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Ceramics is one of the oldest achievements of mankind. Its history can be traced back thousands of years and encompasses a great number of different articles - from rough and heavy bricks to porcelain cups. The Russian tile occupies a worthy place in this history.
The State History Museum possesses a vast collection of Russian tiles, numbering about 7,500 items.
A tile is a variety of facing ceramics employed in architecture and interior decoration. A clay boxlike bedplate on the back side is designed for fixing the tile to a wall or stove. Each epoch left its imprint on tile ornament. Only clay as the material, and production technology consisting of forming, drying and baking were common to all epochs. For glazed tiles the technique included further glaze coating, ceramic paints colouring, and a second firing.
The first tile-makers lived in the Potters' Quarter in big towns and monasteries of old Russia. From times of old Moscow was one of the largest tile production centres. Fifteenth century terra-cotta relief plaques marked the beginning of tile-making. They replaced labour-consuming white stone carvings in exterior decor. Bands and friezes of plaques harmonized with the developing brick construction. Floral patterns dominated in the ornamentation, animal images were used less often. Terra-cotta plaques were whitewashed to achieve the effect of white stone.
Sixteenth century relief red tiles were used for quite different purposes. They were made of slightly processed natural red clay. The obverse was impressed in carved wooden moulds. Bedplates were made by a potter's wheel or by specially applied clay layers. Tile-clad stoves were whitewashed and that is why some tiles have retained lime traces on the face. Not a single stove with red tiles has been preserved till our day and only modern reconstructions allow us to judge what their form was. The ornamental patterns are floral, executed in the "double rope" technique called "weaving", or thematic. The themes were intricate, sometimes amusing, often - dramatic. Some depicted the siege of a fortress by foot and mounted warriors, Alexander the Great's campaigns, fantastic unicorns, many-
headed hydrae, etc. The artistic manner was symbolic. By using wooden moulds the imprint could be repeated several times. Red tiles have been found only in archaeological excavations and in house construction. This explains why no unbroken tiles have come down to us.
The next stage in tile development was the use of glaze. Green glazed tiles first appeared in Pskov in the late fifteenth century. In Moscow coloured glaze has been known since the middle of the sixteenth century. From the middle of the seventeenth century green "murava" glazing became fairly popular but only for a short time. At first their ornamental themes repeated those of red tiles, but gradually the number of subjects increased, simple frames were replaced by ornamented ones, images of birds, flowers and vases filled the centre. The tiles became larger.
The zenith of the development of Russian tiles came with the appearance of coloured enamels in the second half of the seventeenth century. In 1654 Patriarch Nikon, an erudite and educated person, founded a tile workshop in the Valdai Svyatozersky Monastery. Its foreign craftsmen, fugitives "from Polish soil" Stepan Ivanov - son of Polubes, Samoshka Grigoriev and Ignat Maksimov introduced forms and themes characteristic of West European art. This ushered in a new era in Russian tile-making. The workshop began to make tiles using "fryazhsky" (foreign) patterns. Tiles were coated with enamels or green glaze. Four years later the best craftsmen were sent to the town of Istra to decorate the newly-built New Jerusalem Monastery. Pyotr Ivanovitch Zaborsky, "a skilled craftsman of gold, silver, copper and 'tseninna' (tile enamelling), and other intricate arts" was invited from Lithuania. The workshop now specialized in making whole architectural details, such as parts of cornices, columns, portals, iconostases, platbands. This was one of the principal achievements of the Istra craftsmen. In 1666, when Nikon was condemned and exiled, the craftsmen from Istra were transferred to the Kremlin Armoury. From that time Moscow became the centre of tile production. Craftsmen of the Potters' Quarter started making tiles of the "fryazhsky" type, gradually introducing their traditional patterns of alconosts (or "sirens"), eagles, lions, etc. Soon the tiles made by the Kremlin Armoury craftsmen and those of local potters became almost indistinguishable. At the same time tile production began to develop in outlying towns such as Yaroslavl, Vologda, Kostroma, districts in the North and other places, each with its own characteristic style.
These tiles were used in palaces and public buildings, churches, and houses of the nobles as separate insets, cornices, platbands, order forms. To make the ornament more vivid the images became larger and were done in high relief, sometimes covering more than one tile. Green and blue glaze provided the background. For higher relief, protruding parts were covered with white, yellow and translucent enamel, the latter producing a brownish-red colour, owing to the red slab showing through. In the light of the sun such tiles produced an impression of precious stones against the dull brick walls. Using certain sets of tiles, craftsmen produced different compositions of floral and geometrical ornaments, depicting birds among tree branches; tendrils and plants; tulips, pinks and lilies in vases; pineapples, pears and apples. The Zemsky (district council) Department, built in the 1690's in Red Square in Moscow (replaced in 1875 by the present State History Museum) was richly decorated. Its facade was faced with tile friezes, columns, platbands, cornices, ceramic insets with the double-headed eagle.
