Czecho-Slovak Student Life/Volume 18/Number 5/Touring Through Slovakia

by J. M. (fl. 1928)

Touring Through Slovakia.

To the Editor:—

In Bratislava we were taken to see the carpet-weaving, which is carried on for the purpose of maintaining home industries in Slovak villages. The women and girls (many of them widows) are taught to weave, and then paid by the piece until they are experienced enough to work independently. Two of the carpets on the looms were an order for the big hotel at Štrbské Pleso. The weavers looked very happy at their work, and, with the brilliant carpets, and the gay wools being sorted, or lying in heaps, they made a picture full of life and color. The designs were all genuinely Slovak in character. The society which organizes the work is known as the S. U. P. (“Society of Art Industries”). It was formed in 1920 to encourage and help to sell all kinds of Slovak art products. The oldest society with similar aims was started in 1895, and is now known as the “Detva”, under the direction of the well-known architect, Mr. Dusan Jurkovic. Six thousand people all over Slovakia work for this society.

Not only have beautiful embroideries always been designed and executed by the simple Slovak peasants, but every kind of craft necessary for the home has been carried on by them. Slovak art is based on the natural longing to beautify the home. Pottery, wood-carving, painted furniture and paintings on the walls of the houses, inside and out, have all been the means of expressing the love of beauty in form and color; and everything they do shows a true artistic sense and individual character. Gay little jugs and plates, decorated with tulips, cocks and every variety of flower and fruit and bird, make a brave show on every cottage wall, where they stand in rows on little hanging shelves.

The bed-coverings are beautifully embroidered, and the pillows are often tied up with bright colored ribbons, while the wooden bedsteads and cupboards are carved, and decorated with colored design.

This has all been done just for the love of beauty, and not as a means of livelihood. Now, however, with changing times, there is danger that the home crafts will fall into disuse, and that the products of the factory will gradually take their place, so the peasants are being encouraged to continue their handicrafts, and helped to find a ready market for them.

Much of the art which originated in Slovakia was called “Hungarian” when the Magyars controlled the destinies of the Slovaks. In the galleries of Vienna and Budapest both pictures and embroideries were often labelled “Hungarian”, when they were really the work of Slovak artists.

The decorated eggs, known as “kraslice”, meaning “to beautify”, are quite unlike anything that is to be seen elsewhere. They are painted in rich colors with the most delicate and beautiful conventional designs. No copy is used, but the village girl follows a natural and spontaneous instinct, and with a steady hand and a true eye guides her brush over the rounded surfaces. It is the custom to give these away as Easter eggs.
Slovak folk-pottery with decorative painting.
Sewn lace on table in Bratislava. (Folk art in Slovakia.) Yet another society for encouraging Slovak embroidery is known as the “Lipa” (basswood tree), and has its headquarters at Turčanský Svatý Martin. This small town has long been the centre of Slovak national culture, having been chosen for the seat of the Slovenská Matice, or “Slovak Treasury”, a society for encouraging the national language, art, culture and industry, endangered by Magyar rule.
Slovak folk-ceramics is a rich and characteristic branch.
A good example of Slovak wooden toys. A fine collection of national art treasures and memorials of every kind was made and housed here, and annual “Chronicles” were published. But the Magyars were alarmed at such success: hence they dissolved the society, confiscated its buildings, and also the property amounting to 200,000 crowns, and removed much of the valuable collection to Budapest. The rest, without a proper home, was left to moths and mice. This was in 1875. In 1896 a new Slovak Museum was opened and an incorporated company formed, so that the Magyars could not touch it. Miss J. M.