Lacquer miniatures from Mstjora
The lacquer miniatures from Mstjora ( Russian Мстёрская миниатюра , transcribed Mstjorskaja miniatjura) are traditional Russian lacquer miniature paintings in tempera colors on paper mache . The subjects of the miniatures from Mstjora were linked to the artistic traditions of old Russian painting and Russian folk art. Folklore, history and the present served as themes.
These products of Russian handicrafts are named after the town of Mstjora in the Vladimir Oblast , 250 km northeast of Moscow. The name Mstjora comes from the river Mstjora of the same name . Mstjora was called Bogojawlenskaja Sloboda (Russian Богоявленская слобода ) until the 19th century . Sloboda is a suburb in front of a castle or something similar. Bogojawlenie ( Богоявление ) is the apparition of the Lord . Bogojawlenskaja Sloboda was first mentioned in writing in 1628. The similarity of the name to the Russian word Master (der Meister) is purely coincidental.
15 kilometers away there is also a place Mstjora, which is on the Kovrov - Nizhny Novgorod railway line . This namesake originated from the Mstjora train station. On the straight railway lines, the stations were named after the nearest town. In the past, the railway lines were only diverted to these localities if they bore the costs.
history
The icon painting influenced the painting style of lacquer miniatures decisive.
Mstjora was one of the four Russian centers of lacquer miniatures, alongside Fedoskino ( lacquer miniatures from Fedoskino ), Palech ( lacquer miniatures from Palech ) and Cholui ( lacquer miniatures from Cholui ). All places are in the Golden Ring of Moscow - in the northeast. These four centers formed a close community that influenced and enriched each other, although each of the four centers retained its individual character in lacquer painting.
After the conquest of Vladimir by the Tartars in 1238, many icon painters fled to the inaccessible forests northeast of Vladimir and sought refuge in the newly established villages of Palech, Mstjora and Cholui. Fedoskino did not have this old tradition of icon painting, but was instead the first center of miniature painting. Black lacquer boxes have been decorated there since the 18th century.
Icon painting
The three icon painting villages in Russia were: Palech, Mstjora and Cholui. The art of icon painting was already cultivated in Mstjora in the Middle Ages. Since Mstjora (and Palech) belonged to the Old Orthodox Church (Russian старовери / staroweri), their icons were initially rejected by the official Russian Orthodox Church .
Mstjora had the oldest traditions of the three icon-painting villages, as icons had been painted here since the Middle Ages. Typical of Mstjora was the "Byzantine manner" of icon painting, which persisted in Mstjora for many centuries until the beginning of the 20th century. The icon painters' workshops were passed down from generation to generation in the family, and almost the entire village was engaged in icon painting.
Icon painting also led to a flowering of embroidery in Mstjora. Since, according to Russian tradition, the icon corners in the houses - similar to a house altar - were decorated with embroidery. Both handicrafts were later reflected in the lacquer miniatures.
Paint miniatures
In the years following the October Revolution of 1917 and the Russian Civil War , churches were destroyed and looted, and with the increasing anti-religious activities of the communists, no one seemed interested in icons anymore.
Since the Bolsheviks forbade sacred art in their struggle against the churches, the icon painters became unemployed and had to move from sacred themes of icon painting to secular representations. The painters of the three villages took up the art of miniature painting from Fedoskino.
Maxim Gorky planned an exhibition on Russian folk art in 1923. The icon painters of the Vladimir region made miniature pictures for it. They took Old Russian fairy tales and literary works as motifs. They then exhibited their miniatures successfully at the 1925 World Exhibition in Paris and at the exhibition in Milan. This handicraft established itself in Mstjora in the 1930s.
In January 1923 in Mstjora, as in Palekh, some former icon painters and icon restorers founded a cooperative for Old Russian painting ( Артель древней живописи , Artel is a cooperative), which was dedicated to painting on furniture, everyday objects and toys. The founders of this painting in Mstjora were among others:
- AI Bryagin ( А. И. Брягин )
- IA Fomichev ( И. А. Фомичёв )
- EW Jurin ( Е. В. Юрин )
- NP Klykow ( Н. П. Клыков )
- AF Kotjagin ( А. Ф. Котягин )
- E. Jurin ( Е. Е. Юрин )
- VN Ovchinnikow ( В. Н. Овчинников )
- IN Morosow ( И. Н. Морозов )
In January 1931, the cooperative sent a group of artists to Moscow to learn how to make paper mache . Another group of artists was sent to Fedoskino to learn painting and polishing. Afterwards, paper mache boxes were also decorated with lacquer miniatures in Mstjora. In Palach, 60 km further north, miniature painting on paper mache had already begun a little earlier. The Cooperative for Old Russian Painting was renamed the Artel Proletarian Art ( артель Пролетарское искусство ) in the 1930s, which was a factory from 1960. So the place became a new, independent center of lacquer miniature art.
