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Arts & Crafts
The Bulgarian's aesthetic sense creates art out of any material - wood and clay, wool and copper, silk and silver. Applied crafts have gradually emerged from the narrow frame work of strictly domestic life to become an art which breeds art: Bulgarian embroidery with its intricate geometrical figures, Bulgarian rugs and carpets with their vibrant colours, exquisitely painted Bulgarian ceramics, finely ornamented Bulgarian fretwork and superbly fashioned Bulgarian jewelry. The Samovodene Market in Veliko Turnovo, the Permanent National Exhibition of Folk Art in Oreshak near Troyan and the Etura architectural and ethnographic complex near Gabrovo are all original museums of the revived beauty of Bulgarian handicrafts. You are bound to find your own particular memento from Bulgaria here - a small carved wooden wine vessel, a Troyan pottery set, a fleecy Rhodope rug, an original piece of silver jewelry, a finely embroidered silk blouse of a colourful carpet. Or you might just choose a phial of attar of roses with the intoxicating fragrance of the whole Valley of Roses.
Icons The soft radiance of the Bulgarian icon is a grand dimension of the fate, stability and spiritual evolution of the Bulgarians after their conversion to Christianity during the 9th century. Nameless master painters filled the dead iconographic scheme with life, exquisiteness and bursts of colour. The canonical ascetic faces were replaced by youthful looking saints, humble hermit, venerable prophets and lifelike portraits of the Blessed Virgin. Their deep-set eyes radiate wisdom and a love of mankind. The virtuoso line and the vivid, exuberant colour imposed a new ideal of beauty, previously unknown in the Christian world. The tradition of the Bulgarian icon was enriched throughout its millennial history before attaining its zenith during the National Revival period (17th-19th century). The time was ripe for the manifestation of the great artistic taste and talent of the Bulgarian. Whole families of gifted artists brought fame to the three icon-painting schools of Troyan, Samokov and Bansko. Their art works adorned not only the newly built churches, they also entered the Bulgarian home. This explains why icons are so dear to the Bulgarian heart. The most valuable examples of our icon-painting heritage today are displayed in the Crypt of the Alexander Nevsky Memorial Cathedral and the National Museum of Church History and Archaeology in Sofia, the Museum of History of Art in Varna and the Museum of Wood-carving and Painting in Tryavna. A considerable part is kept in the altars of churches and monasteries throughout the country.
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P.O. Box 446 Mill Valley, CA 94941all text & photos © 1997-03, Barbara Sansone
