National Museums Liverpool Blog - Friday, July 13, 2007

This afternoon's roving report comes from our press officer Laura Johnson, who attended the screening of three short films by local film maker Doaa Al Soraimi at World Museum Liverpool as part of the Arabic Arts Festival. If you missed this, you can still catch dance and music workshops and performances at the museum on Sunday, at the close of the festival.

Doaa Al Soraimi discussing her films

"Doaa introduced her films, which included 'A Bite Of Life' exploring themes in the lives of children from an ethnic background and 'Veneer', a video installation that speaks metaphorically about how individuals make judgments based on appearance. 'Veneer' was driven by Doaa's own experience of wearing the Hijab.

There was an informal chat after we had seen all three films. Doaa was interested in hearing what members of the audience had made of 'Veneer' in particular. People had quite different interpretations of the messages she was conveying but all understood the general theme of looking beneath the surface. It was really interesting. Some people had specific questions about Arabic customs and Islamic traditions, which came up in the documentaries so it was quite informative too.
 
Her brother was her camera man so they are obviously a talented family!"

'Observance', our video installation by Bill Viola, is back on display in the Walker Art Gallery. It was last seen in April 2005 shortly after it was purchased with assistance from the National Art Collections Fund in 2004.

'Observance' in Room One of the Walker Art Gallery

Rather than taking its place amongst contemporary items from the collection, curators have placed the work in Room One alongside works such as Ercole de' Roberti's 'Pietà' and 'The Lamentation over the Dead Christ'. These are the sort of works that inspired by Viola to make his series 'The Passions'.

I've just been shown this really cool feature about The Rediscovery of John Hayls' A Portrait of a Lady and a Boy with Pan 1655-9 on the Tate Conservation website. It's written by Helen Brett, one of our former paintings conservators who was based at the Walker Art Gallery at the same time I was. It's great to see that her talents are being put to good use down in the capital!

I have to confess, when I saw the title I was expecting to see a painting of two people with a kitchen utensil, not a Greek god. That's what comes of watching too much Gordon Ramsay I guess.

The painting itself has a fascinating history, which Helen gradually uncovered during the conservation. During the 1930s - long before the Tate acquired the painting in 1995, I should point out - a previous owner overpainted large areas, hiding two Cupids, or putti, holding a wreath in the background, as well as several other details. You can see below how the putti were revealed as the overpaint was removed.

That was just one part of the story though, as another layer of earlier overpainting was revealed underneath. It still amazes me how people treat paintings sometimes - as well as the skilfull ways that conservators combat that mistreatment. Do have a read of the full article, it's quite a tale.

Detail of the partly conserved painting. Copyright Tate, London 2007

Curator Charlotte Stead has sent me this photo of some of the important behind-the-scenes work being carried out by our volunteers. These ladies, Pat, Judy and Ann from NADFAS, have been helping out with some of the ongoing improvements in our stores.

The Maritime Museum has about 253 flags in the collection, most of which have previously been stored flat in boxes. However, it's better to store them rolled up in acid free tubes with tissue to keep the flags in as good condition as possible. As you can imagine, Charlotte wasn't looking forward to re-packing all 253 flags herself, so was extremely grateful when these ladies offered to come in once a week to help out.

Last week the volunteers were shown how to handle and pack the flags correctly by one of our conservators. As you can see, they have put this training into practice already. In the photo they are packing one of the penants from the museum's own pilot ship, the Edmund Gardner.

I think Charlotte will be putting the flags out to celebrate getting this done - but not literally, becuse then she'd just have to put them all away again.

If you missed it when it was at the Museum of Liverpool Life (RIP), you'll be pleased to hear that our hugely successful exhibition,  Living With The Romans, is on at the Museum of Lancashire, on Stanley Street, Preston from this Saturday until December 21.  The museum is open Monday - Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10.30am until 5pm. Admission prices are adults £3, concessions £2 and children free.

Part of the new Egyptian gallery (which I am ridiculously excited about and it doesn't even open until next year) will explore the ancient Egyptians' relationship with their environment, including animals. Ashley Cooke's sent me snaps of some of the objects that will feature in this section of the gallery (the snake and crocodile are on our flickr page, along with other pics from the gallery development).

The hollow base of this beautiful little bronze statue contained the mummified remains of a mongoose; admired for its ability to kill snakes and crush crocodile eggs. During the Late Period (664-525BC) statues like this one were mass produced and purchased by private individuals. They donated them to the priests of temples when they went on pilgrimages to different cult centres throughout Egypt - almost like a holiday I guess.

The ancient Egyptians respected the violent power of the crocodile, despite it being their close Nile-neighbour. The god, Sobek, was portrayed as a crocodile and had a temple cult centre in the Fayuum region, which is where this bronze Late Period figure was excavated (see it on our Flickr page).

The snake was similarly admired, mainly for its ability to seemingly regenerate after shedding its skin. This Late Period bronze statue of a snake contained the mummified remains of a snake within the hollow rectangular base (again, check out our Flickr page).

