Belt Closures from the Balkan States, Asia, and North Africa
Exhibition
/
17 May 2015
-
15 Sep 2015
Published: 20.04.2015

Belts as functional adornments have a long tradition of representing the person´s status, believes and great craftsmanship of the makers. Not only exquisite embroidery as an early form of figurative drawing, but also intricate techniques as filigree and inlay were used for embellishment. Intensified exchange of knowledge and goods along trading routes as the silk road, gradually influenced the use of materials and the way of expression.
As do all articles of clothing, belts and their closures are governed by fashion. Not only do they keep skirts and trousers in the desired position and hold open garments closed, but also they can express wealth, social status, and regional origin. Many belts and belt closures additionally serve as jewelry. A further aspect is much more difficult for the observer to interpret – their magical or symbolic meaning.
The exhibition displays around 150 examples from 30 countries belonging to an extensive private collection. The exhibition pieces demonstrate an immense diversity of design elements such as elaborate ornamental patterns, landscape views, botanical motifs, and human forms. Here, a wide spectrum of different techniques, design inceptions, motifs, and artistic details is represented. Originally, belts were made of natural materials such as leather, hair, wool/cotton, or silk. Later, precious metals were also utilized, primarily in the crafting of closures. The actual fasteners were hooks and eyes or hinges held closed with a pivot and were often covered with decorative plates.
One of the origins of the art of the goldsmith can be traced to the Near East. The ornamentation is a combination of the ancient oriental legacy and the motifs from the three religions stemming from Abraham – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Many symbols were common to all three. Among these is the hexagram, which in many places, beginning in the 20th Century and spreading from Europe, was often understood as a secular symbol of the Zionist Movement. In the Arabian Caliphates and in the Ottoman Empire it was primarily the Jewish masters, the Christian Armenians, and the Muslim Caucasians who developed the art of the goldsmith to the golden age that we still admire in jewelry collections today.
Jewish works are brilliant in their perfect execution of filigree work and granulation, while the Caucasian and Central Asiatic goldsmiths often utilized niello, an inlay of a blue-black mass on a silver base, to give their works their characteristic ornamentation.
The intermingling of the peoples of the Ottoman Empire is also reflected in their jewelry culture. Thus we find similar belt closures in Macedonia, Bulgaria, Asia Minor, Syria, and the Caucasus. Among these, special mention is merited by the large-sized closures of the Kurdish men’s traditional costume which remind us that earlier, the belts worn by both sexes had this type of closure.
As in the Balkan countries, in the rural areas of Northwest Africa people also originally used belts made of wool. In the Aurès Mountains, from which came most of the examples shown here, silver belts were not found in wider distribution until the middle of the 20th Century. In Central Asia, as in the Mediterranean area, it was primarily the urban upper class people who wore metal belts or richly decorated leather belts.
Through the trade routes such as the Silk Road, the Far and Near East were always connected to each other by reciprocal influences. The result is a map of cultural regions without distinct borders that are to be understood only as sections of a continuum: India, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan.
At the hub lies Tibet which is represented in this exhibition above all by several beautifully ornamented tinder pouches and coin purses. They remind us that the belt often played and still plays an important function as a carrier. The further distant an area is from the Islamic region, the more frequently do figural representations appear. In India and Southeast Asia, these are mythological, Hindu, or Buddhist motifs, while in China, the addition of artistically fashioned botanical and zoological motifs are notable.
A special characteristic is exhibited by the belts and closures from Japan in their material as well as in their ornamental technique. Here, the formal side is decorated with several closures made of Satsuma porcelain.-2016-2016
The exhibition displays around 150 examples from 30 countries belonging to an extensive private collection. The exhibition pieces demonstrate an immense diversity of design elements such as elaborate ornamental patterns, landscape views, botanical motifs, and human forms. Here, a wide spectrum of different techniques, design inceptions, motifs, and artistic details is represented. Originally, belts were made of natural materials such as leather, hair, wool/cotton, or silk. Later, precious metals were also utilized, primarily in the crafting of closures. The actual fasteners were hooks and eyes or hinges held closed with a pivot and were often covered with decorative plates.
One of the origins of the art of the goldsmith can be traced to the Near East. The ornamentation is a combination of the ancient oriental legacy and the motifs from the three religions stemming from Abraham – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Many symbols were common to all three. Among these is the hexagram, which in many places, beginning in the 20th Century and spreading from Europe, was often understood as a secular symbol of the Zionist Movement. In the Arabian Caliphates and in the Ottoman Empire it was primarily the Jewish masters, the Christian Armenians, and the Muslim Caucasians who developed the art of the goldsmith to the golden age that we still admire in jewelry collections today.
Jewish works are brilliant in their perfect execution of filigree work and granulation, while the Caucasian and Central Asiatic goldsmiths often utilized niello, an inlay of a blue-black mass on a silver base, to give their works their characteristic ornamentation.
