Russian folk crafts. Palekh miniature. March 26th, 2018
Hello dear.
We continue with you a short review of Russian folk crafts. Well, at least the most famous of them :-)) Last time we recalled a beautiful Fedoskino miniature: well, today is the time to talk a little about a more "promoted brand" - namely, Palekh.
Palekh miniature is a folk craft that developed in the village of Palekh, Vyaznikovsky district, Vladimir province (now the Palekh district of the Ivanovo region). The lacquer miniature is executed in tempera on papier-mâché. Usually caskets, caskets, capsules, brooches, panels, ashtrays, tie clips, needle cases and so on are painted. Very popular, especially among foreigners :-) Although the art of Palekh painting is still very young, it is only a little over 70 years old. 
The Palekh settlement itself is very old. In the 15th century, the village of Palekh was part of the Vladimir-Suzdal lands. According to the Spiritual Testament of Ivan the Terrible in 1572, the village of Palekh was in the local possession of his son John. In 1616, Palekh was listed as the estate of Vasily Ivanovich Ostrogubov and the widow of Yuri Ivanovich Ostrogubov. Soon it was granted patrimonial possession to Ivan Buturlin "for the Moscow siege seat of the king", that is, for participation in the war against the Polish-Lithuanian intervention. According to the scribe books of 1628-1630 of the Vladimir district of the Bogolyubsky camp, Palekh is the patrimony of Ivan Buturlin and his children. 
The village has always gravitated toward art and the place was famous for its icon painters. Palekh icon painting reached its peak in the 18th - early 19th centuries.
At first, the painting of Palekh strictly obeyed the established canons of the image of icons, but gradually they began to change: images of people, landscape outlines, buildings, animals, clothes, interior items acquired their own, unique style. Palekh artists finally gained the creative freedom they needed so much and used it with pleasure. They developed a unique style of icon painting, which was characterized by the most detailed detail and the use of gold and tempera palettes.
After the revolution of 1917, the icon painting industry in Palekh ceased to exist. On December 5, 1924, the Artel of Ancient Painting was organized in Palekh to paint papier-mâché products. As a result of a long creative search, the former icon painters showed the world virtuosic compositions on papier-mâché boxes, colored with a rainbow of colors and golden patterns. 
Paleshians did not abandon the usual technique of writing with egg paints using created gold. In the figurative solution of new works, they still used medieval methods of stylization, the conventionality of forms. The most popular and most successfully solved compositions of the first years of the existence of the Palekh miniature were “troikas”, “hunts”, “battles”, “couples”, “shepherdesses”, “idylls”, “partying”. In these works there was neither a developed plot nor a vivid image, only a strongly pronounced ornamental beginning. 
One of the brightest and most talented artists of Palekh was Ivan Ivanovich Golikov. He was called the master of the horse, battle and troika. Fairy-tale horses with fragile legs in Golikov's miniatures are colored with all the colors of the rainbow, and "battles" and "hunts" are a manifestation of the indomitable imagination of the Palekh artist. Golikov's "troikas" are dynamic, impulsive, but sometimes majestic and solemn. I.I. Golikov addressed this motif many times, drawing winter and summer troikas on a variety of objects: brooches, powder boxes, cigarette cases, trays. 
In the art of Palekh lacquer miniature, the portrait develops as an independent genre. Its founders were former personal icon painters: Pravdin N.A., Palikin I.F., Serebryakov I.G. Portrait images are created on various papier-mâché items: plates, caskets, brooches, cigarette cases. Palekh artists paint portraits of statesmen, historical figures and their contemporaries.
In the middle of the 20th century, realistic tendencies intensified in the art of Palekh, expressed by the desire of many artists for external plausibility in revealing the plot and individual images. Many compositions of those years are characterized by splendor, excessive monumentality and embellishment.
The next generations of miniaturists sought to revive the traditions created by the founders of the Palekh miniature. The art of lacquer miniature has not exhausted itself, it has a huge potential. 
Palekh artists show their talent in many types of fine arts: monumental painting, book graphics, theatrical scenery.
In the late 80s, a trademark appeared on the works of Palekh Artists - the firebird. Each work is accompanied by a certificate certifying the authenticity of the work.
Currently, more than 600 artists live and work in Palekh, every tenth inhabitant of Palekh is a graduate of the Palekh Art School. A.M. Gorky. They work in various creative teams: the Palekh Artists Association cooperative, Palekh Partnership JSC, Palekh Artists LLC, icon-painting and iconostasis workshops.
The style of Palekh painting has a number of features, namely: smoothness, subtlety of the pattern, black or dark background, a large number of shading made in gold, clarity, outline of the silhouette of simplified figures. Decorative landscape and architecture, the elegance of the elongated proportions of the figures, the dynamic combination of red, yellow and green colors - everything in the products with Palekh miniatures goes back to ancient Russian traditions.
