Lacquer miniatures from Fedoskino
The lacquer miniatures from Fedoskino ( Russian Федоскинская миниатюра , transcribed Fedoskinskaja miniatjura ) are traditional Russian lacquer miniature paintings with oil colors on black lacquer boxes made of paper mache . The miniatures are painted in the typical style of Russian folk art . The virtuoso mastery of the painting technique was passed on from generation to generation and continuously refined. The lacquer cans and lacquer boxes changed with increasing artistry from everyday objects to art objects.
The Fedoskino miniatures are named after their original place of origin Fedoskino ( Федоскино ), an old village north of Moscow, in Mytishchi Raion , in Moscow Oblast . Fedoskino is located on the Ucha River ( Уча ) 27 km north of the Moscow ring road , on the Dmitrover Chaussee (Russian Дмитровское шоссе ).
One of the leading companies for the production of lacquer paintings in Russia became the company of Korobow / Lukutin in Fedoskino at the end of the 18th century. The Fedoskino miniatures have become widely known in Russia since the late 18th century. These pieces became popular not only in Russia, but also in Europe. Fedoskino became an important center of Russian miniature painting. The other three, not quite so important, centers of Russian lacquer miniatures were and are: Palech ( lacquer miniatures from Palech ), Mstjora ( lacquer miniatures from Mstjora ) and Holui ( lacquer miniatures from Cholui ). They are also not far from Moscow, in the north.
Production and motifs
It takes about four to six months to produce a piece: three months for the paper mache box. The paper mache blanks are soaked in hot linseed oil and then dried for one month at room temperature and one month in the drying oven. The primer is then made from clay, oil and soot before a black varnish is applied. After that, the actual painting of the miniature painting on the auxiliary product takes two more months and another month passes for the final varnishing and grinding . However, elaborate motifs can be painted for up to a year.
There is a very diverse assortment of large and small boxes, boxes, caskets and tins of various sizes and shapes, as well as other objects that have been decorated with lacquer miniatures: jewelry boxes, powder boxes, tobacco boxes, lids for albums , tea boxes, purses , glasses boxes , Easter eggs , Playing card boxes, boxes for matches, chocolate boxes, thimbles .
Special features of the lacquer miniatures from Fedoskino
Typical of the original technique of the Fedoskino lacquer miniatures is a "translucent painting". Before painting, a light-reflecting material is applied to the surface: the pictures are usually underlaid with gold leaf or gold-shimmering silver bronze . Some pictures are also backed with mother-of-pearl (mother-of-pearl inlays), which is then painted and often decorated with gold. For the mother-of-pearl inlays, a corresponding recess is ground out beforehand. Metal powder (aluminum powder or bronze powder), tin sulfide , metal flakes made of copper, zinc, aluminum or brass foil ( rushing gold ) can also serve as a substrate. Backing the pictures with a light-reflecting background creates a shimmering sheen or a silvery sparkle. The metallic background is barely noticeable due to the transparent colors applied afterwards and gives the picture a special depth effect.
The miniatures were made in oil paints ( tempera paints , transparent lacquer paints), which are applied in three to four layers. Typical for the style of the Fedoskino miniatures are bright and bright colors, the fine color gradations, flowing transitions between the different colors, as well as the precise and realistic painting technique. After the draft of the composition was painted on (a sketch of the silhouettes), a detailed elaboration followed. Finally, the objects are given their shine with light colors.
Otherwise, the paper mache boxes are usually painted black. The contrast of the image colors is enhanced by the glossy black lacquer background. However, many boxes are painted both on the outside and inside to imitate turtle shell , birch bark , mahogany , ivory , malachite, or tartan . Most of the inside of the lids are painted vermilion red and bear a factory stamp: a golden troika with the inscription "Fedoskino". All pieces from the Fedoskino factory are numbered.
In addition to miniature paintings, the boxes are also decorated with filigree work , with appropriately shaped miniature pieces of foil that are inserted into the lacquer.
Motifs
The motifs popular at the time also became frequent motifs on the lacquer miniatures from Fedoskino: Troika , tea-drinking scenes ("On Samovar "), scenes from Russian and Belarusian peasant life.
The lacquer miniatures from Fedoskino show a wide variety of motifs:
- Everyday scenes, especially rural scenes and scenes from the everyday life of merchants in the 19th century
- Fairy tale episodes from Russian folk tales (e.g. Ruslan and Lyudmila , The Frog Princess )
- Episodes of folk songs and stories, e.g. B. Motifs from a story by Alexander Pushkin
- Folk festivals and customs, fairs
- Peasant girl
- Russian folk tales and heroes of ancient Russia
- Jack Frost
- Copies of famous pictures and other works of art by Russian and Western European artists
- Winter landscapes and winter motifs, e.g. B. Troika trips (A drawing by Aleksander Orłowski (Russian Александр Осипович Орловский ; * 1777 in Warsaw; † 1832 in St. Petersburg) was used as a prototype for the motif of the troika .)
- the nature in the Moscow area
- Hunting scenes
- Animals and fantasy figures
- Russian architectural monuments (e.g. Moscow Kremlin )
- City views (e.g. Suzdal )
- political miniature posters
The art of painting by Fedoskino is also shaped by the composition of the motifs. The most valued subjects were those decorated with intricate compositions depicting many people.
