At the same time, Tadzhikistan had its own urban handicraft centers. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Ura-Tiube and Khodzhent were famous for their carving and painting on wood; Ura-Tiube, Kho-dzhent, Kanibadam, and Chorku were known for their glazed pottery; and Khodzhent and Gissar for their silks. Like the Uzbeks, the Tadzhiks decorated the walls and ceilings of their dwellings with painted polychrome ornaments, beside which they favored carved wooden and alabaster adornments. All these decorations produced a harmonious effect, which, together with the symbolism characteristic of them, contributed to the atmosphere of peace and benevolence, the like of which is found in Oriental poetry with its ideal world resembling a magnificent garden in blossom. Architectural details, such as painted wooden plafonds and friezes of complicated shapes, carved columns with multitiered capitals, or carved alabaster panels were matched by the beautiful objects found in the room: large pieces of embroidery, painted pottery, multicolored felt rugs, and palases covering the floor. Interior decoration follows a rigid age-old pattern, whether it be a village dwelling, a town apartment, or a mosque. When a plafond is painted, the artist takes into consideration not only the structural characteristics of the building but also the size of each constituent design in the painted decoration, which may have one or several axes of symmetry. As a result, despite the complexity and variety of the patterns, all these plafonds, painted beams, and friezes appear natural either separately or taken as a whole. Painted compositions were based on two main types of traditional ornaments: the first geometric {girikh), the second plant-like (islimi), in the form of a trailing stem with leaves, buds, and flowers. Occasionally, images of lions and horses from ancient mythology occur on Tadzhik murals. The choice of color scheme was always of crucial importance where the design and scale of the painted ornament were considered. Pigments, prepared with egg yolk, were applied pure, unmixed. Cold tones, such as blue or green, were generally selected for the background, which set off the brightness of the designs' reds, oranges, and yellows. The artists' predilection for intense colors was but natural: with the air outside hot and dusty, the verandas were shaded and the rooms kept in semidarkness, so the colors seemed to diffuse, soften, and lose their brightness, forcing the artist to employ the most intense of them. Tadzhik wood carving demonstrates loyalty to their national folk art traditions. The ancient carving on extant capitals from columns seen in some villages in the valleys of Fergana and the Upper Zeravshan, as well as many other surviving architectural details, finely carved in high relief of almost sculpted quality, display the same highly developed decorative features as those seen in painted decoration. Carvers from Ura-Tiube were particularly famous for their complex and dynamic plant designs executed in rather low relief with thoroughly modelled outlines and a punched background emphasizing the wood's rich texture. Pottery is an important area of Tadzhik folk art. Glazed cups and dishes from Khodzhent, with their designs of plants in blue and turquoise over white slip, are extraordinarily varied. Present-day glazed ware from Chorku is notable for its subtle gradations of light blue hues, while earthenware from Kanibadam is marked by its monumental quality and broad, large-scale painted designs. Pottery made in the mountainous regions is made entirely by hand. Handworked earthenware is a rare phenomenon in folk art, and Tadzhik ware is without parallel in the Soviet Union. The simple and imposing forms and the decorative modesty and dignity of these handthrown ceram-ics are truly fascinating. Gazing upon them, one feels as if time has stood still, preserving for us these manifestations of our ancestors' spiritual values and ingenuous perceptions of reality. In the villages of the Dashti-Dzhum, Karategin, Darvaz, and Kuliab areas women have always modelled pottery. The shaping and firing of their wares were generally accompanied by rites intended to invest the pottery with magical powers to protect its user from disease or misfortune. Clay beads and amulets were applied to the vessels, which were slip-painted in red or brown with symbolic signs in the form of circles and zigzags. The wares of Darvaz are burnished, with applied handworked details; the Dash-ti-Dzhum pottery is painted with spiral patterns; and in Faizabad simple plant motifs are favored. 
|