Black lacquer became the main background color, the conditional space of the Palekh miniature and its hallmark. The black background of a lacquer miniature or a “blank sheet” collects in itself, contains all the colors and embodies the essence of the thing. It symbolizes the darkness of the earthly beginning, from which light is born. In addition, the black color also has an internal volume, depth.
Gold in the Palekh miniature is not only a key element of the writing technique, but also a part of the artistic worldview. It is inextricably linked with the symbol of light, which has great historical traditions, coming from medieval ideas about the two principles of life - light and dark. In Christian symbolism, light acquires a special aesthetic meaning, becoming a prototype of Divine grace. The material carrier of this light is gold, which symbolizes it, is the materialized Divine clarity. 
Typical plots of the Palekh miniature are borrowed from everyday life, classical, fairy tale, epic literary works and songs.
I think that the works of the masters will please more than one generation of Russians and foreign guests.
Have a nice time of the day.
One of the most beautiful types of folk arts and crafts is Russian lacquer miniature, the modern centers of which are located in Palekh, Fedoskino, Mstyora and Kholui.
The oldest center of this art is the village of Palekh, Ivanovo Region, where artists for centuries not only painted icons, but also painted walls in Orthodox churches and restored ancient churches and cathedrals. The Palekh miniature, which arose as a result of social and cultural changes that took place in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917, managed to preserve the centuries-old traditions of icon painting and transfer them to new forms and fill them with a different content demanded by society.
History of Russian varnishes
Lacquer painting has existed in Russia for more than two centuries. Its beginning is considered to be the end of the 18th century, when the Moscow merchant Korobov founded a factory for the production of lacquered visors intended for Russian army headdresses. The lacquer miniature appeared somewhat later, when the custom of sniffing tobacco came into fashion at the Russian imperial court. Korobov managed to quickly organize the production of miniature lacquer boxes - snuff boxes. Over time, such gizmos began to be used to decorate rooms. Accordingly, the requirements for their artistic design have become higher. In the future, the works of Russian masters began to differ markedly from Western samples both in terms of execution technique and in plots that had a pronounced pattern. Thus, in Russian lacquer miniatures, heroes and scenes from folk epics and legends of classical and ancient Russian literature appeared, showing Russian traditions and life, reproducing the beauty of the natural environment.
Centers of Russian lacquer miniature
In modern Russia there are four centers where the preserved ancient traditions of Russian art of miniature lacquer painting are actively developed: Fedoskino, Palekh, Kholuy and Mstyora. Before the revolution of 1917, all villages, except for Fedoskino, were known in Russia as major centers of icon painting, in which not only icons were created, but also masters of restoration and wall painting were trained. Each of these centers created icons in the same Orthodox traditions, but at the same time had and their own characteristics. Masters from Kholui, as far as it was possible in icon painting, were close to Russian traditional realism, the inhabitants of Mster followed the traditions of the Old Believer communities of different Russian regions, and Palekh artists made the most canonical Orthodox icons.
How icon painting began in Palekh
In the 16th century, Palekh residents, under the influence of the earlier centers of icon painting in Shuya and Kholui, began to try their hand at painting icons. There were few attempts, and you can’t call them especially successful.
In the middle of the 17th century, the fame of the Palekh icon painters reached Moscow, and the masters began to be invited to perform works at the royal court. If in the 17th century icons were painted in almost every large village, then in the 18th century there were three main centers of icon painting: Kholuy, Mstera and Palekh. The Paleshans, unlike the inhabitants of the more industrially developed Mstera and Kholuy, until the beginning of the 19th century combined traditional agriculture with painting icons in their free time from working in the field. Icons, carefully drawn in keeping with the traditions, were created slowly and were expensive.
The beginning of the 19th century is considered the heyday of the Palekh icon painting industry. The icons created in Palekh were sold not only in the capital and large Russian cities, but also abroad.
By the middle of the 19th century, the first workshops belonging to Safonov, Korin, Nanykin and Udalov were organized in Palekh. By the beginning of the 20th century, the production of icons became mass, cheaper and of lower quality. The appearance of cheap typographically printed images led to the decline of icon painting and the liquidation of a number of well-known workshops. At the beginning of the twentieth century in Kholui, Palekh and Mstyora, in order to preserve traditions, the Committee for the Guardianship of Russian Icon Painting created educational workshops that existed until 1917.
After the October Revolution, until 1923, most of the craftsmen in Palekh were left without work. Someone left in search of work in the city, some tried to make toys, dishes or weave bast shoes. Until 1923, several attempts were made to adapt the former icon painters to painting caskets, children's toys, and however, things did not work out, since the need to produce large volumes at low prices, and the very nature of the products, led to the production of low quality products.
