Mezen painting

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

She occupied an important place in the design of the facades and interiors of the huts. Like most other folk crafts, this painting got its name from the area in which it originated. The Mezen River is located in the Arkhangelsk Region, between the two largest rivers of Northern Europe, the Northern Dvina and Pechora, on the border of taiga and tundra.

This painting was called Mezen because the village of Palashchel, located on the banks of the Mezen River, is considered its homeland, which was first mentioned as a center for painting on wood in 1906. Therefore, in encyclopedias and various books on fine art, you can find the second name of Mezen painting - Palashchelskaya. In the Mezen itself, they were not engaged in painting.

First of all, the Mezen painting is its own original ornament. This ornament attracts and bewitches, despite its apparent simplicity. And the objects painted with Mezen painting seem to glow from the inside, exuding the goodness and wisdom of their ancestors. Every detail of the ornament of the Mezen painting is deeply symbolic. Each square and rhombus, leaf and twig, animal or bird - are exactly in the place where they should be in order to tell us the story of the forest, wind, earth and sky, the artist's thoughts and ancient images of the Northern Slavs.

Symbols of animals, birds, fertility, harvest, fire, sky, and other elements come from rock paintings and are a type of ancient writing that conveys the traditions of the peoples of the North of Russia. So, for example, the image of a horse in the tradition of the peoples who have inhabited this area since ancient times, symbolizes the sunrise, and the image of a duck is the order of things, it takes the sun into the underwater world until dawn and keeps it there.

Traditionally, items painted with Mezen painting have only two colors - red and black (soot and ocher, later red lead). The painting was applied to an unprimed tree with a special wooden stick (vise), a capercaillie or black grouse feather, and a brush made of human hair. Then the product was greased, which gave it a golden color. At present, in general, the technology and technique of Mezen painting have been preserved, with the exception of the fact that brushes are more often used.

Pattern symbolism

The origins of the symbols of the Mezen painting primarily lie in the mythological worldview of the peoples of the ancient north. For example, the often encountered multi-tiered approach indicates the adherence to the shamanic tradition. Three tiers - three worlds (lower, middle and upper or underground, terrestrial and heavenly). This is the basis of the shamanic worldview of many peoples of the north. In the Mezen painting, the lower and middle tiers are filled with deer and horses. The upper tier is birds. Rows of black and red horses in tiers may also mean the worlds of the dead and the living. Numerous solar signs placed around horses and deer emphasize their unearthly origin. The image of a horse among the peoples of the Russian north is also a talisman (a horse on the roof), as well as a symbol of the sun, fertility, a source of life.

The tiers are separated by horizontal stripes filled with a repeating pattern. Elements of such patterns, as well as some other, often found elements of the Mezen painting in the figures below.

Land. A straight line can mean both heavenly and earthly firmament, but do not be confused by this ambiguity. By their location in the composition (top - bottom), you can always correctly determine their meaning. In many myths about the creation of the world, the first man was created from the dust of the earth, mud, clay. Motherhood and protection, a symbol of fertility and daily bread - this is what the earth is for man. Graphically, the land is often depicted as a square.

Water. The heavenly decoration is no less interesting. Heavenly waters are stored in overhanging clouds or are poured onto the earth in oblique rains, and the rains can be with the wind, with hail. Ornaments in a slanting strip most of all reflect such pictures of natural phenomena.

The wavy lines of the water element are present in abundance in the Mezen ornaments. They certainly accompany all straight lines of ornaments, and are also permanent attributes of waterfowl.

Wind, air. Numerous short strokes scattered in the Mezen painting along the ornaments or next to the main characters most likely mean air, wind is one of the primary elements of nature. A poetic image of a revived spirit, whose influence can be seen and heard, but which itself remains invisible.

In addition to the spiritual aspect of this symbol, specific winds are often interpreted as violent and unpredictable forces. It was believed that demons fly on violent winds carrying evil and disease. Like any other element, the wind can bring destruction, but it is also necessary for people as a powerful creative force. It is not for nothing that the Mezen masters love to depict bridged elements. Their wind strokes are often “strung” on crossed straight lines, which is very much like a windmill (“Caught the wind,” the children say).

