ARTISTIC AND TECHNICAL ANALYSIS OF SOME TYPES OF THE GAZAKH BORCHALY CARPET

Abstract

Abstract. The article is devoted to the study of four pile carpets Borchaly stored in the collection of the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum. The purpose of the study is to identify, through applying design and technical analysis, the main typological features of some types of the Borchaly carpet classified among the Ganja-Gazakh type of Azerbaijani carpet. 

The main attention of the design analysis is paid to the shape and structure of the medallion and its elementary unit as the most informative and significant part for the attribution of these carpets. 

The study has revealed the use of related medallions of vertical and cruciform shapes. It was discovered that the main ornamental forms forming the medallion, as well as the secondary motifs filling in the field of the carpet, are common to the variants of the Borchaly carpet we studied. Additionally, in the formation of framing medallions, the application of the principle of “no-background organization of pictorial forms” was stated. The study obtained information about a number of characteristic features that make up the typological feature of medallions. A hypothesis has been put forward that the vertical component of the medallion is an important stable feature of the medallions, indicating their archaic nature in comparison with the cruciform medallions of the carpet. It has been established that the coloring of these carpets is made up of a limited number of colors, where red, white and blue (and its shades) are dominant.

The technical analysis of the carpets showed that, in general, their structure corresponds to the characteristics of standard Gazakh carpets.