1. Erasmus+ 2016-18
“Green Skills for Social Agriculture”
In the monumentsof the late antiquity the vine was portrayed not only as a
decorative element but as a philosophical symbol. In the territory of Serdika
and in todays’capital district “ Obelya” two Greek clay lampsfrom the Rome
era, the vineis partof the detail of the “ idealDionysus vineharvest” . On one
of them is portrayed Eros – a child, which is holding grapesin its right hand.
In another the image is completed with a vine leaf and a stick above the
grapes. In the antique philosophy the “ ideal Dionysus vine harvest”
symbolizedpuzzlingoutthe mysteriesof life after death, therefore the image
on the lamps can be perceived as a symbolof immortality and eternity.
The vineas asymbolof the “ sky
heaven “ , immortality and
eternity, can be seen on the
mural paintings of three early
Christian tombs in the Serdika
necropolis. In one of them , on
two longs walls – north and
south, the vine is portrayed in
the same way. The motive – the
vine as a tree, feels in the walls,
it is included in the frameand it
is consists three pieces: three
acanthus leavesin the middleof
the frame, resembling a lyre,
give a start of two vine branches with small twigs and moustaches and big
grapes and leaves.
In the other two tombs the vine is portrayed on a narrowed arched walls
against the doors. The sketch of the motive is the same. In the middleof the
wall – alyre-shaped acanthus, from which two vinebranches are getting out.
In oneof the tombsthe imageis abit simplifiedrather than the other in which
the vinebranchesaretwisting andandramifyingmakingfour peculiarcircles
resembling wreaths. Among the vine leaves have “perched” many different
2. Erasmus+ 2016-18
“Green Skills for Social Agriculture”
birds. Thewholeimage isa bright early Christian symbolof the “sky heaven”.
Later this symbol is replaced with the Christian emblems – crosses and
monograms.
After the antiquity, the vine still exists as a motive in the productions in
applied arts but its symbolic meaning is gradually wearing out and is
replaced with decorative.
Witness for this is that the local population
sees in the vineas a beautiful, cleansing and revivingplant, deservingtribute
and respect , we find in the many decorative motives and ornaments,
portrayedonthetowels, carpets, clothes, woodcarvingsandmuralpaintings,
saved in the ethnographical fundstoday.
3. Erasmus+ 2016-18
“Green Skills for Social Agriculture”
The vine is one of the main and widespread artistic ornaments in the
embroidery of towels in the end of the ninetieth century. The ornamentvine
in this embroidery is build up mainly from two
compositions located symmetrically on the two
narrow walls of the towels. In these
compositions follows one after another some
similar embroidery motives “vine” . Alternating
either a short straight stick with leaves,
moustaches and a grape or a vase with
symmetrically located leaves and grapes.
Nevertheless if the vineas a image carries a symbolic meaningor it is just a
decorative element in the applied art, it is perceived by the people as
beautifulandcleansingplant. Thebeauty is
that meaning that the creator from the
different eras permanently have been
investing in picturing the vine, and the
beautiful, as we all know, is eternal and
immortal.
- Vladimir
Dimitrov
