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DECORATIVE APPLIED ART OF TAJIKISTAN
Tajikistan is an ancient and exciting land. Here one can see mountains supporting the blue sky, alpine meadows with grass and high flowers, waterless ohra sands warmed by the sun, multicolor lakes, gardens full of fruit trees, green valleys with carpets of poppies. Here is a lot of clay, building stone, precious metals, mulberry trees, cotton, fur animals. Since earliest times people worked on ceramics, stone and tree carving, manufactured cotton cloths and breath-taking silks, embroidery, jewelry production, and produced felt carpets.
According to archaeological data the high ancestors of Tajiks paid special attention to the ceremonial and living premises, temple buildings accompanied by various decorative elements (carving, painting and other). The thematics of architectural decor was wide: battle scene, the rite of burial, feast, harvesting, single combat with mythical winged creatures, etc
Realistic scenes and ornamentation of wall paintings were made in bright and juicy colors. Wooden caryatids supported summer sheds of the buildings. The mythical images of triton and aqueous element were made in bas-relief on the early monuments of Penjikent. Judging by the fragments of the wall painting of the ancient settlements of Penjikent, Shakhristan, Adzhina-Teppa, Afrasiab and Varakhshi it is possible to learn about existence of expensive silk cloths and jewelry made of gold and pearls.
In the artistic decoration of architectural structures and products of the applied art of VII-VIII centuries, as well as in the fine art of antique time, the key place was taken by the realistic beginning. Images of various living creatures (horse, bird, dragon, camel, lion, tiger, elephant, sirin) occupied the leading place in the work of artists and national skillful persons of the early middle ages. Household articles were made of bronze, glass, ceramics, leather, cloth, bone, precious stones and metals, wood, ganch (local alabaster).
If in the epoch of the antiquity and early middle ages the realistic vision of artistic means predominated in art, then with the establishment of Islam in Central Asia the first place was assigned to ornamental art. The interpretation of realistic forms in the ornament becomes the leading artistic direction in the aesthetical perception of environment.
Ceramics is one of the most important handicrafts since ancient times: earthenware dishes, sets of the glazed national places and cups, large and small dishes, kasas and pialas, decorated cups and vases, clay toys.
More freedom and a living feeling can be observed in the ceramics images of XIV - XVI centuries. During this period especially bright are the vessels, covered with transparent glaze with blue (cobalt) painting depicting plants and figures of the living beings. There are still kept dishes and cups of XIV - XVI covered by elegant motives of the flying or sitting on the branches birds among finely painted leaves of trees. In the paintings of these vessels the influence of Chinese porcelain is evident.
Decorative applied art of medieval Tajikistan that developed local traditions was enriched by contacts with the artistic cultures of the countries of the Moslem East, especially Iran and Afghanistan. The following items acquired wide development: irrigation ceramics (Samanid articles of IX - X centuries), ornament (vessels of XI - XII centuries from Lagman - Vakhsh valley, Hulbuka, Isfara and Khojent), artistic articles made of metal (predominantly bronze; treasures from Kalai Baland close to Ura-Tyube, Uzun - Hissar valley, Lagman and Shahristan) and glass, the jewelry, weaving. In the monumental decorative art there predominated carved painted knock, wood carving (columns, bolsters, doors), carved non-irrigational and irrigational terracotta, ornamental painting by egg tempera according on wood and ganch and the plastic painting ⌠kundal■ (putting paints with the gilding and silver on the relief clay basis: was widely used in architecture of XVII - early XX centuries.
The period of XVIII - early XX centuries are noted by general development of art crafts. In the northern regions ceramics decorated by excellent underglaze painting predominate the images of flowers, widely spread dishes with the image of kumgan or a dagger (settlement Chorku). Ceramics of South Tajikistan is plastic with glazing or painting by red and brown engobe, still preserves the archaic features (Egid, Kulyab, Faizabad).