The date when the Palekh lacquer miniature was created, in the form in which we know it, should be considered the end of 1922, the beginning of 1923. It was then that the theater artist Ivan Ivanovich Golikov created the composition "Adam in Paradise" on black blanks from papier-mâché. This work interested the leadership of the Handicraft Museum (today - the Museum of Folk Art), which began to supply the artist with blanks and paid for his work. Later I. V. Markichev, A. V. Kotukhin and I. P. Vakurov joined the process. The works created by these masters were presented in 1923 at the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow and were awarded a diploma of the 1st degree. In 1924, the artists' works were presented at an exhibition in Venice, and in 1925 - in Paris, where they made a splash and enjoyed great success. All this led to the fact that on December 5, 1924, in Palekh, V.V. and A.V. Kotukhins, A.I. and I.I. Zubkov, I.V. Markichev, I.M. Bakanov and I.I. Golikov founded the Artel of Ancient Painting.
The newborn Palekh miniature faced a number of problems: first of all, a new material was needed - papier-mâché, the technology of which was not known to Palekh artists, in addition, it was necessary to move from painting a flat icon canvas to decorating things and objects with volume and shape.
And the assortment and forms of objects painted by Palekh masters was quite large: brooches, beads, chests, caskets, cigarette cases and snuff boxes, eyeglass cases and powder boxes and much more. The Palekh miniature of that time has a strongly pronounced ornamental beginning, but it lacks vivid images and a developing storyline. The most successful and popular compositions of that time were battles, shepherdesses, hunting, parties and troikas.
It can be safely asserted that it was in the 1920s that the lacquer miniature in Palekh was formed under the influence of both the ancient Russian icon painting tradition and the entire world art.
Postwar years
In the first peaceful decades, many masters of Palekh miniatures depict various battle scenes in their works, both the recently ended World War II and other great battles that glorified the Russian army. In the fifties, according to many art historians, the lacquer miniature in Palekh is experiencing a clear crisis, which was due to the tendency of many artists to excessive realism, which forced out the romanticism and sublime sophistication characteristic of the works of previous years from the works. The Palekh miniature, the photo of which is presented below, clearly shows the influence of the Soviet ideology of that time on artists.
Excessive realism, monumentality and pathos characterize most of the works created during these years, although there were some masters who retained the romanticism and traditions of the old school.
The sixties are characterized by the fact that monumentality and excessive naturalism go away, and sublimity and romantic haze return to Palekh, lacquer miniature again becomes poetic and allegorical. During this period, Paleshian artists turned not only to folklore sources, but also to works of classical literature, as well as to modern songs. At the same time, socially significant events, such as, for example, a man's flight into space, also find their reflection in the works of masters.
The seventies and eighties of the XX century became the heyday of Palekh painting. Palekh artists are invited to develop scenery for various concert programs, decorative design for children's and cultural institutions.
Modernity
Having survived the difficult 90s, the Paleshians did not leave their traditional craft. The Palekh Art School annually graduates young masters who carefully preserve the traditions and features that make Palekh miniature so interesting. Today, there are several artels and family businesses that make traditional lacquer products in Palekh.
Distinctive features
Palekh painting, like any other folk art that has developed in a particular area, has its own distinctive features and traditions. As already mentioned, icon painting has glorified Palekh for centuries. The lacquer miniature adopted many features from icon painting, such as, for example, the construction of the composition and the careful study of every detail. We can say that the Palekh miniature grew up on the centuries-old traditions of icon painting.
The Palekh style differs from other folk schools of lacquer painting in the following features:
- drawing whole compositions and plots;
- miniature painting;
- patterning and ornamental richness of the pattern;
- careful detailing of each element;
- elongation and fragility of human figures;
- the subtlety of drawing parts of the body of people;
- various color transitions;
- use of dark backgrounds;
- use of egg tempera;
- painting in gold.
But in order for the artist to be able to start creating a miniature, it is necessary first of all to create a product from papier-mâché, which will be signed.
How is papier-mâché made?
It is made from cardboard, which is pre-cut into strips, smeared with a paste made from wheat flour, and overlapped on a wooden mold (blank). After the desired thickness has been obtained, the blank, together with the cardboard, is fixed in a special press. Under the influence of pressure, they turn into tubes of various shapes and sizes. The glues pressed in this way are dried at room temperature for about two weeks. Then the dried blanks are dipped for a day in warm linseed oil for impregnation, after which they are dried for four days in a special oven, the temperature of which is maintained at 120 0 C. At the next stage, the blank is primed and polished. After grinding, several layers of black varnish are applied to its outer surface, and oil varnish with cinnabar is applied to the inner surface. At the end of the process, the entire surface is varnished with several layers of light varnish. After applying each layer, the workpiece is dried at a certain temperature in an oven. Only after all these manipulations, the artist will be able to start painting.
Techniques and tricks
As already noted, one of the distinguishing features that the lacquer miniature of the Palekh painting possesses is writing with egg tempera paints.