The intermingling of the peoples of the Ottoman Empire is also reflected in their jewelry culture. Thus we find similar belt closures in Macedonia, Bulgaria, Asia Minor, Syria, and the Caucasus. Among these, special mention is merited by the large-sized closures of the Kurdish men’s traditional costume which remind us that earlier, the belts worn by both sexes had this type of closure.
As in the Balkan countries, in the rural areas of Northwest Africa people also originally used belts made of wool. In the Aurès Mountains, from which came most of the examples shown here, silver belts were not found in wider distribution until the middle of the 20th Century. In Central Asia, as in the Mediterranean area, it was primarily the urban upper class people who wore metal belts or richly decorated leather belts.
Through the trade routes such as the Silk Road, the Far and Near East were always connected to each other by reciprocal influences. The result is a map of cultural regions without distinct borders that are to be understood only as sections of a continuum: India, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan.
At the hub lies Tibet which is represented in this exhibition above all by several beautifully ornamented tinder pouches and coin purses. They remind us that the belt often played and still plays an important function as a carrier. The further distant an area is from the Islamic region, the more frequently do figural representations appear. In India and Southeast Asia, these are mythological, Hindu, or Buddhist motifs, while in China, the addition of artistically fashioned botanical and zoological motifs are notable.
A special characteristic is exhibited by the belts and closures from Japan in their material as well as in their ornamental technique. Here, the formal side is decorated with several closures made of Satsuma porcelain.-2016-2016
Buckle: Untitled, 1920-1940, Buchara, Usbekistan
Silver, niello, enamel
Photo by: Alexander Zickendraht
Part of: Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Buckle: Apsaras, threepart, 1920-1940, Burma
Silver.
Photo by: Alexander Zickendraht
Part of: Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Buckle: Untitled, around 1940, China
Jade
Photo by: Alexander Zickendraht
Part of: Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Buckle: Unknown, Iran
Silver, filigree
Photo by: Alexander Zickendraht
Part of: Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Buckle: Untitled, early 1900s, Fuji, Japan
Brass inlay.
Photo by: Alexander Zickendraht
Part of: Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Belt: Untitled, 1904, Karbadin, Kaukasus
Goldplated silver, niello.
Photo by: Alexander Zickendraht
Part of: Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Clasp: Untitled, early 1900s, Ladakh?
Coin silver.
Photo by: Alexander Zickendraht
Part of: Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Belt: Embroidered Fabric Belt With Metal Clasp, Morocco, urban Jewish
Fabric, silverthread, metal, enamel
Photo by: Alexander Zickendraht
Part of: Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Buckle: Untitled, Marocco, Berber, Fekroun
Silver, filigree
Photo by: Alexander Zickendraht
Part of: Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
Buckle: Untitled, around 1900, Ottoman Empire or Kurdish
Silver, filigree
Photo by: Alexander Zickendraht
© By the author. Read Klimt02.net Copyright.
-
Con-tacto. Centro de Diseño, Cine y Televisión. Degree Show 2020
24May2021 - 21Jun2021
Centro de Diseño, Cine y Televisión
Mexico City, Mexico -
Simply Brilliant. Artist Jewelers of the 1960s and 1970s
27Mar2021 - 27Jun2021
Pforzheim Jewellery Museum
Pforzheim, Germany -
Masterpieces in Miniature. Treasures from the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection
05Mar2021 - 15Aug2021
DIVA. Antwerp Home of Diamonds
Antwerp, Belgium -
Invisible Thread
01Feb2021 - 27Feb2021
Bayerischer Kunstgewerbeverein
Munich, Germany -
Preziosa Young 2020 in Barcelona
13Jan2021 - 03Feb2021
Hannah Gallery
Barcelona, Spain -
Like Silk
12Jan2021 - 12Feb2021
EASD València
Valencia, Spain -
HomeWork by Melanie Bilenker
08Jan2021 - 11Feb2021
Sienna Patti
Lenox, United States -
Fables for the Times. Presentation of Artist in Residence Program Revive in Ten
25Dec2020 - 05Jan2021
MEI-BO Art Museum
Shanghai, China -
Schmuckmelange. Die KunstModeDesign Herbststrasse. Degree Show 2020
21Dec2020 - 31Dec2020
Die KunstModeDesign Herbststrasse. Evening College JewelleryDesign
Vienna, Austria -
The Palace of Shattered Vessels: Light Catchers
19Dec2020 - 31Mar2021
FROOTS & Nogart
Shanghai, China -
See the Big from the Small
19Dec2020 - 03Jan2021
The Closer Gallery
Beijing, China -
Absolutely Abstract
17Dec2020 - 09Jan2021
Lee Eugean Gallery
Seoul, South Korea -
Breath/Nefes
15Dec2020 - 31Dec2020
Jewelry Links
Istanbul, Turkey -
WARP Tokyo-Barcelona
14Dec2020 - 20Dec2020
AC,Gallery
Tokyo, Japan -
Elixir by Petra Class
12Dec2020 - 31Dec2020
Jewelers' Werk Galerie
Washington, United States