I was lucky enough to be able to see the mandala destruction ceremony at the World Museum Liverpool on Saturday morning and I thought I would share my experience with you in this blog! There were so many people there that I had to stand on tip-toes to be able to see, but it was great to see that so many people from Liverpool (and visitors from outside of the UK) wanted to be part of this unique and moving event.  After several minutes of hypnotic chanting the monks approached the mandala, ready to being its destruction. 

You could sense the anticipation in the room as all eyes where fixed on the brightly coloured coloured artwork and the monks in their striking robes and head-dress. After scoring the sand into four sections, the monks then took some of the sand into a container and began to sweep the sand into the centre of the board, creating rainbow patterns. The ceremony came to an end as the monks began a parade out into the street, with the surrounding crowd following, all the way to the Steble Fountain outside the Walker Art Gallery.

Monks outside the Walker Art Gallery

There were many stunned faces in the street as this unusual procession passed by! Some of the monks had already reached the fountain as our procession approached and they called out to us using large, thundering wind instruments. The monks circled the fountain before stopping to empty some grains of sand from the mandala, into the water...

You can read about the creation of the mandala in an earlier post, and see more photographs on Flickr. Watch our video of the monks creating the mandala using small tubes, funnels, and scrapers  and then view the chanting and desctruction ceremony from Saturday morning.

Stephen Guy with the Tirpitz model. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post & Echo

The very name Tirpitz spits out menace and death for me, Stephen Guy. Here was a beautiful ship which never, thankfully, achieved her full potential.

The Tirpitz and her sister, the Bismarck were the largest and most powerful German battleships to serve in the Second World War. While the Bismarck was sunk in a sea battle with four British warships, the Tirpitz blew up and capsized during an air attack in a Norwegian fjord.

In Merseyside Maritime Museum there is a superb eight-foot long model of the Tirpitz made by David Wooley of Wallasey (shown).

The 42,900-ton Tirpitz was not completed in time to join the Bismarck on her ill-fated Atlantic voyage in May 1941. Instead in January 1942 she sailed for German-occupied Norway where she hardly ever left the shelter of the fjords. There she posed a threat to allied convoys carrying war supplies to northern Russia.

Many attempts were made to sink her before two huge bombs finally did the job. The best-known attempt was in September 1943 when British midget submarines travelled 1,000 miles during which they negotiated a minefield and dodged nets, gun defences and enemy listening posts. The submarines then planted explosive charges beneath the Tirpitz, doing so much damage that the battleship was out of action for several months. Lieutenants Basil Place and Donald Cameron each received the Victoria Cross for gallantry for their parts in the action.

By April 1944 Tirpitz was repaired and presented a renewed threat to the Allies. Waves of air attacks on her through the summer of 1944 did some damage. In August she was able to undergo sea trials, making it imperative that she be destroyed. More air attacks followed.

In October Tirpitz was moved south to act as a floating gun battery against the expected Allied invasion of Norway. Crucially, she was now within range of air operations from Scotland. By this time legendary British weapons inventor Barnes Wallis had perfected his five-ton Tallboy bomb. British Lancaster bombers from Lossiemouth in Scotland finally destroyed Tirpitz on 12 November 1944. She was struck by three Tallboys – one glanced off turret armour but the other two blew a 200 ft hole in her side. A magazine blew up and the Tirpitz capsized within minutes. Nearly 1,000 German sailors, out of a crew of 1,700, died.

The Tirpitz was broken up after the war although part of the bow remains where she sank. It is said that sections of the Tirpitz’s armour plates are still used in Norway as temporary road surfaces during roadworks.

A new Maritime Tale appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

We get a lot of enquiries from people asking if we hold passenger list records for people leaving and entering the UK. Just seen that findmypast.com in association with the National Archives have made available the passenger lists for people who left the UK between 1890 and 1960 (actually, they just got up to 1929 for now - the rest follows in the next few months and you can register to be kept informed). 

While I'm here, Karen in archives recommends the 'Watching the Boats Go By' website. It shows live vessel movements in the Mersey and other areas around the coast, so you can check out what's afloat at any time of the day. You can click on the map to see the individual ships, their stats, what sort of vessels they are, where they're from/going etc and photos.  Its great if you have seen a ship in the river and wondered what it was.

Detail of the mandala

Progress photos on the mandala at World Museum Liverpool are now in the mandala flickr set. You can see in a couple that the pattern isn't flat - crests of coloured sand.

Check out my post from Wednesday to see what the project is about.

A post from John Edmondson on a new book he's worked on.

Cover of the new edition of Linnaeus' travel diaries

2007 is the 300th anniversary of the birth of famous Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus, who published the first Flora of Sweden. To mark the event a number of publications have appeared, including one with a Liverpool connection. John Edmondson, head of science at World Museum Liverpool, has edited an English translation of Linnaeus’ travel diaries of his tours of the Baltic islands of Öland and Gotland in 1741. There, Linnaeus observed many plants and animals previously unrecorded from Sweden as well as many aspects of the local folklore, geology, agricultural practices and copies of runic inscriptions.

