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the oldest mosaic found in Albania. Photo by Lowell Lander. National History Museum. Tirana. Albania
the oldest mosaic found in Albania. Photo by Lowell Lander. National History Museum. Tirana. Albania
Price: 141 USD
Size: 110 x 110 cm | 43 x 43 in
Collection: Gifts for Travel Lovers
Beauty of Durres
Hand rolled square scarf
100% Natural Silk Twill
Gift envelope with the story of the scaf is included
aesthetic praising beauty, she would be very happy with our work. We did on the computer what she would have done with cosmetics. Women of her time used cosmetics, dyed their hair, put on jewelry, and dresses to look young and beautiful.
Who was she back in her time? It was a time when Durres was called Epidamnos, when descendants of the founders of Epidamnos from Corinth and Corcyra were noted by Aristotle as the builders of this politically advanced society. Looks like they were building not only the society, but also the houses, decorating them with rich mosaics.
Was she a hetaera, as were all the models for the marble statues and painted bodies of the Greek goddesses? Greeks didn't pay much attention to the faces of the goddesses, concentrating mostly on the beauty of the body proportions. The Beauty of Durres, contrary to this canon, doesn't have much of a body, but her face dominates the whole mosaic and has very individual and sensual futures, with "erotic charm" and "self-restraint" matching the Greek canon in this part.
After we finished working on her face, we took care of her background. We restored every element of the spirals that look like silver bracelets, and few remaining flowers that suggested that there used to be a fantastic garden around her. Then we took pleasure and a challenge to fill the whole field of the scarf with the lilies, bellflowers, hyacinths, buds and petals that we have restored. When we finally created a field that looks good and made us feel good, we framed it with our border and retired, knowing that we gave new life to the oldest mosaic of Albania. The Beauty of Durrës, we believe, wouldn't mind that we transferred her from stone to silk. In her time it would be absolute luxury.
Natural Silk-twill square scarf Bukuroshja e Durrësit ( Beauty of Durres) is our biggest square scarf: 110x110 cm /43x43". It is actually a very elegant and rich shawl. Various shades of gray match with the silver glow of silk-twill and are brightened up with the touches of red and orange flowers. The beautiful sensual woman’s face we put only in one corner of the shawl leaving the rest of the field to the flowers. When you fold this square scarf into two triangles you get two different scarves: one has the face of the Beauty of Durres while another one has only flowers from her garden. So, you get two scarves in one, which we designed from the world famous and the oldest mosaic discovered in Albania. We conveyed the beauty of this ageless face to our scarf and here is her story.
The Beauty of Durres is 2400 years old. For her age she looks very well, especially if we consider that she spent most of her life buried deep in the soil. She was discovered 95 years ago, lost for another 10 years, then discovered again in 1947 and moved in 1982 from the place of her origin to the place of her residence, which is the National Historical Museum of Albania in Tirana .
For our purpose, which was to "lift" her from the museum floor and to "place" her on a silk scarf, she definitely needed some significant "make up". We took quite a few photos of her from every angle possible in the poor museum light. We put them together seamlessly and "filled" every missing pebble on her face. We cleaned a dark stain on her forehead, made her "skin" white, filled in the black stones contouring her eyes, fixed her hair and the decorative pins in it, put some "lipstick" on her curvy and slightly open lips, added some "gold" to her necklace, and "patches" on her dress. As a contemporary of Alexander the Great, Aristotle and Epicurius, with their
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