In order to prevent paint from rolling off a smooth varnish surface, it is specially treated with pumice stone. The contour of the future drawing is applied to the product with a sharp pencil, and underpainting is done. It is for him that the master will apply many transparent and thin layers of painting. There are five main steps in creating an image:
1. Roskrysh - basting of the main silhouettes and contours.
2. Registration - refinement of contours and shades of color.
3. Melt - applying liquid glazing paint with bold strokes.
4. Glare - a notch made with created gold.
5. Framing the painting with a gold pattern.
After that, the ornament made in gold is polished with agate in the form of a cone or with a wolf's tooth, and then the entire product is covered with 6-7 layers of varnish. After applying each of them, the work is dried, polished on a special polishing wheel, and then finished by hand polishing. The lacquer surface, polished to a mirror finish, gives the image extra depth and makes the colors "sound" more richly and softly.
Palekh has been famous for its icon painters since pre-Petrine times. Palekh icon painting reached its peak in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The local style was formed under the influence of the Moscow, Novgorod, Stroganov and Yaroslavl schools.
In addition to icon painting, the Paleshians were engaged in monumental painting, participating in the painting and restoration of churches and cathedrals, including the Faceted Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin, the churches of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and the Novodevichy Convent.
After the 1917 revolution, Palekh artists were forced to look for new forms of realizing their creative potential. In 1918, the artists created the Palekh Art Decorative Artel, which was engaged in painting on wood.
, CC BY-SA 3.0Paleshians got acquainted with the new papier-mâché material, which for a century was the basis for Fedoskin's lacquer miniature.
The masters mastered the new material, transferring to it the technology of tempera painting, traditional for the ancient Russian icon, and the conditional style of the image.
"Snow Maiden" ed. Polunina On December 5, 1924, seven Palekh artists I. I. Golikov, I. V. Markichev, I. M. Bakanov, I. I. Zubkov, A. I. Zubkov, A. V. Kotukhin, V. V. Kotukhin united in Artel of ancient painting. Later, artists I. P. Vakurov, D. N. Butorin, N. M. Zinoviev joined them. In 1925, Palekh miniatures were exhibited at the World Exhibition in Paris.
"The village of Palekh". Casket, 1934. I. M. Bakanov Alex Bakharev , Public Domain The Union of Palekh Artists arose in 1932. In 1935, the artel was transformed into the Association of Palekh Artists, in 1954 the Palekh Art and Production Workshops of the Art Fund of the USSR were formed.
Typical plots of the Palekh miniature are borrowed from everyday life, literary works of the classics, fairy tales, epics and songs. The works are usually done with tempera paints on a black background and painted with gold.
How to distinguish from fakes
Each product is handmade by the master, never repeated, and undoubtedly reflect the creative individuality of the author.
The peculiar and delicate art of the Palekh lacquer miniature absorbed the principles of ancient Russian painting and folk art as a basis.
vector-images.com , Public Domain Palekh miniatures are signed according to a single pattern. The serial number of the semi-finished product, indication of the place (Palekh), surname and initials of the author are put on the cover of the item.
Since 1934, the signature “Made in USSR” was put on the bottom of the box, which in 1992 was replaced by “Made in Russia”. All signatures are made in gold.
In the late 80s, a trademark appeared on the works of Palekh Artists - the firebird. Each work is accompanied by a certificate certifying the authenticity of the work.
For more than ten years, the main production association for the production of miniatures has been ".
The presence of the brand name of this enterprise testifies to the genuine Palekh lacquer painting.
Guide to Russian Crafts, CC BY-SA 3.0 Briefly about technology
The work of a Palekh artist begins with the preparation of paint. Paints in Palekh are bred on an egg emulsion.
Before painting, the surface of the product is treated with pumice. Then the artist draws a drawing on the semi-finished product with a finely honed pencil.
Then the image is drawn with whitewash using the thinnest squirrel brush (the artists also make brushes themselves).
A layer of white is necessary so that during the subsequent coating of the painting with varnish, black spots do not show through the paint (lacquer slightly dissolves the paint).
Mark "Snegurochka" Mariluna, CC BY-SA 3.0 Having finished the work with paints, the artist takes up the gold. Sheet gold leaf (one portion - 10 sheets 12 × 7 cm) is carefully crushed and rubbed with fingers. Gold painting is also done with the thinnest brush.
After the artist put his signature on the product, it is varnished and dried.
Then the product is polished on a mechanical wheel covered with plush or velvet.
Photo gallery
Helpful information
Palekh miniature
Ancestors of style
The founders of the Palekh style are I. I. Golikov and Alexander Alexandrovich Glazunov, in whose Moscow workshop Ivan Golikov wrote the first work in the so-called Palekh style.
First confession
For the first time, Palekh miniatures on papier-mache, commissioned by the Handicraft Museum, were presented at the All-Russian Agricultural and Handicraft Exhibition in 1923, where they were awarded a 2nd degree diploma.