In Khojent, Ura-Tyube, Hissar and other centers there are manufactured hand-made cotton printed (with the contrasting pictures, made by kalyb stamps), silk and semi-silk fabrics - striped, plain or figured, including figure abr (cloud), created on the mixture of diffuse iridescent color spots. Figures of Tajik embroidery: details of clothes, scull-caps, male shawls called rumols, face curtains called rubands, blankets, wall panels √ based on the symmetric composition of ornamental elements and contrast comparison of relatively intensive color spots, as well as combination of the stylized images (snakes, animals traces, moon, sun, flowers, fruits) with geometrical motives (sockets, zigzag lines, triangles, arcs), often complemented by symbols (pomegranate √ fertility symbol), emblems (teapot √ the symbol of hospitality). Jewelry is of special mastership, especially those from Ura-Tyube and Kulyab distinguished by decorative and complex combinations of silver and semi-precious stones or glass, and hammered vessels from Ura-Tyube. National art of GBAO is of special interest.
During Soviet period the decorative applied art (art weaving, carpet manufacture, hand and machine embroidery, ceramics, jewelry) was successfully developed in Tajikistan. Local features of monumental carving and painting on wood and ganch were expressed in the art of national craftsmen- ornamentalists Yu.Baratbekov, M.Alimov, S.Nuriddinov. Best traditions of national art were artistically developed in the works of Rahim Yuldashev, Yusufjan Raufov, Ashurbay Mavlyanov, Saifi Sahibov, Zulfiya Bahriddinova, etc.
Nowadays on Tajik land there are developed such types of decorative applied art as embroidery on the national clothes (dresses, skull-caps, dressing gowns, etc.), the adorable by local people traditional syuzane carpets, various covers (zardevor, ruidjo, chodar, borpush).
In the north of Tajikistan beside the usual embroidery there is widely used golden embroidery made by women-specialists in the view of rich ornaments on dressing gowns, belts, skull-caps, purses, shoes.
Northern ceramics of Khojent, Usfara, Kanibodom is glazed and decorated with interesting images, distinguished by blue and dark tones. It does not look like the archaic ceramics of southern areas of Faizabad, Karategin, Pamir. Here one can see clay manufacturing, archaic strict figures, engobe painting. The clay toys of Ura-Tyube and Karatag also impress by their originality. Ancient dragons-adjahor are hardened for ages, fantastic birds, goats, sheep. Both in high antiquity and nowadays during celebration of the eastern holiday Navruz children whistle in these toys sending dark forces away from their homes, attracting peace and prosperity. A special attention in Tajik decorative applied art is paid to wood carving and national painting in architectural ensembles. Wood was highly appreciated, and its expensive sorts were estimated at the same level as precious stones and metals. Towns of the North Tajikistan √ Khojent, Penjikent, Isfara, villages of Upper Zeravshan and Frgana, mountain areas of Karategin and Pamir, settlements of Vanch and Horog have preserved wonderful samples of works of ancient and modern craftsmen - kandakors (wood carvers). Here one can see carved columns and walls with lattices (pandjara), geometrical ornaments with favorite motives: solar circles, swastica, trefoils, dragons, branches, Kufic ways of writing, zoomorphic figures.
Especial Tajik silk is widely known. This silk leaves unforgettable impressions of a holiday, brightness, life-loving. Women▓s dresses, shawls, men▓s dressing gowns, turbans, skull-caps √ all these items have their specific figures, colors, silhouettes. There is also still preserved the tradition of cotton weaving, when hand-made cloths are manufactured on weaver's loom with a striped image on the national clothes in Dushanbe, Karatag, Shahrinau: alocha, bekasab. Silk cloths combine hand and mechanic manufacture. Bright figures ⌠abr■ (cloud) can be seen on silk and atlas clothes traditional for Tajik and Uzbek people. Such figures are ancient, and are found on old cloths of Bukhara and Samarkand, though they are not completely studied. Striped cloths ate strict, limited in colors, but abr cloths are decorative and have no limits in mixture of bright colors. They create a unique feeling of joy.
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