Gabriela Čiasnohová
One of the propagators of Slovak ornamentation was Štefan Leonard Kostelníček, originally from Spišská Stará Ves (Kežmarok district). His interest lay in studying Slovak particularities, not only customs and habits, but mainly traditional ornaments which decorated ancient clothing, embroidery, lying-in sheets, tablecloths, furniture and plates to be hung on the walls of wooden cottages. He gradually elevated folk ornamentation to art. He devoted himself to ornamental work and the decoration of ceramics, creating cards decorated with ornaments and allegorical scenes from history for various occasions. He used ornamental decoration alongside texts of hymns and for important historical documents: he decorated the Pittsburgh Agreement and the Martin Declaration. In order to spread and understand ornamentation, to exercise his memory and his fantasy, he decided to publish a ten-volume work on Slovak ornaments. He succeeded in publishing four volumes on Slovak ornamentation. And although his work was neglected during Socialism, it did not fall into complete oblivion.