The account, which was translated into English by William T. Stearn and Marie Åsberg, has been brought right up to date, with the plant, animal and fossil names revised by numerous scholars including Guy Knight, Ian Wallace and Alan Bowden of World Museum Liverpool as well as specialists at the Natural History Museum and elsewhere. It has been published (ISBN2: 978 91 633 0361 6) by the Swedish publisher Gyllene Snittet, and includes photographs of Linnaeus’ plant specimens and notes from the Linnaean herbarium in London. A new Runic font has been designed for the book, which reproduces and translates the inscriptions on ancient memorial stones found during the expedition.

John

You've got just over a week (until Monday 16 July) to send us your feedback on our draft disability equality scheme. We want to know what you think about it and about what National Museums Liverpool are doing to meet the needs of our visitors.

The document is on our main website, as are our access standards and our equality and diversity policy which are on the same page. You can sent us your comments either through our 'contact us' system or by calling Human Resources on 0151 478 4677.

Hello, I'd like to introduce myself! I'm Lisa Jones and I'm filling in for Dawn Carroll as E-PR Officer for National Museums Liverpool, while she is away on leave. This is my first blog post and I am bringing you an update about the entomology fieldwork at Smardale Gill, from Curator of Entomology, Guy Knight. There are lots of great photos of the team at work on Flickr and you read on to find out more about his team's latest findings...

The team at work in Smardale Gill

Because of the awful weather during the past month, the visit to Smardale Gill NNR we had scheduled for June threatened to be a fairly miserable affair. Luckily the rain did hold off for most of the time and we even got a few sunny spells! This time we were accompanied by Tom Mawdsley, retired Curator of Diptera (flies) at NML and Dr Jennifer Newton the county spider recorder for Cumbria. Much of the day was spent servicing and repairing traps which had been damaged by the weather and livestock but it was also a good opportunity to see some of the rare plants and butterflies already known from the reserve. Meanwhile, some specimens from the samples are being prepared for our collections, allowing us to make accurate identifications and providing a lasting record of the presence of these insects at the site for future researchers.

The monks working on the mandala

This week World Museum Liverpool is really lucky to be hosting a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Tashi Lhumpo monastery. They are creating an intricate sand painting called a mandala in the Treasure House Theatre. Millions of colourful grains of sand are positioned using tubes and scrapers to create the most beautiful painting - this one depicts a celestial mansion of the Buddhist deities. The concentration is amazing and helps the monks in their meditations. You can see the progress so far on flickr (it's good to watch the progress in the slideshow).

The mandala won't be on display at the museum for long though - just as a ceremony marks the beginning of the process so another ceremony marks the destruction of the mandala, symbolising the impermanence of existence and warning against attachment to worldly goods. So if you would like to see the mandala there are talks at 2pm and 3pm today, tomorrow and Friday, and the destruction ceremony at 10.15am on Saturday (7 July). Hopefully have snaps of that ceremony next week. More info on these and other talks in the what's on section on the main site.

And if you want to learn more about mandalas check out wikipedia.

You might have seen this BBC article last week on the discovery of the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut. It is being described as the biggest archaeological find in Egypt since Howard Carter found Tutankamen's tomb in 1922. We have a few pieces related to Hatshepsut so Ashley Cooke, curator of antiquities, agreed to do a blog post on who Hatshepsut was.

Statue of Hatshepsut as a sphinx in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Egyptologists in Cairo believe they have identified the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut - one of the most famous queens of Ancient Egypt. Alongside her nephew, Tuthmosis III, she ruled Egypt as a crowned king during the prosperous Eighteenth Dynasty (about 1473 – 1458 BC). She was a the daughter of king Tuthmosis I and Queen Ahmose Nefertari. She married her half-brother, Tuthmosis II and gave birth to daughter called Neferura. When her husband died his son by another marriage assumed the throne of Egypt. However, he was only a child so Hatshepsut ruled as regent and later assumed full royal titles and enjoyed a long co-regency, thus effectively blocking him from full power.

Hatshepsut was a very successful ruler and built many monuments that can still be seen today, including a spectacular terraced temple, set within the cliffs at Deir el Bahri (near to the Valley of the Kings) (see a pic on our Flickr page). It is from this temple that a carved relief of Hatshepsut’s father was recovered in the early 1800s, probably from the ruined Anubis chapel within the temple complex, and is now within the Egyptology collection at Liverpool. You can see it on our flickr page.

This is a fragment of limestone fallen from a temple wall, 35 cm high and carved in raised relief, representing the pharaoh Tuthmosis I, the father of Hatshepsut. The king wears the long royal beard and a coiled uraeus over a wig cover. The carving of Hatshepsut’s father is unusual because it reveals that the sculptor has obviously changed his mind about the position of the arms. A previous outline reveals that the king’s right arm was originally raised, but a decision was made to place the arm by his side. The earlier carving would have been covered by a layer of plaster and concealed in the final painting of the temple wall.