Tuesday 20 January 2015

Bristol (Day 2 - morning) - Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery (cont.); The first two Banksy's we came across; around the College Green - The 16th of January 2015




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As we walked down we realised there was a temporary exhibition on wildlife photography, which we visited and found most interesting particularly taking into account the fact that many of the outstanding awarded photographs fell under the category of 10 year old (and under) photographers.
 
 
Just before the way out on the right side of the foyer hall a huge painting covering an entire wall caught my attention especially because it depicted a landscape scenario I had been to not long ago - The State entry into Delhi by Roderick Mackenzie (1865-1941)- oil on canvas. It shows a particular perspective on Delhi Durbar of 1903, a stately occasion to mark the declaration of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra as Emperor and Empress of India.








 


 
 
In front of it stood a Banksy's artistic piece - The Paint Pot angel (on the left), donated by the artist at the end of an exhibition which took place in the Museum in 2009 and is said to have been rated in the top three of world wide tourist events in that year attracting over 350,000 people in one month and people queuing up to five hours.
 
As we made our way down onto the Green Park area we came across another of Banksy's paintings - The well hung lover (on the right), which according to information provided was painted in an erected enclosed scaffolding so as to protect the artist's identity.





The weather seemed to be a lot brighter than expected so we took some time wandering around the beautiful  park before having visited the Cathedral which stood on one of its corners. To the right of us stood the impressive City Hall with its thin bricks with Portland stone dressings, on whose entrance took pride of place the statue of an Elizabethan Seaman (referred to by many as a Merchant Venturer because of holding a charter rahter than a chart).






















Constructed over a period of more than 700 years the Bristol Cathedral was beyond any doubt the most impressive building located on College Green. Quite strangely fairly close to its  west front entrance we came across a tree on which several pairs of tenis shoes were hanging (?). I didn't get a chance to ask anyone the particular meaning of this, though I believe it to be a probable  Modern artistic manifestation like possibly any other
























The statue of Rajah Rammohun Roy, an Indian social reformer who was an envoy to England for two years standing in front of the Central Library to one of the sides of the Cathedral.






The Great Gatehouse dating back to around 1170 that used to be the Gatehouse for the St. Augustine's Abbey, the precursor of the Cathedral was densely decorated on both sides with carved mouldings with inside ribbed vaults and walls with carved interlaced arcading.





The North front of the Cathedral's Great Gatehouse.
 

















Details of the Cathedral's south Gatehouse






















Refugee by Naomi Campbel, a statue dedicated to victims of racial prejudice, stood in the garden at the rear of the Cathedral.







Across the road from College Green the beautiful façade of the Lord Mayor's Chapel  and a little farther going down towards the Centre's Promenade a statue of Queen Victoria. 















We did enjoy the morning and I must confess it did exceed my expectations, namely because the free access to the City Museum, which English are so keen about, despite not having visited all the galleries we would have liked to, did effectively allow us to be surrounded by "beauty" for a few hours  ...








 

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