Charm of Tbilisi Tbilisis xibli

and lobbies. Mosaic ornaments of the floors were competing
with the painted plafonds. Decorative stair po sts
and banisters were in concordance with wall painting
and molded decoration. Cornices and stained glass were
in full harmony with mural and stair flight painting.
Both the landlords and the artists were involved in the
creation of an imaginary world. They chose the trompe
d`oeil technique – method of creation of an optical illusion.
Thanks to this, walls were decorated with old easel
painting and frame imitations coupled with simulations of
antique sculptures located in the niches beyond the stair
posts and on the deep background of Mediterranean
landscapes, while the plafond surfaces were covered
with the images of birds and cupids in heaven.
Oil or tempera painting was mainly made on canvas –
more rarely, on plaster. For relatively simple ornaments,
that were to be repeated throughout building or its entrance,
craftsmen used stencils. In some cases wallpaper
with drawing outlines would be used, it would be
coloured later.
Eclecticism, so characteristic for the epoch in question,
its interesting blend of different motifs and artistic styles
the range of which varies from pseudo-classicistic to oriental
was common for Tbilisi as well – love of expressive
colors, boundless imagination, coexistence of different
forms and shapes and their sensational integration...
Those interiors are the substantial components of microcosm
of Tbilisi, where different cultures and nationalities,
the old and the new, the East and the West are in
surprising coexistence. Along with several cosmopolitan
motives and decorations, local themes emerge - marvelous
views of the Great Caucasus, Aragvi Go rge and
scenes from the epic poem “Vepkhistkhaosani” (The
Knight in the Panther`s Skin).
Both the clients and the executors of the decoration and
paintings were people of different nationalities. Fortunately,
signatures of some of the entrance hall and interior
artists have survived to this day: B. Telingater; De
Marzo; J. Poznan; R. Kärger are among them.
Some local artists – Gigo Zaziashvili, Ivane Vepkhvadze
and others worked side by side with foreigners. Perhaps,
Niko Pirosmanashvili himself, who used to be a skillful
mural painter, had made sketches for some of the entrance
hall embellishments.
The bourgeois taste and fashion was almost totally altered
on the turn of XIX –XX cc. Art Noveau that had
originated in Europe in the closing decades of the XIX
c, became absolutely dominant in almost all branches of
Fine Art and architecture. Moreover, Art Nouveau style
penetrated all spheres of everyday life – furniture, crockery
and tableware, clothes, accessories, even hairdressing
and fashion, were under the influence of this trend.
The Art Nouveau style reached Tbilisi in early XX c. Dynamic
and light floristic motifs freely and readily encircling
the whole of the building interiors, where the paintings
were unrestrictedly floating from ceiling to walls, from the
forged ornamentation of the entrance door to the decorated
stair posts and balusters. The interiors themselves
became more illuminated and simpler in adornment –
their style became more uniform. Several new patterns
are easily noticeable in the interior decorations of those
times. Sometimes the Art Nouveau style is mixed with
Art-Deco and empire motives coupled with some realistic
landscapes, however all the elements perfectly fit the
whole context of the entrance hall adornment.
Following the establishment of the Bolshevik regime in
1921 the relatively short tradition of adornment of the entrance
halls ceased. Ideology of the new state of the proletariat
was merciless in razing everything related with
bourgeoisie, including the painted entrance halls. The
former owners of these mansions have lost their properties,
while new residents often were glad to destroy
everything what was regarded as out-of-date and useless
for the interests of proletariat. Mysteriously surviving
ninety years of total neglect, the entrance hall paintings
coupled with molded decorative elements are regarded
as romantic recollection of the times gone by. But they
are still helpful in imaginative revival of the period when
grand Tbilisi mansions shone with their gilded decoration
and mosaic ornament that were repeatedly reflecting
rays of light pouring inside from the lit streets, and
when the walls covered with paintings filling up the whole
interior with fragrance of the newly applied paint.