The contemporary Dagestan artist Patimat Guseinova is the creator of the “Sloy” project, which developed following archaeological excavations in Dagestan of the early Middle Ages period. The artist used specific archaeological finds and reproduced their image on canvases. The project aimed to explore the colors of the past and convey the grandeur of bygone eras.

The historical project “Sloy” includes 24 paintings, and “Pig-Pitcher” is one of them. Patimat Guseinova translates the aesthetics and meanings of ancient cultures through personal perception of materials and experiments with color and techniques. In this series of works the artist reveals the past layer by layer and explores it in the unity of the three components — form, material and decoration.

The pitcher used as the basis of the painting was found during excavations near the highland village of Khuri. The shapes of traditional Balkharan vessels for storing grain, water, irrigation and oil were refined over the centuries. Most often zoomorphic signs — images of animals — were used to decorate jugs. This was pagan symbolism, a tribute to various patron gods. The handles of pitchers could be in the shape of animals, but in the course of time, realistic figures gave way to stylized ones similar to the shape of the vessel. Patimat Huseynova noticed the resemblance of the spout of a medieval jug to a piglet’s snout, hence the name of the painting.