Advertisement
The National Carillon, Canberra
We sat in the gallery grounds beside Lake Burley Griffin and listened to a carillonist recital. Next morning, after breakfast, we drove straight into Canberra and managed to find free parking for the day under the National Portrait Gallery. We walked to the National Gallery of Australia, where the exhibition I had been waiting to see for months was being shown – Gold and the Incas: Lost Worlds of Peru. It had more than 220 objects from the cultures that spanned 3,000 years before the Spanish invaded Peru. Many have been found buried in tombs with their owners with most being discovered in the last 100 years. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos of it and the book cost $40 so we will just have to try and remember everything we saw.
Of course the gold and silver jewellery was stunning (although there was not as much as I’d expected because the Spanish conquistadors had plundered most of it), including large ornate head-dresses, bracelets and fabulous earrings on posts as thick as your finger (they must have had enormous earlobes!) Actually, I discovered the holes were made by inserting a thick piece of wood to stretch the lobe and the larger the lobe the greater the rank of the person. Some of the earrings
The Water Garden, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
The mists of water created lovely effect and was Barry's favourite part of the grounds were so long they could touch the breast (don’t know how they stopped them getting tangled in their hair – it happens to me all the time with much shorter ones!).
There was also some amazing pottery. The best pieces were three portrait stirrup pots (for drinking from) that were moulded into exact replicas of their owners. They were very life-like. The most surprising, though, was the wide range of pots depicting explicit sexual acts, one even with 2 mice at it! The experts know they were for religious purposes but don’t really know the significance, although one theory is that semen is important as a symbol of agricultural fertility and another believes that intercourse was a way of merging the three realms, heaven, earth and the underworld (with water being a passage into the underworld).
We also saw quite a few textiles including tunics, tabards, loincloths and wall panels. Some were made with brightly coloured woven wool or cotton, others were finely woven white linen with intricate designs and some had feathers and beads set into the designs.
I saw three pieces I really wanted to take home for my miniature collection, too. The first was
The Sculpture Garden. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
"The Burghers of Calais" by Auguste Rodin, 1885. My favourite part of the grounds. a gorgeous bead showing an owl face, from before 800AD, the size of a fingernail and made of gold with turquoise green gems for the eyes (representing the Owl Warrior that led the dead through the underworld). The second was a tiny, gold llama with very long ears that was only about an inch tall, from about 1500AD. Evidently the llama was considered important in the underworld to provide food, warmth and transport, just as it did in life. The third was a cute silver bird with a long bill from the same era and about 1 ½ inches tall. Barry wouldn’t let me break the glass cases and help myself – don’t know why! They wouldn’t miss such tiny objects from among all those riches. I do wish they had sold replicas in the gift shop, though.
At 12.30pm we went outside to listen to the National Carillon recital sitting on a bench in the Gallery grounds among trees and sculptures (we had meant to eat sandwiches while doing so but couldn’t get any). The Carillon is a tall white bell tower with 55 bells inside that sits right beside Lake Burley Griffin. On Wednesdays and Saturdays volunteer
Canberra
From the steps of the Old Parliament looking across the Aboriginal "Sovereignty" protest, the National Rose Garden and Lake Burley Griffin towards the Australian War Memorial. carillonists give a 50 minute free recital. The start of the music was good but it was very windy and quite cool so after about ½ an hour we’d both had enough (actually I think Barry had had enough after 5 minutes!) and decided to go back inside to get some lunch from the restaurant.
On the way, we passed through the Sculpture Garden, which was wonderful. Some of the sculptures were very modern, some were odd and there were a group of marvellous Rodin figures which were my favourites. Barry’s favourite was the water sculpture garden which had mists of water, starting from one side then drifting across the lake, creating a wonderful effect and also changing the atmosphere considerably, cooling it.
Inside we had some expensive focaccias, iced coffee that wasn’t cold (how can they do that?) and we shared a scrumptious blackcurrant and pear cake which was very moist (that redeemed the meal, somewhat!). We then headed for the Australian section to see some of the Heidelberg School artists and earlier European artists like Eugene von Guerard. We also saw the Impressionists gallery, including one of Monet’s “Haystacks” paintings and “Waterlillies”, very nice. In the
Old Parliament House, Canberra
This was the Australian Parliament from 1927 to 1988. It now houses the Museum of Australian Democracy. Aboriginal section our favourite was Albert Namajtira’s “Ghost Gums”.
There was also a complete room dedicated to a series of Sydney Nolan paintings of Ned Kelly. I hadn’t realised he had painted the whole story of Ned Kelly not just the famous picture of Ned’s black armour and helmet on horseback (with a space where the eyes should be!). Although he really isn’t my cup of tea, it was very interesting and had some quirky weird images. (Check out the National Gallery of Australia website for pictures).
Once we’d finished at the Gallery we walked through the National Rose Garden, where there were some lovely colours of roses and many bushes in full flower, towards the Old Parliament House to see the Museum of Australian Democracy which is housed there. We weren’t worried about seeing the present Parliament Building, on Capital Hill, impressive as it is, as we’d seen it before.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.055s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0322s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb