Alde Kakabadze: Sovremennaya Gruzinskaya Keramika / Contemporary Georgian Ceramics.

Autor: Alde Kakabadze

Titel: Sovremennaya Gruzinskaya Keramika / Contemporary Georgian Ceramics

Verlagsname: Sovetsky Khudozhnik, Moskau

Jahr: 1984

Seitenanzahl: 192 Seiten mit 220 Bildern

Einband: Gebunden Hardcover

Bemerkung: Those who fashion artistic pottery have every right to see this ancient and fascinating craft as a paean to man's dexterity and his mastery of the fire. Earth, water and fire are fused by the craftsman's hand to produce beautiful things that are put to countless purposes. The master-potters are endowed with inexhaustible creativity; their works have conveyed the stirrings of the human heart since time immemorial. The basic material of the craft is potter's clay, whose plasticity makes it obedient to the touch. It will retain the shape imposed on it; the potter's finger marks, the touches of his hands will clearly stand out on its surface. After drying and firing, this clay turns into terracotta - a hard, sonorous substance. But this fire-forged hardness is brittle, and pottery has to be handled as carefully as a living thing not only in a museum or in a home but also in the process of its manufacture. Potters know only too well how difficult it is to achieve the desired result. One has to be well versed in all the intricacies of baptism by fire in order to make the original design materialize. An artist-potter goes through long anxious hours during the firing of his wares sealed in the kiln. All the more joyous the reunion. The newly made wares please the eye with the delicate iridescence of glazes, the lovely glow of metallic salts and the cool smoothness of the smoke-stained surfaces and volumes. In our sophisticated age of science and technology, the warm glow of ordinary earthenware is all the more appealing because it is fashioned by the hand. As ever, man breathes life into clay. In many ancient societies the earliest earthenware imbued with the warmth of human life, was probably fashioned by women, the keepers of the home fire. They were impelled to make earthenware vessels by their concern for the needs of children and wayfarers, and by the necessity to store food. The skill needed to mould the clay and to adorn the vessels with a simple design in relief or some other decoration was handed down from one generation to another. The origins of pottery-making, hoary as time itself, can be traced back for millennia. Pottery appears to be as old as Mother Earth - the eternal, inexhaustible source of clay. Archaeological excavations in Georgia have revealed many treasures of ancient pottery testifying to the high level of the Georgian people's culture. The oldest towns of Vani, Mtskheta, Rustavi and Dmanisi continue to yield extraordinary specimens of earthenware with impeccable lines and forms. Outstanding among the finds is, first and foremost, the pottery from the early burials of Samtavro near Mtskheta and from Armaziskhevi. The giant cone-shaped vessels with broad necks have an evenly balanced, monumental form. Of special interest are the handles, deftly and accurately placed in the upper part of the body; they probably served to accommodate a pole, with the help of which the vessel was carried from one place to another. The only decoration is furnished by applied wavy patterns that run over the vessel's rounded body in a graceful rhythm. Preserved on the inner surface are occasional traces of cloth' or of wicker-work (from the basket round which the clay was smeared to mould the vessel). The clay was carefully hand-polished and baked over an open fire. Smoke-stained to a black pitch, this earthenware has a specific metallic sheen and bears a strong resemblance to sculpture. One can immediately see that it was hand-moulded. These grand specimens of black polished ware were followed by treasures in unglazed red ware; their geometrical patterns and astral symbols were traced on the surface before firing in colours obtained from manganese oxide and iron. The later, medieval, vessels were covered with white slip (a mixture of white clay and water) and painted with colours containing the ..."

Produktart: Buch

Länge x Breite: 30 cm x 25 cm