A plaquette is a decorative souvenir medal first produced during the Renaissance. The name in French means a “small plaque”. The plaquette was often polygonal in shape. The round plaquette “Three Religions” is made of silver and semi-precious stones. It depicts three symbols of the world’s religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. This unity emphasizes the commonality of traditional religions going back to the prophet Abraham. One of the shared symbols is the sun’s disk, representing eternal life.
The sun has been a sign of creative energy since ancient times. Solar deities were the most powerful and potent deities of many peoples of the world. They were depicted with a halo over their heads or a disc replacing the head, or as a sun disk with a human face.
The Islamic Crescent Moon is decorated with chrysoprase of the green color — the symbolic color of the gardens of paradise, abundance and youthfulness in Islam. The Star of David is marked with turquoise stones — the blue color for Jews reflects the Heavenly Jerusalem and the everlasting significance of the Torah. The brown-red color of the Christian Cross represents the love of God, the fire of faith and the blood of Christ.
The creator of the piece is Dagestan’s first female goldsmith, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Manaba Magomedova. She embodied her emotional and ideological attitude to religious issues in her works. The artist believed that a spiritual foundation leads to understanding common roots, that the three religious traditions need cooperation and tolerance.
Manaba Magomedova lived in the historical center of old Tbilisi, where a mosque, a church and a synagogue are located a short distance from each other. The proximity of the three religions was the subject for a number of the artist’s works. Her technique was influenced by the traditions of Caucasian goldsmiths and minters as well as her experiments with shape, color and symmetry. Manaba used all types of silver and other metals, discovered new and revived old jewelry techniques, in particular the cloisonné enamel technique. Her works are housed in many museums in Russia and the world, as well as in private collections as genuine works of art.
The sun has been a sign of creative energy since ancient times. Solar deities were the most powerful and potent deities of many peoples of the world. They were depicted with a halo over their heads or a disc replacing the head, or as a sun disk with a human face.
The Islamic Crescent Moon is decorated with chrysoprase of the green color — the symbolic color of the gardens of paradise, abundance and youthfulness in Islam. The Star of David is marked with turquoise stones — the blue color for Jews reflects the Heavenly Jerusalem and the everlasting significance of the Torah. The brown-red color of the Christian Cross represents the love of God, the fire of faith and the blood of Christ.
The creator of the piece is Dagestan’s first female goldsmith, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Manaba Magomedova. She embodied her emotional and ideological attitude to religious issues in her works. The artist believed that a spiritual foundation leads to understanding common roots, that the three religious traditions need cooperation and tolerance.
Manaba Magomedova lived in the historical center of old Tbilisi, where a mosque, a church and a synagogue are located a short distance from each other. The proximity of the three religions was the subject for a number of the artist’s works. Her technique was influenced by the traditions of Caucasian goldsmiths and minters as well as her experiments with shape, color and symmetry. Manaba used all types of silver and other metals, discovered new and revived old jewelry techniques, in particular the cloisonné enamel technique. Her works are housed in many museums in Russia and the world, as well as in private collections as genuine works of art.
