catching up on the last days of the trip-Munich

Since we had nothing planned as such on Tuesday I took myself to see where the royalty of Bavaria used to live-The Residence. Here you can view both the rooms where various rulers once lived and conducted their business and in a separate area some of the amazing workmanship of The Treasury. After days of viewing contemporary jewellery it was great to then go back and see where jewellery and object originated from. As the people chosen to create these pieces were the some of the best in regards to quality of  workmanship to observe this was great as especially in Australia work of this quality is a little thin on the ground.
To give an example of the workmanship shown, there was a rosary betnuss which was a round box that when opened had about four panels folded inside of it and which was carved in minute detail with scenes taken from the bible in boxwood. Further information given stated that the time taken to carve it all was approximately fifteen years! That is dedication to your craft.
The jewellery and regalia were no less impressive but were of the time that they created in, using gold and beautiful stones. I preferred the look  of the medieval-based jewellery as it has both the mark of the marker on the pieces and also they didn't try to make everything in perfect symmetry but worked with a stones natural shape as opposed to say jewellery from the 19th century where stones were faceted and of more regular shape and size. This reminded me of a kind of homogenised, go-anywhere-look that could be found in any court in Europe, H&M of their day perhaps?
While many people going through seemed only seemed interested in the shiny, pretty and sparkly stuff, there were other items that were just as interesting for me. There was a room that showed off an impressive collection of rock crystal carved tableware that had been etched and engraved, and also tableware craved out of stone such as malachite. Some pieces were so thin that you wondered how many had been broken so just one could be created.
The Residence itself was no less impressive and the room that stood out was the reliquary, where from centuries of collecting there was pieces of bodies and items belonging to saints and people from the bible. The work for housing the items was no less impressive than that in the Treasury but I guess in our more secular times also a little disturbing especially the coffin displayed in the middle of the room that housed an infants body. For me it was sad as well for it felt as though these people, whoever they were, hadn't been given a chance to rest in peace.
Clare

All images taken from The Treasury, Munich.