A four-tile composition from the Church of Kozma and Demian in Sadovniki (1687) includes images of various fruits and a bird, looking as if set on white towels.
The tile facing in the Church of St. Stephan (1686) beyond the Yauza River is notable for its diversity of images and purity of colours. The tile frieze bears ornaments of spirally twirled leaves. Brick pier insets present a luxurious flower with fruits in a yellow pitcher. This is a nine-tile composition of refined design.
The life-size figure of the Apostle Luke holding the Gospel is unusual and unique in its complexity. This bas-relief once adorned the cathedral porch of the Danilov Monastery in
Moscow. Similar figures have been preserved in the drum of the Moscow Church of the Assumption in Gonchary. Buildings profusely adorned with variegated tiles stood out from among low wooden houses, accentuating their state and public significance.
The interiors of tsarist palaces, boyars' homes, and state buildings acquired tiled heating stoves that came to be known under the names "obrazchatyie" (tile-clad), "muravlenyie" (green-glazed), "tseninnyie" (enamelled). These round or rectangular (oval or quadrangular) stoves were large and their intricate architectural design was an integral part of the interior decor. Very few tiles of these splendid stoves have come down to us. During repairs they were ruthlessly destroyed, old tiles being replaced by more fashionable new ones.
In the early eighteenth century new tendencies in architecture made external tile decor unnecessary. In interiors, however, tiles were still widely used throughout the eighteenth century, mainly for stove facing.
Owing to the use of tiles exclusively in interiors, high relief ornaments were no longer necessary. The transition to flat tiles was a gradual process. At first, these were painted relief tiles with an oval in the centre enclosing a small lily flower or a theme with an inscription. In course of time the oval gave way to thematic or landscape painting.
The traditional Russian tile was greatly influenced by Delft blue ceramic plaques produced in Holland for interior wall facing. They impressed Peter the Great during his foreign travels in the late seventeenth century and he decided to set up their production in Russia. At his order "two Swedish prisoners of war - Yan Flegner and Kristan" were sent to the New Jerusalem Monastery. They were to begin the production of flat painted tiles "with blue plants after the Dutch fashion". The fate of the tiles made by the Swedes is unknown, but flat white tiles with blue pattern of this kind adorned Russian stoves throughout the eighteenth century.
The yearning for multicolored, thematic painting impelled the tile-makers to return to polychromy and to break away from pure floral ornaments. Multicoloured tiles with a gamut of blue, green, brown and yellow tones became very popular.
Moscow still remained one of the largest centres of tile-making. By the middle of the eighteenth century it boasted more than a dozen pottery factories producing bright and original tiles. Most famous were those headed by Afanasy Grebenshchikov. Yan Flegner worked there for twenty years. Other notable factories were those of Pyotr Rusinov, Pyotr Vedeniktov, Yakov Fyodorov and Stepan Chyorny - on Taganka Street; at Smo-lenskaya on Arbat Street were the workshops of Yekim Oreshni-kov and Kondraty Kuznetsov; Afanasy Chapochkin's workshop was on Meshchanskaya Street.
Eighteenth century Moscow tiles displayed in the Museum are mostly thematic. Unlike the dramatically naive compositions of sixteenth-seventeenth century red tiles, the designs of the eighteenth century are humorous and often sentimental. The tile-maker depicts his everyday life - his work, entertainments, love, travels, coming home, or his state of mind - repentance, regret, hope, thoughts of life and death. Naive and primitive images of foreign people - Chinese, Arabs, Persians, etc., animals - camels, hares, deer; real and fantastic birds, were very popular. Some themes have a mythological or symbolic character, the meaning of which is not always clear. The image, depicted in one or two planes, lacked perspective. The scene, starting on one tile, sometimes finished in the next one. Symbolic landscape or architecture provided the background for the central figures. Vegetation was rarely depicted. Most often, the background was low bushy hills, two or three symbolic trees and flowers. Almost always inscriptions of explanatory, didactic and ironic nature accompanied the themes. One and the same aphorisms, applied to different and often contrasting themes, produced absurd effects.
The craftsman found his subjects in many fields - art traditions, folk poetry, everyday life, illustrated old Russian manuscripts. When the image was simple, it was executed on the spot without preliminary contour drawing. In this event the tile-maker worked freely, but no corrections were possible as the water-diluted paints, leaving a coloured layer on the surface of fresh glaze, were immediately absorbed by the slab. Among simple and primitive patterns images of people and animals are often executed with a perfect knowledge of anatomy. By the late eighteenth century classicism introduced greater simplicity and severity of contour, and balanced composition in tile ornament. Opulent frames were replaced by simple borders enclosing an antique vase, urn, a ribbon-tied bouquet of flowers, fruit. Sometimes a general pattern covered the whole surface of the stove, each tile bearing a part of the composition. The colours were cold - skyblue or darkblue against a white background. At this time high relief or "faience" stoves, coated with dazzling white enamel became fashionable. Such stoves, mounted in the mansions of the wealthy were an important element of the interior decor. Adorned with vases, sculptures, bas-reliefs on mythological themes, they were very striking. The stove displayed in the Museum is quite modest. It is dated 1806 - the time the house was built. The stove seemingly consists of two parts - the upper one, decorated with a relief eagle perched on a basket of fruit, and the lower, depicting a swan in relief, with a wreath on its neck. Both images are enclosed in floral ornament. Whenever possible, these stoves were fired from the corridor or from a back room. This type of stove, worked out in the late eighteenth century, was widely used up to the 1840's.