Palekh miniature training
In 1928, a vocational school of ancient painting was opened in Palekh, where training lasted four years. In 1935 the school was transformed into an art college. In 1936, the technical school passed into the system of the All-Union Committee for the Arts and became known as the school (Palekh Art School named after A. M. Gorky), where training lasted 5 years. In the 2000s, the training period was reduced to 4 years.
Features of Palekh writing
The style of Palekh painting is characterized by a thin and smooth drawing mainly on a black background, an abundance of golden shading, a clear silhouette of flattened figures, sometimes completely covering the surface of the lid and side walls of the caskets. The decorativeness of the landscape and architecture, the elongated graceful proportions of the figures, the color scheme based on a combination of three primary colors - red, yellow and green, go back to the traditions of ancient Russian icon painting. The composition is usually framed with an exquisite ornament made of crafted gold. Gold in the Palekh miniature is not only a key element of the writing technique, but also a part of the artistic worldview. It is associated with the symbol of light. In Christian symbolism, light becomes a prototype of Divine grace.
contemporary artists
At present, the workshops of the Artistic Fund of Russia, small private workshops and individual artists continue to operate in Palekh. Among them are T. I. Zubkova, A. A. Kotukhina, N. I Golikov, A. M. Kurkin, K. Kukulieva and B. N. Kukuliev, A. D. Kochupalov, T. Khodova, V. V. Morokin, B. Ermolaev, E. Shchanitsyna and others.
Magnifying glass application
The work of a miniaturist requires not only creative inspiration, but also great accuracy and thoroughness, so Palekh painters often have to resort to the help of a magnifying glass.
wolf tooth
In order for the gold applied to the product to acquire a shine, it must be polished. For this, a wolf tooth is used - it has a particularly smooth surface. Even with the advent of new technologies and materials, nothing could replace this exotic instrument.
Hand finishing
Final finishing during polishing is carried out only by hand. The surface is covered with fat and treated for an hour with a palm moistened with water. From friction, the surface of the lacquer heats up, finally levels off and acquires a mirror shine.
The urban-type settlement of Palekh, the center of the Palekh district of the Ivanovo region, could be an ordinary village, of which there are a huge number in Russia. However, a special character of Palekh is given by folk craft, known not only throughout the country, but also far beyond its borders - Palekh painting (Palekh miniature).
When craft is born involuntarily
Palekh painting is called, first of all, a miniature lacquer painting on papier-mâché, applied with tempera paint (that is, paint made from dyes of natural origin). And looking at the caskets, brooches, panels, ashtrays and other decorative items of everyday life painted in this manner, it is impossible to resist the temptation to consider this craft very ancient, having its origins in the gray mists of time. This is partly true, but only partly. If we approach the history of Palekh painting formally, it turns out that this craft is not yet a hundred years old - after all, for the first time products with Palekh miniatures were presented to the public only in 1923. However, if you dig deeper, it turns out that the Palekh miniature is a direct continuation of the traditions of the original Palekh school of icon painting, and here we need to talk about several centuries.
As you know, with all the severity of iconography in the Russian Orthodox tradition, in the Middle Ages and in the New Age, various schools of icon painting were formed. Following the canons in the main, each school brought some of its own characteristics, expressed either in colors or in individual details of the image of people, details of clothing or landscapes on icons, and the like. The sources report that icons were painted in the village of Palekh as early as the beginning of the 17th century. However, the special Palekh style of icon painting, distinguished by the filigree subtlety of writing and the abundant use of gold paint to depict the robes of saints, finally took shape by the second half of the 18th century. By the beginning of the last century, the Palekh icon-painting school was famous throughout Russia, there was an extensive workshop with a clear division of labor according to icon-painting professions. However, the revolutionary events of 1917 and the subsequent large-scale persecution of the church and all spheres of religious life made Palekh icon painting unclaimed and life-threatening. The icon painters of Palekh had to look for a new area for the application of their talents.
When history and culture come to life
And the solution was found, how simple, just as ingenious. Icon painters with the appropriate skills and experience, who also have a production base, retrained as painters. Since it was impossible to depict pictures on religious themes, I had to paint pictures on secular themes. So in the early twenties, the Palekh miniature arose. It turned out that drawings in the old, almost iconic manner, on the themes of Russian folk tales, historical events, as well as portrait images printed on papier-mâché, are in great demand by the most diverse social status and material resources of the population. After demonstrating new art products at a number of exhibitions in 1923, at the end of the next, twenty-fourth, several Palekh artists united in the Artel of Ancient Painting, which successfully presented its works already at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1925. In 1932, Palekh painting was supported by the state, and the Artel of Ancient Painting was transformed into the Palekh Association of Artists.
