ETERNAL VALUES
Tatar Palases and Kelems of the XIX-XX centuries
Rosalina Shageeva , an Honored Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan , laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Tatarstan named after G . Tukaya and Baki Urmanche Prize
The museum collections of Tatarstan contain a number of unique carpets of local production of the late XIX and early XX centuries . Genre indifference and “ underdevelopment ” of the plot , ornament archaism , and the use of earthy vegetable dyes proves that this is a fragment of ancient , indefinite traditional art which is disappearing due to socio-economic circumstances .
Tatarstan is not a country of classical carpet weaving , but during the state period ( Volga Bulgaria , Golden Horde and Kazan Khanate ), it belonged to the sphere of professional art .
“ Bulgars live in yurts . The tsar ’ s yurt is very large , accommodates more than a thousand people and is covered with Armenian carpets ” 1 , noted an Arab traveller Ibn Fadlan , a secretary of the embassy of the Baghdad Caliph al-Muktadir , in a letter to the Volga Bulgar tsar Almush ( X century ). Russian chronicles tell about innumerable Kazan wealth : “ And in the middle of the mosque ... the tsar himself , was not sitting in a golden royal place , but on the ground , on the carpet ... 2 ”. decorating sleeping places , warming the walls of a log house . Carpets for floors of stone buildings , mosques , madrasahs in the conditions of wooden architecture acquired a more monumental function .
Tatar nation with its inevitable retrospectivism and nostalgic tendencies as well as due to its existence in another religion and other ethnic environment ( Ugrians , Slavs , Finns ) had to give its version of ancient art among common Turkic carpet weaving craft .
Collectible museum items are thick double-sided , woven woolen carpets made of three pieces of linen ( ochtelem ), each of them 80 cm wide .
Were these carpets local or imported ? The fact of their presence is obvious . Over time , there was a decline in craft workshop carpet weaving due to the destruction of feudal lords , the loss of livestock , and the disappearance of the urban environment , which determined the demand for carpet weaving . Items from Central Asia , the Caucasus , and Turkey were in demand . Own production decreased , moving to handmade creativity : ritual towels , napkins , onuchs and etc .
It can be assumed that nomadic system of soft utensils , typical for Tatar house-yort , in the harsh climatic conditions developed home weaving in the form of coarse plastic patterned coverings of felt , wool , cotton and linen fabrics . These are felt kez , flat-weave carpets , tankel rugs used as coverings , decorative yapma , bedcovers for
Kelem . Slit-Tapestry weaving . The beginning of the XX century . Eastern Zakamye
38