Eureka Eureka, I found the most beautiful woman in the world. She is wearing a transparent veil which covers her face to the chest
Eureka Eureka I found Rebecca, the most beautiful sculpted work of a bridal woman in marble chiseled to every minute detail to perfection that you feel like taking the veil out and seeing the real beauty inside. This is feminine beauty in its mercurial best. One simply cannot take away their face from this masterpiece as experienced by millions of Visitors to this Magnificient Museum, a one man collection of Prime Minister Nawab Mir Yousuf Khan 111 of the Nizams of Hyderabad. This ravishing Rebecca of the tenth Testament was purchased by his Grandfather Mir Turab ali Khan Bahadur in 1876 in Rome.
Yousuf Ali Khan Salar Jung 111 inherited many possessions like this and went on to collect thousands of prized articles around the World which ended with a set of Ivory chairs of Tipu Sultan of Mysore.
Unfortunately for Salar Jung III he had no descendents because he was wedded to only art and collection. Without any further descendents this Museum has been very well preserved by the Government for the last 4 decades and was moved to its new Building in 1961 and has became Asia’s biggest one Man collection Museum, an institution of National importance.
The Great Masterpieces of Salar Jung Museum
The collection of the Museum is divided into India art, Middle eastern and Far Eastern Art and the European art. My advice would be to start from European art which is simply out of the world collection.
European Gallery- enriching art and craft.
Hide & Seek and Hush Baby–Sir Lawrence Elma Tadema -two best paintings of the Museum-true to life, remarkable sense of colour light and shade
Orpheus & Eurydice-G.J.Watts- the girl dropping dead makes you dead numb looking at the skilled work
Cattle in repose & Watchful Sentinel-Animal Paintings by Cooper at its ethereal best.
Piazza San Marco and Soap bubbles are exquisite Italian paintings
Venetian canal paintings and scores of true to life paintings
Porecelin Vase in royal Blue with fine carvings and paintings presented by Louis XV.
Depiction of Napolean’s combats on Porcelain.
Vase depicting Tailor riding a goat
Enamel painted glass from Venice and several other roman glass works.
Boy pricking thorn-fantastic bronze work to minute detail. Also the Night watchman holding the lamp.
Two other great Marble works are Mother & Child and the figure of Bacchus near to Rebecca.
The wood statue of Maphestophelas & Margeretta-also called King and Queen statue on either side.
Great furniture work from Germany & Holland.
Indian works of art-ethnical and traditional
Excavations of Nagarjun Konda, 150 kms from Hyderabad
Bronze works of Chola kingdom especially Mahavishnu & of Vijayanagar dynasty
Pchwai wall hangings
Stone works of Buddha
Vishnu on adi sheshan
The gallery containing ivory carvings (No 16) is another must see.
Children will love the arms and armoury section besides it resplendent with draggers, knives and all kinds of Khanda swords.
Miniature paintings from all parts of India
Jade works of art
Books and manuscripts depicting very rare History of Kings.
Other attractions
Carpets from the Middle East
Porcelain works from China
Water colored paintings on silk from Japan
The Clock room consisting of variety of Clocks belonging to age old times.
This Man never gets tired with his clock
Every one gathers at this place 10 minutes before mid-noon to watch this amazing British Bracket Clock. A Man (mechanical toy) comes out and hits the gong at the strike of every hour that many times and then goes back to the enclosure. Obviously at Mid time, you can watch him hitting the Gong 12 times. This beautiful masterpiece decorated with ornella Mount is the major attraction in the Museum housed in separate Hall No 28. This man has been hitting the gong for more than a Century now.
The Museum is continuously undergoing renovation and the prized collections like Rebecca are to be moved to new AC rooms shortly.
Location-Afzal Gunj very near to Imlibhan main Central Bus Station and the popular Charminar too
Friday is Holiday for the Museum
Dear Readers, I have kept the rev simple not going into details of great works of Art mainly in an endevour to draw you to the Great Museum and not to bore matters further. For a real connoisseur of arts, you need a day to see the whole museum and a diary to note 1000s of rare collections. Thanks for reading.