Pasaulio medis Lietuvos tautiškų skrynių puošyboje

LT1. Ornamentuose ant Lietuvos tautiškų skrynių įkūnytas sunkiai išreiškiamas dalykas — visuminis pasaulio vaizdas nuolatinių atsinaujinimų ir amžinybės tėkmėje. Tai pasiekta labai paprastomis priemonėmis, jungiant simbolius, kurie žymi įvairias gyvybės jėgas. Todėl pats būdamas simboliu, Pasaulio medis yra ir įvairių simbolių kosmosas, mirguliuojantis prasmėmis bei formomis. 2. Išorinė Pasaulio medžio manifestacija Lietuvos kraitinių skrynių puošyboje neapsiriboja klasikine Pasaulio medžio išraiška. Pasaulio medžio simboliai įvairuoja nuo konkrečių iki abstrakčių formų. Konkrečioms formoms priklauso ne tik lelijos motyvas, bet ir jos submotyvas - lelijos žiedas bei mišrūs hibridiniai, su augalu susiję žmogaus, paukščio, žalčio, saulių ir žvaigždžių pavidalai. Abstrakčios Pasaulio medžio figūros - tai geometriniai ir sugeometrinti augalo motyvai - stulpo konfigūracijos, įvairius smulkesnius komponentus (rombą, trikampį, stogelį, išgaubtą apvalią formą ir kt.). Šie komponentai kiekvienas atskirai simbolizuoja pasaulio bambą - kosmoso centrą ir visa ko pradžią, slepia chtoniškas, o podraug ir dangiškas prasmes. 3. Vidinė Pasaulio medžio manifestacija grindžiama esmingomis jungimo, dengimo, spiralinės atverties ypatybėmis. Tai pastovioji gyvybės gija, amžinas kosmoso pulsas. Be skirtingų kosmoso sferų ritmiškos sąveikos Pasaulio medis nebūtų tuo, kuo yra - patvaria kosmine tvarka. 4. Šiuo straipsniu betgi nenorėta įrodyti, kad Pasaulio medžio samprata gyvavo XIX-XX a. pradžioje, laikotarpiu, kai buvo nupiešti aptarti ornamentai. Kokį pasaulį matė ano meto valstietis - atskira įdomi tema. Nagrinėtuose ornamentuose nelyginant vabzdys gintare užsikonservavo ir išliko žymiai senesnis simbolių klodas, savo šaknimis siekiantis baltiškąją senovę. [p. 89].

ENThe idea of a world-tree in the ornamentation of folk chests in Lithuania in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century is expressed both in concrete and abstract forms. Fantastic, incompletely articulated shapes belong to concrete forms. As in Picture 1, two crossed and symmetricaly bent sidewards grass-snakes make an oblong loop in the centre, whereas their bifurcated tails rise up bending in the form of a heart. Because of green colour of the four supporting sprouts, light and floating rhythm, as well as symmetry, the knot of grass-snakes resembles a plant. So we can say that they are not only grass-snakes, but a fantastic plant expressed by grass-snakes. There is quite a lot of such plant motifs with grass-snake shaped branches. You may call it just a grass-snake plant, because both these forms join, melt, merge one into another. It is interesting that grass-snakelike can be not only a whole plant, but its blossom as welt - a lily. This comes from the structure of a lily ornament. The blossom of a lily in the ornamentation of dowry chests is usually three-leaved. If we try to draw it we’ll notice that the hand is drawing two S lines turned to the opposite sides, joined below and turned off above (Picture 6). The possibility to separate the silhouette of a lidy in such a way is based on various folk ornaments. The grass-snake in the emotional attitude of past generations was symbolizing vegetation; that’s why to join grass-snake forms with plant motifs was quite natural.plant motifs was quite natural. In folk art, the motifs of a grass-snake-bird are found, too. They are characteristic ornamentations of towel racks and shutters. Especially frequent in the ornaments of folk chests is a plant with little star and sun-shaped blossoms: flower-stars, flower-suns. Sometimes the plant seems to grow out of the star. A man-plant combination is met, too: a very schematic silhouette of a man whose arms and logs end in spiral flourish-like branches of a plant around him. The plant is forming from the phallic place of the figure. That is how wishes to the hride to have children are expressed. In all these ornaments, one of more important inner characteristics ls a combination of different forces. The world-tree uniting three zones of the universe is a junction - the place where contrary spheres °f the cosmos unite. This tree is alive with respect to the whole as well as to every component part. By joining several spheres of the cosmos, the union of various forms of life is expressed. The abstract variants of the world-tree in ornamentation of Lithuanian folk chests are the original column-like or fir-shaped figures which are most often placed in the centre of the chest. Sometimes they are studded with spots, covered by a net, with accented upper and lower parts. These motifs resemble the ornaments found in Lithuanian archeological bronze ornaments. Separate components in the abstract figures of the world-tree, such as a rhomb, triangle, little roof, convex round forms and so on, are polysemantic. They symbolize the world’s navel - the centre of the cosmos and the beginning of everything, they conceal chthonic as well as heavenly meanings.