Embroidery, as an art form, originated in ancient times and was passed down from generation to generation. The antiquity of embroidery in Ukraine is evidenced by archaeological finds dating back to the Paleolithic era, for example, in Mizyn in the Chernihiv region. During excavations of burials dating back to the first centuries of our era, archaeologists found woolen clothing (or rather, its remains) decorated with colorful embroidery.
It has not been possible to determine when embroidery appeared in Ukraine. However, it has been established that the materials used to create embroidery were leather, fabric, silk, and felt. The oldest examples of local embroidery are kept in European museums, and they date back to the 5th century. As for Ukrainian embroidery, it has been preserved only in the last few centuries, and is best represented only in the 19th century. Embroidery was done with threads - silk, wool, linen, precious stones, and pearls were used.
Embroidery has been known since the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, from the tribes of the Trypillian culture. Elements of embroidery and its ornaments, which were used by the Sarmatians, Trypillians, and Scythians, can be found in modern embroidery by folk craftsmen.
The oldest finds of fine art date back to the 6th century, they were found near the village of Martynivka in the Cherkasy region. Among these finds are statuettes depicting ancient villagers. The male figures were dressed in wide long shirts, with patterned embroidery at chest level. This is the kind of clothing that almost all Ukrainian peasants wore a hundred years ago. Plates were also found on which images of warriors were engraved. Similar ones were also found in the Balkans, archaeologists believe that they were brought there by Slavs from the Dnieper region. These images are very accurate and detailed, the smallest details can be seen on the warriors' clothes, even the embroidery ornament.
As most travelers testified, the Slavs of Kyivan Rus wore embroidered clothes even after the 10th century. as well. Confirmation of this can be seen in the Ipatiev Chronicle of 1252, which describes the clothes of Danylo Halytsky - he was dressed in a lace-trimmed zhupan at one of the important ceremonial meetings. Masters, as they knew how to do embroidery, were respected among the inhabitants. In the 11th century. the first embroidery school operated, organized by the sister of Volodymyr Monomakh, Hanka. Girls at the school learned to embroider with silver and gold. Foreign travelers who traveled in the 16th-19th centuries mention our vyshyvanka. Embroidered clothes created during the Cossack times, the 17th-18th centuries, are preserved. Among the centers of the art of vyshyvanka are Kachanivka in Chernihiv region, Hryhorivka in Kyiv region, Velika Burimka in Cherkasy region and many others. It can be seen that pagan ornaments and symbolism have been preserved to this day on icons of the 15th century and later.
In Cherkasy region, silver plaques with engraved figures of men, dating from the 5th century, were found. A detailed study established the identity of the clothing and embroidery made on the Ukrainian folk costume of the 18th-19th centuries.
The Scythian festive costume was very generously decorated with ornaments made of gold stripes, which depicted griffins, lions, deer. The costumes also had an appliqué made of pieces of colored leather, decorated with decorative seams. Along the edges of the collar, on the hem, on the sleeves and in the middle of the back of the product there was a pattern of stripes laid out in a geometric ornament. The craftsmen did not bypass the men's trousers, which were also beautifully decorated. Ornaments in the form of circles, curls, rhombuses, spirals and zigzags. In the Gaymanov Mound (IV century) a bowl was found on which the clothes of the Scythian kings were decorated with ornaments made of double spirals. The lampas on these trousers resembled waves with their double stripes. Excavations of the Tovsta Mogul mound made it possible to reconstruct the clothes, where the sleeves and collar were decorated with gold stripes, on which a griffin and a lion tear a doe apart.
The fact that the level of embroidery was very high is also evidenced by the clothing of the Sarmatians. It shows the stratification of the population from a socio-economic point of view. The clothing of rich women was luxurious, decorated with gold embroidery, while the clothing of poor women was modest and decorated with beads. Interesting finds of women's Sarmatian clothing were discovered by archaeologists in the burials of the Svatova Luchka mound, Luhansk region. The clothing from there was magnificently decorated with embroidery, small beads, and beads. The excavations of Sokolova Mohyla generally became a sensation: the burial was one of the few that did not have time to be robbed, and in it they found the clothes of a rich Sarmatian woman, or rather its remains, with gold embroidery on silk fabric, which had a lush purple color. The burial is located in the village of Kovalivtsi, Mykolaiv region.
This embroidery dates back to the 1st century AD, it can be considered the oldest known. The reconstruction of the composition indicates that along with ornamental embroidery, there were plot images. They decorated the clothes of the priestess, who probably performed ritual rites, most likely in relation to the cult of fertility. The technique of performing the embroidery is gold embroidery "in attachment". A pattern was noted, according to which gold threads were laid out, attached to the fabric, apparently with a yellow thread, which has not survived over time. Each element of the drawing, pattern was outlined with a gold outline, which gave the embroidery extraordinary expressiveness, in addition, the drawing itself was drawn in great detail.
It is interesting that the technique of “in attachment” used on the clothes of a priestess found in Sokolova Mohyla became known in Byzantium and Kievan Rus only in the 12th century. The burial of a rich Sarmatian woman revealed a previously unknown technique in embroidery – spun gold. According to this technique, silk thread was wrapped around a narrow ribbon of pure gold, the thread was wound very tightly in turns, which created the impression of a solid gold thread. In general, the embroidery found in Sokolova Mohyla is a very valuable source for a detailed and in-depth study of ancient gold embroidery. It shows the high professional level of the masters, who had a highly developed sense of ornament and who had perfect artistic and figurative skills in expressing their vision of the world. The level of craftsmanship of the clothes found with embroidery shows that embroidery had gone through a fairly long and high-quality path of development before it.
Sadly, World War II had consequences, and fatal ones, for various works of art. The invaders, both fascist-Nazi and Bolshevik, did not hesitate to take exhibits out of museums and private collections, both during the attack and during the retreat. If they did not have time or did not have the opportunity to take them out, they burned them, shot them, blew them up. Embroidery was not spared either - many copies were lost and destroyed.
However, after the war, two years later, the first State Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts was founded in Lviv. This was the first step towards the restoration and revival of this amazing art.
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