Blue color traditions in Polish wooden architecture – valuable cultural heritage and a source of inspiration
Autor
Tarajko-Kowalska, Justyna
Opublikowane w
Cultura e Scienza del Colore - Color Culture and Science Journal
Numeracja
10
Strony
49-57
Data wydania
2018
Wydawca
Gruppo del Colore – Associazione Italiana Colore
Język
angielski
ISSN
2384-9568
DOI
10.23738/ccsj.i102018.00
Słowa kluczowe
Blue color, blue pigments, color in architecture, color traditions, color symbolic, façade color, color in the built environment
Abstrakt
In the paper author discuss use of the blue color in the traditional Polish wooden architecture, considering its symbolic, functional and decorative aspects. The main objective of the article is to present rich tradition of the use of blue, prevalent in rural homestead façades colorization, where this hue was common since the second half of the 19th century. Another important goal of the paper is to define and specify these factors, which influenced such popularity of the blue color in wooden architecture, along with the description of the pigments used to obtain diverse azure tones of paints as: vivianite, azurite and synthetic ultramarine. Apart from its aesthetical value, blue color in Poland had also utilitarian functions and symbolical ones, just like tokens and magic symbols, involving the protection of inhabitants from evil, as well as connotations in Catholic religion between blue hue and Virgin Mary or Archangel Michael, as well as the Heaven itself. Such widespread use of blue in common housing is uncommon in the world, where this hue was - only with some minor exceptions - considered “expensive” and thus it was used to paint the external walls extremely rare. So there is no doubt, that this blue color tradition in regional wooden architecture should be treated not only as interesting feature of past, but as valuable element of cultural heritage and a source of inspiration for contemporary architecture.
