Una sirena di buxom si distende sopra una finestra accanto a un mostro di mare scottante con una coda a forcella e una lingua a freccia in accattivante arte sgraffito rustico su una casa di famiglia tradizionale restaurata in Ardez, Graubünden o Grigioni cantone, Svizzera orientale. Draghi, sirene e creature marine si trovano in molte abitazioni della zona restaurate da artisti locali sgraffiti all'inizio del 1900.
4256 x 2832 px | 36 x 24 cm | 14,2 x 9,4 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
21 luglio 2007
Ubicazione:
Ardez, Graubünden or Grisons canton, eastern Switzerland
Altre informazioni:
Questa immagine potrebbe avere delle imperfezioni perché è storica o di reportage.
Ardez, Graubünden or Grisons canton, eastern Switzerland: a scaly sea monster with an arrowhead tongue and a forked tail shares the top of a window surround with a buxom mermaid, on the restored facade of Haus Aual 131, one of the ancient dwellings in the village decorated with imaginative sgraffito designs. Elsewhere on the facade, a carefree mermaid grasps her twin tails in both hands while girlish supporters blow horns or pipes, one of them standing beside an inscription in Romansh, a legacy language of the ancient Roman Empire still spoken by many local people. Ardez, in the Lower Engadine Valley, is an historic village renowned for its carefully restored 16th and 17th century houses decorated with heraldic symbols, Romansh inscriptions and wall art. While some designs are painted, others are sgraffito, the ancient artistic technique of scratching or cutting away parts of a surface layer of plaster, stucco or paint to expose a different colour or texture. Its heyday in Graubünden was in the 1600s and 1700s, but the craft was revived in the early 1900s amid fresh appreciation of regional artistic styles. In the Lower Engadine, Iachen Ulrich Könz restored many sgraffito facades in his home village, Guarda. His sons switched away from traditional designs, enriching more than 100 historic facades, including some in Ardez, with dragons, fish or mermaids. They also added decorative sgraffito to modern buildings and today, Graubünden artists and craftsmen use sgraffito both in restoration work and in new build projects. D1186.B4162