Fire. Divine energy, purification, revelation, transformation, inspiration, ambition, temptation, passion, is a strong and active element, symbolizing both creative and destructive forces. The ancients considered fire to be a living creature that feeds, grows, dies, and then is reborn - signs that suggest that fire is the earthly embodiment of the sun, so it largely shared solar symbolism. In the pictorial sense, everything that tends to the circle reminds us of the sun, fire. Academician B. Rybakov believes that the spiral motif arose in the mythology of agricultural tribes as a symbolic movement of the sun's body along the firmament. In the Mezen painting, spirals are scattered everywhere: they are enclosed in the framework of numerous ornaments and in abundance wind around heavenly horses and deer.

The spiral itself carries other symbolic meanings. Spiral shapes are very common in nature, ranging from galaxies to whirlpools and tornadoes, from shells of mollusks to drawings on human fingers. In art, the spiral is one of the most common decorative patterns. The ambiguity of symbols in spiral patterns is great, and their use is rather involuntary than conscious. The compressed spiral spring is a symbol of hidden power, a ball of energy. The spiral, which combines the shape of a circle and the impulse of movement, is also a symbol of time, the cyclical rhythms of the seasons of the year. Double spirals symbolize the balance of opposites, harmony (like the Taoist sign "yin-yang"). Opposite forces, visually present in whirlpools, tornadoes and tongues of flame, remind of an ascending, descending or rotating energy ("brace") that controls the Cosmos. An upward spiral is a masculine sign, a downward spiral is a feminine one, which makes the double helix also a symbol of fertility and childbearing.

The ancient signs of fertility are interesting and beautiful - symbols of abundance

Wherever they were placed, and everywhere they were in place! If a zhikovin (a keyhole cover) of this shape is hung on the barn door, it means to wish that it was full of goodness. If you depict a sign of abundance at the bottom of a spoon, it means that you wish there was never hunger. If wedding shirts are on the hem - wish the young a large complete family. The sign of fertility can be found on the ancient cult figurines depicting young pregnant women, which was placed where the child of the expectant mother is. Almost all Mezen ornaments are somehow connected with the theme of fertility and abundance. Plowed fields, seeds, roots, flowers, fruits are depicted in them in great variety and variety. The ornament can be built in two rows and then the elements in it are staggered. An important symbol was the rhombus, endowed with many meanings. Most often, the rhombus was a symbol of fertility, the rebirth of life, and a chain of rhombuses meant the family tree of life. On one of the Mezen spinning wheels, we managed to see a half-erased image of just such a unique tree.

Straight Cage Patterns

Geometric ornament has become widespread in folk art. Especially often it can be found among weavers and embroiderers. The basis of the ornament is made up of rhombuses, squares, crosses and swastika images. The rhombo-dot ornament among agricultural peoples is a symbol of fertility.

Simple elements

Not a single painting is complete without depicting all kinds of zigzag and spiral shapes. They are especially common when depicting the world tree, or "tree of life". Researchers believe that spirals and zigzags are nothing more than an image of snakes that are always present in such stories.

Patterns in a slanting cage

Ribbon ornament

Decorative image of birds in traditional Mezen painting

The motif of a bird bringing good news or a gift is widespread in folk art. The bird at the top of the tree can often be found on the Mezen birch bark tues. The bird is perhaps the most favorite motif of folk artists. In addition, it is customary among northern peasants to hang wooden birds from wood chips in the red corner of the hut. This is a relic of the same motive - “a bird on a tree”, since a revered tree was associated with the red corner of the house.

Decorative image of trees and flowers in traditional Mezen painting

Quite often, the image of several trees or a lonely standing tree, often spruce, is found on the Mezen spinning wheels. Of particular interest is the composition of three trees: two identical trees are arranged symmetrically in relation to the central tree, which is distinguished by its relatively large size. The fact that such a plot is not accidental on the Mezen spinning wheels is evidenced by the fact that the same plot takes place in the painting of antique furniture in the Mezen houses.

Decorative image of animals in traditional Mezen painting

Among the most widespread and beloved images, most often depicted by the Mezen masters, one should include the image of horses and deer. The horses of the Mezen paintings are more distant from the real prototype than the images of horses in other peasant paintings. Most of them had a red-orange coloration, which, as is known, was unusual for horses. The body of a black horse was often covered with a continuous lattice pattern, further emphasizing its unusual origin. The horses' unnaturally long and slender legs ended at the ends with feathers similar to those of birds.

Horses were often depicted not following each other, but opposing each other. Sometimes riders fighting with each other were painted on rearing horses. The fact that the horses of unearthly origin depicted on the spinning wheels are also evidenced by the numerous solar signs placed by the draftsmen above the manes and near the horses' legs.