About our school and country
Project Description
Brief presentation of project activity
Spring related Customs
Summer related Customs
Autumn related Customs
Winter related Customs
Other Customs
Music of Customs
Traditional Food and Drinks
Arts and Crafts
Students involved in the project
Main Page of the project
Peasant Quilt
Cottage Cheese Molds
Young Women
Peasant Home Interior
Arts and Crafts
 
The unique characteristics of the Vranceanian folk art creation steam from this very historical continuity on this land, since ancient times, of a people that have never migrated to other places. A characteristic is the "prispa" (verandah), either in just the front of the house, on one side and sometimes two sides. The raw materials available in the in the countryside were clay, stone and wood.

The diversity of folk architecture as an art stems on the one hand, from the wide range of raw materials available in one area or another and, on the other hand, from the local tradition in house building. The raw materials available in the countryside were clay, stone and wood. While clay continues to be an important building material in our day, the adobe (chirpici, pronounced "kirpich"-in Romanian -sun-dried bricks of clay mixed with straw).

Last but not least, the Vranceanian peasant home interiors are remarkably beautiful, whether of carved wood (the pillars of the verandah, the tower, the gates and the archways) or in imitation of stucco. The stylized representations of the Tree of Life of rosettes as symbols of the Sun, of horses and human faces, are all examples of the prevailing geometrical patterns.

The Vranceanian wooden churches show the same qualities in point of architecture: the elegant lines, the admirable proportions of volumes, the magnificent interiors, beautifully carved and painted. The peasant home interior design serves an undeniably aesthetic purpose in any typically Vranceanian ethnographic area. It observes long-established rules, handed down from generation to generation for centuries. Hearts, ovens and stoves are extremely important in any peasant household. The stoves and the ovens are often ornamented with multi-colored enameled tiles, which display not only the geometrical motifs, but also peasant adaptations of decorative patterns of the Renaissance and the Baroque fireplaces.

The tools and kitchen utensils, a must in the villagers' everyday life and work, also have an aesthetic value in their home interiors: spoons of various size, milking buckets, cottage cheese molds, spindles, reels, weaving looms; the musical instruments. The fourth and largest category includes the agricultural tools and the wooden containers for food. 

The art of pottery still holds a place apart in the peasants. Vranceanian ceramics boats a brilliant ancient tradition dating as back as the Neolithic era and continuing with the black and red earthenware of the Dacian period, the Greek and Roman style, the Byzantine luxurious designs of the Middle Ages and finally, the influence of Asia Minor.

Painting has generally developed to a smaller degree. The portraits of Saints and the Biblical scenes one would normally expect to see are often mingled with lay elements borrowed from the everyday country life and the local folklore. Of particular interest is their iconography, with its characteristic mixture of oriental and Western motifs. If the early icons were painted with the brush, the cartoon was later, especially during the 19th century, discarded, which accounts for the frequent and inscriptions reversals. 

Costumes make up one of the most diverse and complex folk arts in Vrancea County, as they are not just one single artistic "genre", but a combination of crafts. They display a wide set of raw materials, patterns and techniques: flaxen, hemp, raw silk, cotton and woolen woven materials, embroideries, sheepskin vests and coats decorated with leather appliques or wool and silk embroideries etc.

Metal was used to inlay various wooden art facts such as pipes, bagpipes, knives, and axes. Masks worn on certain holy days; they may be of wood, leather, fabrics, horns, seeds, etc, or a combination of objects and materials. The vigil masks of the Vrancea Land are quite famous.
 

Elena Velicu