My favorites at the Museo Nacional de Colombia

    The last fun thing we did before summer vacation ended was go to the Museo Nacional de Colombia, or the National Museum of Colombia.  I think that translation is fairly obvious, but I included it anyway.  The above bird was my favorite thing in the entire museum btw.  So much in fact that I bought a reproduction of it, which I love.  

This is my second favorite piece at the museum.  It's La Niña de la Columna by Ricardo Acevedo Bernal.    I've scoured the internet to find an art print of this I could buy to put up in my house, but haven't found anything.  If anyone has any help with that let me know. I love it.  

This was a tapestry made of feathers from the 1800s. It's huge and amazing in person, but unfortunately I had my cruddy okay to steal burner phone with me that day so none of my photos turned out that well.  

I loved these little water colors.  So charming.  

I like this dude because I have a book with his maps in it and I love his maps and my book.  Here's the lovely AI summary about him: Agustín Codazzi was an Italo-Venezuelan soldier, scientist, geographer, and cartographer who made significant contributions to the cartography and geography of Venezuela and Colombia. He is particularly known for creating extensive maps and statistics of the two countries following the tumultuous years after their independence from the Spanish Empire. The Geographic Institute Agustín Codazzi (IGAC) in Colombia is named in his honor, reflecting his enduring legacy in the field of geography and cartography.

I liked the style of this painting and how it looks like it should be a romantic Italian landscape but then the train is sort of surprisingly thrown in.  

  

Besides that I just like seeing the clothes from Victorian paintings, I also liked this one because it's of Elvira Tanco de Malo O'Leary and the O'Leary at the end just kind of kills me.  It's the same as my children being Latorre Rasmussen.  Which, several of their teachers in Colombia insisted on them using their second last name until they said it was Rasmussen and then the teachers kind of blanked and just said never mind.  😂😂😂

This one has terrible glare, please ignore that.  I liked it though because she's wearing a ruana and more traditional clothes but the guy in the background is full on Victorian.  I just love the contrast.  

I think the juxtaposition of the cultures of Colombia is highlighted throughout the museum and was why I really liked this museum altogether.  Like above, the riches of the indigenous tribes vs the riches of the Catholic Church/Europeans. 

Yeah, those are real emeralds and other gems etc.  Crazy!

Here's another one, with the conquistadors and the indigenous tribes.  You can't really see it in this photo but at the top it had the Spanish swords vs the tribal spears. 

Another odd juxtaposition of pre-Columbian gold figures and post Columbus church and military medals. 

This was the horse collars and bridle in silver of Santander, I think.  

Another painting I liked.  

This just looks like a fat cartoon character. 

This guy is awesome.  

And then just more ceramics, because I love freaky ceramics.

I bought a reproduction of pottery like this too.  Mostly because it's Muisca and that's probably a good portion of Leo's genes.

I also bought reproductions of this style of pottery for the same reason, only these are from the Antioquia/Caldas region where some of Leo's family is from.

And a funky costume from the Amazon region.  So fascinating and somewhat terrifying. 

And last but not least, always on my favorites list, extant clothing makes my heart happy.  This happens to be the uniform of Francisco de Paula Santander, the second president of Colombia.  Santander's house was just a few blocks away from where we lived in Bogotá but we never went and saw it.  So lame.  I dragged us all there once on a family walk, but everyone was being whiney and outvoted me and went home instead of going in. Lame, lame, lame.

And yes, I do have a ton more photos at the museum.  Second post coming soon.