CRAFT ARTEFACTS AND THE SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE INHABITANTS OF ANTIQUE ISTRIA

Umjetnički obrt obuhvaća niz djelatnosti umjetnika i obrtnika, izvođača umjetničkih zamisli, kreacija predložaka, koje su činile ali i duhovno obogaćivale svakodnevnicu pojedinca ili zajednice. Razina životne i duhovne stvarnosti ovisila je o gospodarskoj i socijalnoj razini naručitelja kao i o njegovom ukusu i obrazovanju, ali i o sposobnosti kreatora i izvođača djela. U Istri, kao području života članova carskih i senatorskih obitelji, te hijerarhijski brojnih službenika, svećenika i vojnika, naručivala su se i kupovala kvalitetno izrađena umjetnička djela kao i uporabni predmeti svakodnevnog života. Keramički proizvodi s minucioznim detaljima, srebrni i zlatni nakit, posebno geme, gravirane narukvice, izrađevine su serijskog obrta u kojima se ogleda i umjetnička crta. Značajni su mozaički podni i zidni detalji od kojih se svakako izdvaja tegula vermicula s likom Dioniza iz rimske vile u Verigama na Brijunima i kompozicija “Kažnjavanje Dirke” iz urbane vile u Puli kao i fresko dekoracije rimskih prostora. Kamene skulpture Antonije Minor i Agripine Minor iz Pule visoke su umjetničke i spomeničke vrijednosti. Sve ove grupe uporabnih predmeta i rimskih spomenika većim su dijelom otkrivene u nekropolama (Pula, Medulin, Nezakcij, Savudrija, Sv. Ivan Kornetski i dr.), a pojedinačni nalazi kamene i mozaičke antičke baštine potjeću iz Poreča, Pule, Nezakcija i Plomina.craft is a skill involving a number of activities of artists and craftsmen, executors of artistic ideas and creators of templates that shape, as well as spiritually enrich, the everyday life of individuals or a community. The level of material and spiritual reality in antique Istria depended not only on the economic and social level of the client and on his taste and education, but also on the ability of the creator and executor of the work. In Istria, where members of imperial and senatorial families as well as numerous officials, priests, and soldiers lived, high-quality works of art, as well as practical everyday artefacts, were commissioned and bought. Ceramic artefacts like cups of the Sarius-Surus type, terra nigra and terra sigillata with minute details, decorations and forms, even though mass produced in moulds by craftsmen, can be considered to be more sophisticated products than large quantities of mass-produced amphorae or similar receptacles. Glass bottles, cups and plates imported from the West and East were also mass produced, but given the thickness of the glass, transparency, colour, form, and decoration, they are more sophisticated than numerous lacrimarii and other practical everyday vessels. This is why multicoloured pyxides and “millefiori” type bowls capture our attention with their unique execution and beauty. Jewellery, particularly gemstones, although made using a matrix for mass production in the workshops of Aquileia, are certainly works of art given that they were individually processed. In other words, the semiprecious stone, carneol, or more rarely amethyst, was engraved by hand. The same is true for amber and jet jewellery. Silver and gold jewellery and, in particular, engraved bracelets were mass produced by craftsmen, wherein artistic features can be noticed if they were individually made by a jeweller outside a typological series. Details of floor and wall mosaics are particularly significant. Tegula vermicula from the Roman villa in Verige Bay on one of the Brijuni Islands is especially distinguished as a unique example bearing the image of Dionysus. The composition “Punishment of Dirce” from an urban villa in Pula, a high-quality work of an antique mosaic maker, also has certain artistic qualities. Stone sculptures, especially portraits from the Republic era, and those of Antonia Minor and Agrippina Minor from Pula, members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and the portraits of a woman and a man of the Antoninian dynasty from Plomin, are not numerous in Istria, but certainly have high artistic value. Funerary stone monuments range from awkward stonemasonry executions to a high artistic level seen in the reliefs of the mausoleum in Pula. All these groups of practical items and Roman monuments have been recovered mainly from necropolises (Pula, Medulin, Nesactium, Savudrija, Sv. Ivan Kornetski, and others), while individual finds of the stone and mosaic antique heritage have been recovered in Poreč, Pula, Nesactium, and Plomin. Presenting and giving value to individual works of art of antique Pul