Radovljica | warsawandbeyond2014

By learning your diligence and thriftiness from me / tranquillity and peace shall be bestowed on thee

What drew me to Radovljica was a small image of a painted beehive panel in my Eyewitness guide. The building containing the Museum of Apiculture in Radovljica was splendid, the photo only capturing about a third of its facade. The door handle and the staircase matched the building's splendour; and also the pride taken in the tradition of beekeeping and the unique collection of 600 beehive panels. Along with a selection of the panels, the museum displayed beautifully crafted queen cages and dramatic beehives in the form of human and animal figures, and churches, a far cry from a hollow log which was the primitive hive (although some logs also had a painted semi-circular panel.) Tamara at the museum desk pointed out that the Turk has the hive holes like stab wounds in crucial places, reflecting the hostility felt towards the Ottoman invaders. Posters displayed the use of bee symbols on coins, bank facades and the land museum building in Ljubljana. Glossy patterned pastries were made from hard honey dough. Honeys glowed in tubes, from dark brown through to light amber, sourced from acacia, lime, silver fir, spruce and chestnut.

Already I was caught up in the poetry of bees and honey making. But the tour de force was to come. Those panels. The first one I saw was in a frame on the back of a beekeeper manikin in the window of the museum. I spent a long time rambling amongst the showcases trying to figure out their appeal. Their size and shape. The skilful composition. The roughness and ridges of the timber “canvas”. The liveliness of the actions and the interactions. The gestures – I particularly remember one of a woman, arms akimbo. No one would want to meddle with her! . My favourites were a very human looking angel perched on a solid cloud handing a bouquet to Mary, and a robber bear racing off with a hive while the beekeeper aims a vengeful gun at him. They weren't casual sketches: the exhibition included larger drafts.

The themes were varied: history, culture, beekeeping itself, bible stories, the cycle of life, the lives of Our Lady, Christ and the saints. The original models for the motifs were Baroque pictures in Church art. The panels had different purposes: to identify the owner of the hive or to ward off evil. The art is no longer practised: hives now are mass-produced and merely coloured.

However, workshops are held for children at a festival once a year. An exhibition of their panels shows great variety: the panels have been made each year using a different medium: acrylic, ceramic, nails, carving, mosaic, linocut, pyrography, copper work, calligraphy, wax and comic strip.