirits, but enough to blacken the whole of Swiss history, because TWO slaves were found in the country, at least in one painting. 

Anyway, attempts were made to show the grandeur of the era.

The entrance, in the new part of the museum:

With a peek to the old part of the building, in its neo-gothic glory



A wood and polymer replica of the pictured tower turret


A very significant contributor to the glories of the Baroque era




There were others noted, plus some who would have contributed the biggest and the best, but for lack of funds. 

This is one such concept, that didn’t get built.

It would have been the biggest dome north of the alps. 

Here is a lovely representation of the era that did get built.

A huge painting of the Il Gesu church. I wanted to get a close up of the dwarf in the corner, but my camera refused to work.




So, that was it for the pictures of the Baroque exhibit. None of the Memento Mori, or fine dinnerware, or fancy shoes.

But, in the next post I will show some pictures from the permanent collection, because my picture-taker went back into business again. 

Christmas Exhibition

At the Landesmuseum 

On Second Christmas Day, Better Half and I visited the exhibits at the national museum in Zürich. ( I had major technical difficulties with my photo apparatus, so pictures are limited.)

One exhibit was a collection of handmade Nativity scenes. Note the settings.

Same set. Quite large and elaborate.

Part of the setting for the Crèche exhibit 

Cloth over wire

Clay

Beautifully made ceramic figures.

A collection of old Advent calendars were included. 

To be continued, with the Baroque exhibit (but minimal because of said technical difficulties)…..