Palekh miniature
The history of the emergence of Palekh painting
Palekh is located 65 km. from the city of Ivanovo on the banks of the Paleshka River, flowing among the hills covered with deciduous forests. The history of Palekh goes back to ancient times. In the XV century. The village was part of the Vladimir-Suzdal lands. According to the spiritual testament of Ivan the Terrible in 1572, Palekh was in the local possession of his son John.
There is also a legend - "Palekh arose in those violent years of ancient times, when countless Mongol-Tatar hordes marched to Vladimir-Suzdal Rus'. The devastated population fled into the dense forests and swamps and took icons with them. The Tatars burned the forests. "There was a great Palikh" - hence the name Palekh.
In Palekh, since the 16th century, masters have been creating expensive icons, they have also been painting and restoring frescoes in churches and temples of Russian cities and monasteries. This is evidenced by historical monuments in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Novodevichy Convent. Even in the Moscow Kremlin, in the “golden”, as it was sometimes called, the Faceted Chamber, craftsmen from Palekh, the Belousov brothers, worked.
The style of Palekh icon painting is based on the traditions of the ancient Suzdal school and some features of Moscow icon painting of the 15th–16th centuries. The Palekh icon is characterized by soft smooth lines and restrained colors.
Exaltation of the Cross Church with a hipped bell tower.
The Exaltation of the Cross Church was built for quite a long time: from 1762 to 1774. On the western facade of the temple, an inscription has been preserved, thanks to which the name of the master, under whose leadership the building was erected, is also known. This master was Yegor Dubov.
The pinnacle of Palekh icon painting is the “Akathist to the Savior” of the mid-18th century. The drawing of the icon is distinguished by grace and sophistication. All proportions are elongated. The color of the icon is warm, golden brown with dark greens and cinnabar. The clothes of Christ and the Mother of God are painted with gold. One of the characteristic features of Palekh icon painting is a complex multi-stigma composition. Icon "Nicholas the Wonderworker in the Life and Miracles" of the second half of the 18th century. is a prime example of such a composition. In the center of the icon board - in the middle - is the image of the saint. The centerpiece is surrounded by 38 hallmarks - miniatures that tell about the deeds of Nicholas the Wonderworker.
Until the beginning of the XIX century. Palekh, in contrast to the industrialized Mstyora and Kholuy, continued to maintain very simple forms of icon production, closed around the family. Paleshanin continued to engage in agriculture (which was not the case in Mstyora and Kholui) and painted icons in his spare time from field work. Icons in Palekh were painted for a long time and carefully according to old models, so they were very expensive.
At the end of the XIX century. famous Palekh artist D.A. Salabanov opens an icon-painting workshop in Nizhny Novgorod. Alyosha Peshkov (Maxim Gorky) was sent to this workshop as an icon painter by his grandfather. M. Gorky described his life in the icon-painting workshop in the story “In People”:
“It was hot and stuffy in the workshop, about twenty “bogomaz” people from Palekh, Kholuy, Mstyora were working, everyone was sitting in cotton shirts with unbuttoned collars, in teak underpants, barefoot or in props. A gray veil of burnt shag is stretched over the heads of the masters, there is a thick smell of drying oil, varnish, rotten eggs. Slowly like pitch, the mournful Vladimir song flows ... ".
Alyosha Peshkov reads Lermontov's poem "The Demon" in the icon-painting workshop. Artist B.A. Dekhterev.
Maksim Gorky
After the revolution of 1917, fishing turned out to be unnecessary, and the artists of Palekh began to look for a use for their art. It so happened that at the end of 1922, the artist Ivan Golikov went to Moscow and saw there in the Handicraft Museum (now the Museum of Folk Art) the works of old Lukutin masters: papier-mâché boxes painted on a black background with oil paints. Golikov decided to try. He made his first work "Adam in Paradise", made in gold, on the bottom of a photographic papier-mâché bath and took it to the Handicraft Museum. The museum management became interested in this work, and immediately gave him semi-finished products for further work. Arriving in Palekh, Golikov, together with his relative A.A. Glazunov organized a workshop in which Palekh masters began to work. At the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition in 1923, the artists received a diploma of the 1st degree. And in 1924, the Artel of Ancient Painting was opened in Palekh.
"Adam in Paradise" Palekh, artist Ivan Golikov
M. Gorky greatly appreciated the art of Palekh, called it "one of the miracles created by the revolution", did a lot to popularize it in his homeland and abroad, helped financially, organized a library in Artel, in which he collected the best works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov , Gogol, Krylov ... - the characters from which formed the basis of the Palekh miniature.
The delegation of Palekh artists talks with M. Gorky
Palekh Art School. M. Gorky
Palekh painting differs from the painting style of other Russian folk schools in that the artists do not depict ornaments or individual figures, but draw whole compositions - real miniature paintings depicting a particular plot. The art of Palekh is poetry in drawing, moments of Russian songs and fairy tales, imprinted by the artist's hand on the surface of objects. The subjects of the master of miniature painting were taken from everyday life, Russian folk tales, songs and epics, as well as classical works of literature, for example, from Pushkin's fairy tales and Krylov's fables.
