Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/287

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 in-