The first outstanding master of lacquer miniatures from Mstjora was Nikolai Prokowjewitsch Klikow ( Николай Прокопьевич Клыков , * 1861–1944). For a long time he was the driving force behind the search for a style of his own for the lacquer miniatures from Mstjora. In his early works he followed the tradition of old Russian miniatures from the 15th and 16th centuries. Stroganov's painting style appealed to Klikow the most. Sergei Grigoryevich Stroganow ( Сергей Григорьевич Строганов ; born November 8, 1794 in St. Petersburg; March 28, ibid.) Was also the founder of the Stroganov Art School in Moscow. His meticulous painting style and the colorful diversity of his pictures were best suited for the miniatures on paper mache. Klikow created his own style for the lacquer miniatures without turning away from the traditional painting technique of icon painting. At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937, Klikow's work "Dubrowski" received a diploma and a gold medal.
In 1960 the Artel Proletarian Art was converted into a factory.
The next generation of miniature painters is trained in the "FA Modorow" art school in Mstjora, which is named after Fyodor Aleksandrovich Modorov ( Федор Александрович Модоров , * 1890 in Mstjora; - 1967 in Moscow; - 1967 in Moscow . Модорова ). Most of the knowledge about the technique of miniature painting is not written down. The knowledge, secrets and experiences are passed on from generation to generation.
The outstanding masters from Mstjora include:
- NI Shishakov ( Н. И. Шишаков )
- LA Fomichev ( Л. А. Фомичёв )
- JM Vawanow ( Ю. М. Ваванов )
- PI Sossin ( П. И. Сосин ).
Miniature painting experienced an upswing in Mstjora in the 1960s and 1970s. The painters no longer only created illustrations of girls, songs and bylini (old Russian heroic epics), but independent compositions. The heroes of the October Revolution were often discussed. Historical or architectural monuments were also often drawn.
particularities
Typical of the lacquer miniatures from Mstjora is the unconventional composition of the picture: the individual objects are arranged on top of one another or in layers and shown on different scales, events from different times are combined in a single picture. The pictures have a special stylization in the interpretation of the forms, whereby bright, bright colors are preferred. The motifs look cute and naive. However, this naivety often appears sublime and shows a harmonious, stable and colorful life.
Further characteristics of the lacquer miniatures from Mstjora are the use of ornaments, flower compositions and the representation of the landscape. The miniatures from Mstjora are often decorated with vegetable or geometric patterns. Finely worked ornaments, typically drawn in gold, frame the miniatures.
The human figures are depicted small and often surrounded by houses, trees or animals. The miniatures show historical personalities, folklore, as well as literary and historical works.
It is characteristic of the communist period of atheism that the blue sky was depicted on the lacquer miniatures from Mstjora. The icon painters from Mstjora had already provided their icons with a background that matched the respective saint or the story of the saints. The sky was the border between this world and the hereafter .
The places of action of the miniature pictures are very often carefully and very detailed painted landscapes or societies at Russian tsarist courts. The background of deeply graduated landscapes, often with valleys, is typical. In contrast to this, the lacquer miniatures from Palech and Fedoskino usually only have a simple black background without landscapes. Typically, the paint miniatures from Palech have large figures that are also generously painted with gold.
In recent times, several episodes have often been combined in one picture composition, the landscape is depicted very strongly stylized, the motifs are more decorative and the picture is no longer as three-dimensional.
present
More than 100 miniature painters now form the core of the association “Center for Traditional Miniatures from Mstjora” (“ Центр традиционной мстерской миниатюры ”).
The museum with lacquer miniatures, icons and embroidery in Mstjora is located in the former monastery of Mstjora.
literature
- L. Pirogowa (author), O. Serebyakova, J. Doroshenko (author), W. Guljajew (introduction): Russian lacquer miniatures. (Fedoskino, Palech, Mstjora, Cholui), Aurora-Kunstverlag, Leningrad, 1989, ISBN 978-5730000193