Lacquer miniatures from Cholui
The lacquer miniatures from Cholui ( Russian Холуйская миниатюра , transcribed Choluiskaja miniatjura) are traditional Russian lacquer miniature paintings with egg tempera on black lacquer boxes made of paper mache .
They are named after the village of Cholui (Russian Холуй ) in the Ivanovo Oblast , 250 km northeast of Moscow, 25 km south of Palech. Cholui is one of the four major centers of Russian miniature painting. The other three centers are in Fedoskino ( lacquer miniatures from Fedoskino ), Palech ( lacquer miniatures from Palech ) and Mstjora ( lacquer miniatures from Mstjora ). They are located northeast of Moscow, in the Golden Ring of Moscow. In these three former centers of icon painting, the lacquer miniatures were painted in egg tempera, which distinguishes them from Fedoskino.
history
The Cholui Icon Painting School was founded in 1883. This school continues the tradition of icon painting that has been cultivated there since the 16th century. In addition to Cholui, the tradition of icon painting was also widespread in Palech and Mstjora, all three of which were referred to as icon painting villages. It was there that cheap icons were mainly made for Russian farmers.
After the October Revolution of 1917, the icon painters' workshops were closed. In the 1930s a group of former icon painters founded a workshop for lacquer miniatures.
The artists SA Mokin ( С. А. Мокин ; * 1891; † 1945), W. Pusanow ( В. Пузанов ), KW Kosterin ( К. В. Костерин ; * 1899; † 1985), VD Pusanow-Molew ( В. Д. Пузанов-Молев ; * 1892 in Cholui; † 1961; 1909 to 1912 studied at the Moscow Stroganov School of Art ) and D. Dobrynin ( Д. Добрынин ) learned the art of miniature painting on paper mash from the miniature painters of Palech in 1932. In the course of their later work they developed their own style: subjects from fairy tales, history or literature, which were depicted against a landscape backdrop.
Lacquer miniature painting in Cholui did not develop until after Palech and Mstjora, and only long after Fedoskino. AW Bakuschinski ( А. В. Бакушинский ; born April 28, 1883 in Verkhny Landech ; † January 9, 1939 in Moscow) and WM Wassilenko ( В. М. Василенко ), who, as a well-known art historian , set up and develop lacquer miniatures in Palech and Mstjora had successfully promoted, were no longer available for the miniature painters in Cholui, as the former had fallen victim to the Great Terror and the latter had also suffered repression.
In 1934 an Artel (cooperative) for lacquer painting was founded in Cholui . Before that, it had been a branch of the “Proletarian Art” artel of miniature painters in Mstjora for a few years. Since 1960 the Artel has been the "factory for lacquer miniatures" in Holui.
In 1937 it was exhibited at the World Exhibition in Paris, where it received a bronze medal. In the following years they took part in several world exhibitions . In 1943 a new school for the training of miniature painters was founded in Cholui. After 1945, especially in the 1960s, the motifs were expanded considerably.
In the 1960s to 1980s, miniature painting from Choluoi had great success. Well-known names from this period include NI Baburin, WA Below, BW Tichonrawow, NN Denisow and WA Krotow.
Manufacture
The technique of making the paper mache boxes was adopted by the miniature painters from Fedoskino.
The paper mache box is made by pressing many layers of cardboard that are soaked in linseed oil and dried in ovens until the linseed oil has hardened. Then the box is primed with a mixture of linseed oil, soot and clay . Only then does the actual miniature painting take place using the finest brushes made from squirrel hair (squirrel hair ). The colors are made according to old tradition. To do this, the mineral colored powder is mixed with egg yolk, water and vinegar. The ornaments are made of gold leaf - with the addition of cherry tree resin. Finally, the thumbnail is covered with several layers of varnish. The final polish is carried out with the help of a wolf tooth, as this has a particularly smooth surface.
particularities
In contrast to Fedoskino, Palech and Mstjora, lacquer painting in Cholui did not begin on papier-mâché caskets but on prepared cardboard paper , as AW Bakuschinski had recommended this to save material costs. Since there was no painting on objects, there was no task to decorate them with decorations. So the painting style in Cholui developed more in the direction of panel painting . Later, however, Cholui also switched to painting with tempera paints instead of cardboard paper on paper mache objects, mostly caskets, but largely retained the painting style chosen at the beginning. Typical motifs of this early period were: Rusálka , rose bushes or merchants.
The icon painters of Cholui used greater proportions of green hues, in contrast to the lacquer miniatures from Palech, where more red hues were traditionally used. The use of blue-green and brown-orange hues became a special feature of her painting.
The themes of these lacquer miniatures were fairy tales (e.g. Snow White , Snegurochka ) and cityscapes. Lacquer miniatures from Cholui were apparently less tied to traditions than those from Fedoskino, Palech and Mstjora. The subjects are mostly taken from history, folklore and literature.
In Cholui, a special form of linking architecture and landscape painting emerges, the representatives of which are NN Desnisow ( Н. Н. Денисов ; * 1929), BI Kiseljow ( Б. И. Киселёв ; * 1928), WN Sedow ( В. Н. Седов ; * 1952) and W. Teplow ( В. Теплов ; * 1955) were.
Typical for the lacquer miniatures from Cholui are spacious scenes, thin figures, almost like those on the lacquer miniatures from Palech, but drawn a little stronger and much finer and more delicate.
Very often figures, houses and trees are drawn on a black background, like the lacquer miniatures from Palech, but more picturesquely and more idyllic.
present
The state factory "Artistic Factory for Lacquer Miniature" was privatized in April 1992 and has been owned by the workers of this factory ever since. Today the factory has around 200 employees. Much of the production is exported to the UK, USA, Italy, Spain and Canada. The lacquer painting is mainly done on caskets, but also on boards , brooches, thimbles and other everyday objects. In addition to lacquer miniatures, icons and portraits are again being made in Cholui.
Larger collections of the lacquer miniatures from Cholui are exhibited in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and in the Museum of Russian Decorative, Applied and Folk Art in Moscow.
literature
- Monika Kopplin, Heimo Prokop: Russian lacquer painting of the present: miniatures from Fedoskino, Palech, Mstjora and Choluj . Museum für Lackkunst, Münster 1994, ISBN 3-930090-02-3 .
- Nadežda Olegovna Krestovskaja, Marija Z. Sarkisova, Lyudmila L. Pirogova, Vladimir F. Dorohov, Jevgenij I. Gavrilov: Lacquer miniature painting . (= Masterpieces of folk art from Russia. ). Interbook, Moscow 1995, ISBN 5-7664-1050-6 .
- Margarita Fedorovna Alʹbedilʹ, Vladimir F. Dorochov: Russian lacquer painting: Palech, Mstjora, Fedoskino, Choluj . Jarkij gorod, St. Petersburg 2007, ISBN 978-5-9663009-1-3 .
Coordinates: 56 ° 43 ′ 36 " N , 41 ° 52 ′ 29" E