The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish
The Tale of Tsar Saltan
golden cockerel
Ruslan and Ludmila
Ivan Tserevich and the wolf series
The Little Humpbacked Horse
Bova-King
Lukomorye
Fight Peresvet with Chelubey
A word about Igor's regiment
Dobrynya Nikitich
Three heroes
Pushkin
Lermontov
Lomonosov
Over time, caskets, brooches and other items used for painting began to decorate images associated with the development of technological progress in the Soviet era. Drawings of the first tractor, mowers, combines, fields sown with wheat and the life of collective farm villages, as well as images of new buildings, holidays dedicated to one or another memorable anniversary, transmitting the pulse of that time, appeared on the black lacquer coating. In the compositions of some of the masters of Palekh of the Soviet era, there are paintings of industrialization, captured in the style of symbolism. Often, artists dress the achievements of the Soviet people in a fairy-tale form to convey images. The theme of electrification is solved through the image of the Firebird, and the shortcomings of people take the form of bad folklore characters in the form of Leshy and Baba Yaga, over whom young pioneers arrange a fair trial. During the Great Patriotic War, many of the artists turn to military themes, turning the harsh reality of the times of great battles into the sublime romanticism of sacrifice and feat for the sake of their native country and glorifying the Russian people defending their freedom in the battle against foreign invaders. But even in these works, the influence of fresco painting and the best traditions of the Palekh style can be traced.
Yuri Gagarin
Tsiolkovsky
Soviet space
The Soviet period not only gave rise to the Palekh lacquer miniature, but also contributed to the development of this craft. The State Museum of Palekh Art was organized. In 1960-80s. the rich experience of the Palekh masters began to be used to create sketches of scenery for theatrical productions, illustrations for book editions of the works of Pushkin, Krylov, Gorky and other Russian and Soviet writers. In the Palekh style, sets of postcards and postage stamps were issued with characters from Russian fairy tales, epics and fables.
Soviet postcards. Palekh
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Calendars. Palekh
Soviet postage stamps. Palekh
Cards. Palekh
Distinctive features of Palekh painting
Each miniaturist has his own favorite themes, but on the whole, a common, always recognizable style of Palekh miniature has developed. Conventionality of color, forms of architecture, refined, elongated proportions of figures, clearly distinguished on a black background, their abundant elaboration with golden graphics are the characteristic features of the Palekh miniature.
The main difference between the Palekh, Mstyora and Kholuy miniatures from Fedoskino is the use yolk tempera, which they traditionally used to paint icons. Egg emulsion was used as a binder in Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, from where it was already adopted by the icon painters of Ancient Rus'. Tempera is written in melts, i.e. liquid layers, as in watercolor, but it can also be worked with the method of strokes, dotted lines, as in pastels and pasty strokes, as in oil painting. Palekh artists, who use ducts of an unrecorded lacquer background in painting, often replace the primer with a whitewash of the silhouette of the image, transferred to the black surface of the product, cleaned for painting. The transfer of a drawing to a thing in Palekh, Mstyora and Kholui is done differently than in Fedoskino. The reverse side of the drawing is wiped with paint powder and, after laying the drawing on the surface, is circled with a blunt needle stuck in a wooden handle-handle. Paints are dissolved in yolk emulsion (yolk diluted with water with the addition of a few drops of vinegar).
The first stage of writing is opening: outlines the basic shapes of the image. Then follows registration, i.e. clarification of the main color tones and concretization of forms. Next stage - melt: juicy strokes with liquid glazing paints, uniting the painting into a certain coloristic whole. Complete the painting glare(or notch), in Palekh it is performed with crafted gold.
Miniature Palekh painting is framed with gold ornaments. Gold paint (created gold) is prepared from leaves of gold leaf, rubbed on gum arabic with a finger. Then the ornament is polished with a bone.
The golden color is not only part of the color scheme of the drawing and a distinctive feature of the works of Palekh painters. Thin lines of gold and silver serve to reveal light and shadows, reveal the shape of figures and individual elements of the composition. In addition, gold symbolizes light, which in the Christian worldview means something Divine, eternal.
The work of a miniaturist requires filigree precision, accuracy of every line, accuracy. Often, Palekh masters have to use a magnifying glass or a magnifying glass when writing their miniature masterpieces. At the end of the work, the painting is covered with six layers of light varnish, after which the product is sanded and polished.
The harmonious unity of the artistic form and deep national content, traditionalism and nationality distinguish the works of Palekh artists.
