Honey in the Honeycomb

Upper Slovenia may sound like Lower Slobbovia to the uninitiated, but all good apiculturalists know that this portion of the Alps, located in Yugoslavia, is headquarters for one of the sweetest forms of folk art ever practiced. From the early 1700s until the beginning of the 20th century, beekeeping flourished in Upper Slovenia, and mountaineers ornamented their long, flat hives with small, gaily painted panels. So beguiling are they that collectors from Switzerland, Austria and even France have lately taken to combing the hills to find them. And last week, to show their richness and variety, the Ethnographical Museum in Ljubljana put on display 300 beehive paintings from museums and private collections.

Originally, beehive paintings were crude designs to ward off evil spirits; favorite subjects were the Madonna, the saints, and especially Job, the patron saint of beekeepers. As the generations progressed, painted hives became a status symbol; prosperous owners hired itinerant painters to decorate each hive with as many as 60 panels. Styles be came baroque, subjects sly and secular, with folk tales and local gossip pre dominant. One panel, dated 1890, may have been done by an artist who knew his subject all too well. It shows a red-shirted farmer, holding a beehive, as he falls from a ladder that has been charged by a bull. One can almost hear the angry buzz.

Some beehive paintings depict fanciful versions of historical events: Ser bian warriors battling invading Turks, and even American Indians tomahawking white pioneer women on the old frontier. With the rise of world sugarcane production and the replacement of wax candles by incandescent bulbs, beekeeping has been on the decline for some time in Yugoslavia. But for the folk-art fancier, there is still plenty of honey in the old hives: genuine antique beehive paintings now bring up to $1,600 apiece. And at least one enterprising Slovenian, Vid Sedej, 28, is doing a brisk business selling his contemporary versions of beehive paintings at $3 apiece.

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