In the course of the nineteenth century the artistic significance of the Russian tile gradually decreased. Patterns became simpler. Colours employed were either blue or brown, sometimes green. The central image was reduced to a simple flower. Gradually the central pattern vanished and only a straight narrow ffame remained. Such cheap and easily-made tiles were in use everywhere. Only the provinces still preserved the variegated tiles of old. For instance, in the middle of the nineteenth century Kaluga craftsmen continued to make tiles with a rich baroque frame, enclosing either a large basket of flowers and tiny lemons, or a bouquet of flowers tied with a ribbon. Stoves faced with such tiles were simple, no architectural details broke the surface and the stove resembled a carpet with subdued, rhythmic ornament.
Special attention should be drawn to Northern tiles. Solvychegodsk, Totma, and Veliky Ustyug had their own tile workshops. The tiles in the Museum can be dated back to the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century. There is little difference between them as the traditions and tastes worked out in the seventeenth century were adhered to for almost 200 years. Traditional Northern colours - green, white and yellow and sometimes dark-blue dominate. The image, always in relief, occupied several tiles. Usually it is flowers connected by interlaced twigs. By the late eighteenth century the design became simpler. Ornamental nettings of relief braces became a favourite. By the middle of the nineteenth century Northern tiles acquired the same features as those of Central Russia.
By the late nineteenth century some tile-makers and architects tried to revive tile art in the pseudo-Russian style. Ceramic panels from the Kuznetsov home in Moscow are of this kind. Stylization and a medley of ornament are combined with technical perfection.
A valuable contribution to tile art was made by the Abramtsevo pottery workshop. Its establishment, together with the appearance of other Russian workshops and schools, was a reaction to mass production of large factories. The many items, different styles, which were spreading through the country, impelled artists to turn to the traditions of folk art, to national originality.
The Abramtsevo workshop was set up near Moscow, in the estate of the rich industrialist S. I. Mamontov who was a connoisseur of Russian art. In the 1870 - 1890's this estate became a centre of Russian culture where interest in native history and art was encouraged in every way. The pottery workshop was headed by Pyotr Vaulin, a well-known craftsman. Outstanding Russian painters and sculptors including V. Vasnetsov, V. Serov, A. Matveyev, K. Korovin, S. Chekhonin and A. Golovin participated in the work. M. Vrubel was particularly interested in ceramics. The workshop specialized in making panels for interior and exterior decoration, majolica sculptures. It produced tiles for facing stoves and fire-places. In making these tiles the Abramtsevo craftsmen used patterns of seventeenth and eighteenth century tiles. Since the late nineteenth century was characterized by widespread attempts to combine the principles of old Russian and of contemporary art, here, too, new themes and motifs were introduced into traditional forms and ornaments.
The Museum displays two fire-places made in the Abramtsevo workshop. One of them presents a flat surface faced with tiles of identical size and adorned with relief climber plants in pale, subdued colours. The second one reminds us of a complicated architectural composition, three and a half metres high. It is notable for its symmetry and bright colours. The composition of rhythmically repeated images seems to be broken by the unusual form, colour and fantastic ornament of the tiles. This makes the whole composition very dynamic. The excellent qualities of Abramtsevo majolica, both artistic and technical, attracted everyone's attention and put the workshop in line with the best Russian ceramic factories. Tiled stoves have vanished - modern heating systems have made them unnecessary, but the art of Russian tiles remains vital and enchanting to us. Absorbing all that was best in the contributions of foreign masters, drawing on what was near and dear to it, the art of Russian tile-making at all times remained deeply original, thanks to the artistic traditions and tastes, technical skills and achievements of folk craftsmen.
Notes:
Glaze - translucent vitreous coating, preserving natural colour of a tile.
Tsenina - seventeenth century term for enamel-coated pottery.
Enamel - opaque vitreous composition providing coloured coating to the tile, also smoothing its surface.
Author - I. I. Sergeyenko
На 1 полосе обложки:
Изразец печной расписной. Конец XVIII века
На 4 полосе обложки:
Керамическое панно из дома Кузнецова в Москве. Конец XIX века
On the front cover:
Painted stove tile. The late eighteenth century
On the back cover:
Ceramic panel from the Kuznetsov home In Moscow. The late nineteenth century
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