"The village of Palekh", artist I.M. Bakanov, 1934
"Strada", artist I.M. Bakanov, 1933
Palekh miniature manufacturing technology
Palekh lacquer miniatures are written on - caskets, plates, brooches - made of papier-mâché. The workpiece creation process consists of the following operations:
1. Cutting cardboard- shapes of the required size are cut out from sheets of wood cardboard in the form of plates or tapes. Cardboard plates are smeared with flour paste (wheat flour) and glued one on top of the other on a table or a horizontally laid board. The number of layers depends on the required thickness of the product and ranges from 3 to 30. The sides of boxes, boxes, cases, etc. are made by wrapping cardboard strips on round or rectangular blanks (up to 12 layers).
Preparation of blanks from papier-mâché
2. Then blanks pressed, dried for a week and a half, soaked in a vat of heated linseed oil, dried again and pressed. Then, decorative items (cigarette cases, caskets, medallions, brooches, etc.) are made from the resulting blanks. Then products grind on the skinning wheel, and finally bring emery brush.
3. Primer and putty made by hand using traditional tools. They are made from red clay, oil and soot, rubbing the components together properly. After that, several layers of soil are applied to the product, each layer is cleaned and polished. Then putty is applied to the product with a steel spatula and dried. After drying, the putty is cleaned with a pumice stone, the excess of which is brushed off with a goose feather. The outer side of Palekh products is covered with black varnish (previously oil varnish with soot was used). It is customary to cover the inside of cigarette cases and caskets with red varnish.
Primer and putty
4. Paint preparation.
The work of a Palekh artist begins with paint preparation. Paints in Palekh are bred on an egg emulsion. To do this, the yolk separated from the protein is again placed in an egg shell and water mixed with vinegar is added there. Then the emulsion is stirred with a special whisk.
The resulting egg emulsion is added to the dry pigment and carefully rubbed index finger. The degree of readiness is determined "by eye". Well-prepared paints are very plastic. The paint is harvested in small quantities, as it is stored for a short time.
The artist needs paints of different consistency, so they constantly have to be diluted on a porcelain saucer, palette. On it, the paints of the primary colors are mixed and the desired tones are made up.
Preparation of egg emulsion- the work is painstaking and requires a lot of skill and experience. You need to be able to carefully separate the yolk from the albumen, because even the smallest drop of protein will prevent the artist from drawing fine lines. Water is used to dilute the yolk in Mstera, and table vinegar or bread kvass is used in Palekh. Paints dissolved in kvass lay down softer and last longer, but now they are rarely used. For fat summer eggs and lean winter eggs, the amount of solvent will be different. Egg emulsion should not be too oily or too liquid: oily paint will go rough and crack quickly, and liquid paint will be faded and will not respond well to the necessary painting technique.
To work on a miniature, different artists need a different amount of squirrel brushes. All brushes of Palekh masters are handmade. You can’t write a miniature with a brush bought in a store, even of the highest quality, because it’s too “unruly” there is not enough subtlety and elasticity, while writing, the tip of such a brush can bifurcate.
Before painting the surface of the product processed with pumice(Paint adheres better to a matte surface than to a glossy one).
Then the artist applies a drawing to the semi-finished product finely sharpened pencil.
Then image is drawn whitewash with the finest squirrel brush.
Paint preparation
5. Gilding.
Miniaturists usually use sheet gold leaf. Each sheet has a size of 9x9 cm, one serving comes from 2 to 10 sheets. These sheets are so thin that they fly up at the slightest breath of air. They are taken lampemzem- a special tool made from the tip of a squirrel's tail. In a porcelain saucer, gold is mixed with a binder, gum arabic, and dissolved in water, obtaining a liquid mass. The "creation" of gold, like paint, requires great skill and patience. Pure water is added to the dissolved gold, stirred, filtered, settled, excess water is drained off and dried in the oven, under a lamp or in the sun. Not a single speck of dust or mote should get into it, otherwise it will be difficult for them to write. Ready-to-work gold glistens with a soft, charming sheen, as if inviting you to pick up a brush as soon as possible.
Sometimes silver or aluminum powder is used. When working with silver, you need to be careful, as it turns yellow when dried from high temperatures. Aluminum powder is a coarser material and requires more thorough grinding.
In order for the gold applied to the product to acquire brilliance, it must be polish. For this, a wolf tooth is used - it has a particularly smooth surface.
6. After painting with gold products covered with oil varnish. This operation is performed by applying several layers of varnish, each of which is carefully dried out at a certain temperature for a long time. After each layer, the surface must be leveled first with glass, then with pumice.
Grinding
Polishing
7. The last step is polishing. When there are enough layers of varnish and the surface is already even, the box is polished on the “velvet” - a special rotating circle covered with velvet, final polishing induced by hands, women's of course, since the hands should be soft, without coarsened areas that can scratch the surface.
Palekh - A miracle born of the revolution!
© "Encyclopedia of Technologies and Methods" Patlakh V.V. 1993-2007