The Lukutin miniature pictures (for the owner Lukutin see below ) on paper mache products differed from the European miniature pictures in particular in the strongly Russian-national motif choice and the special painting technique. The art of miniature painters was influenced on the one hand by Russian painting of the 18th and 19th centuries and on the other hand by the artists who made lacquerware, who had close contact with the Russian people and who appropriated their garish decorative elements from popular artistic tradition. Elements of panel painting, Lubok (Russian folk picture sheet ) and icon painting flowed into the lacquer miniatures , as well as the tradition of miniature portraits and miniature landscape painting .
Nowadays, mainly historical scenes from everyday life of the Russian people, fairy tales and historical events are depicted in miniature painting from Fedoskino.
history
Russian lacquer miniature painting has a centuries-old tradition and has its origins in filigree icon painting.
Korobov
The long-established Moscow merchant Pyotr Ivanovich Korobov (Пётр Иванович Коробов; † 1819) founded the first small business for the production of lacquerware made of paper mache near Moscow in the village of Danilkowo (Данилково). Danilkowo is now part of the Fedoskino village. It originally began with Korobov buying land in Danilkowo in order to earn money with the manufacture of lacquered visors for peaked caps ( shakos ) and helmets for the Russian army . Since there was no plastic back then, the visors were made from lacquered paper mache.
A few years later, during a trip through Europe, Korobow became interested in the Stobwassersche lacquerware factory in Braunschweig , which was then headed by Johann Heinrich Stobwasser (1740–1829). Korobow was able to purchase the necessary varnishes and paints from Stobwasser. There he got to know the production of German lacquer, was initiated into the secrets of lacquer painting and from there he also took over the technology for the production of paper mache boxes. Korobov invited some of the factory's masters to Russia to train his masters and workers, mainly local farmers.
In addition to the lacquered visors, his factory in Fedoskino now also produced round “Korobski” tobacco boxes. After a military reform that changed the uniform of the Russian military, his hats were no longer sold and Korobov switched production entirely to tobacco boxes. Korobow's small business was a manufacture - more of a large workshop than a factory. Such companies for paper mache tobacco boxes already existed in large numbers in Russia at that time, because with snuff , snuff boxes (lacquered tobacco boxes made of paper mache) had also become modern. Snuffing tobacco became very fashionable at that time, not only among nobles, but also among common people. Men and women - all sniffed tobacco. This also brought the tobacco boxes into fashion; they were made of gold, silver, porcelain or also made of paper mache. In the Moscow region, however, Korobov's operation was the first of its kind to produce paper mache tobacco boxes. Russian farmers learned how to make paper mache under the guidance of German masters in Fedoskino.
The first tobacco boxes from Korobow were not painted, but stuck with engravings, which were painted over. Since there were no artists in the factory yet, the first paint cans were only pasted with pictures. Round tobacco boxes brought from Braunschweig, which were painted with miniature paintings, served Korobow as a pattern. There were artists in the factory only in 1814 - right after Napoleon's Russian campaign .
These tobacco boxes were round and painted black. Initially, the lids of these cans were merely stuck with miniature engravings and coated with varnish. It was not until the second half of the 20th century that tobacco boxes, small caskets and other objects were decorated with miniature paintings that were executed in the classic painting style in oil paint.
Lukutin
In 1816 Korobow handed the factory over to his son-in-law Pyotr Vasilievich Lukutin ( Пётр Васильевич Лукутин , * 1784; † 1863). After Korobov's death († 1819) his factory was for a short time - 1818 to 1824 - owned by his daughter JP Korobowa ( Екатерина Коробова ). With the takeover by Pyotr Lukutin, a completely new chapter in the company's history began. Afterwards the most varied shapes and sizes of tobacco boxes were made and also completely different boxes: for cigars, cigarettes and matches, small chess tables and powder boxes . He relocated the factory on the other side of the Ucha River, in the village of Fedoskino, where he built a new building and hired new artists.
Pyotr Lukutin came from a Moscow merchant family. The factory remained in the possession of the Lukutin family until it closed in 1904. Pyotr Lukutin changed the shapes and motifs of the lacquer miniatures, focusing on the tastes of Russian consumers. After Pyotr Lukutin no longer had the miniatures painted in the salon style, but in the folk style, he became purveyor to the court of the Russian tsar in 1828 . This involved high quality requirements and he was granted the right to add the Russian state coat of arms , the double-headed eagle , to the paint cans from his production .
The heyday of the paint miniatures from Fedoskino fell in the second half of the 19th century, when the factory was managed by Aleksandr Petrovich Lukutin ( Александр Петрович Лукутин , * 1819; † 1888), the son of Pyotr W. Lukutin. At that time the products reached the European level and his factory was so well known in Russia that paper mache products from the Moscow region were called Lukinski . The lacquer miniatures gained recognition and wide awareness. Aleksandr Lukutin designed his own sketches for the caskets and selected the pictures and engravings that served as a template for the miniature pictures.
On the one hand, there was cheap production for the mass market, but on the other hand, commissioned work was also made for wealthy merchants and aristocrats. These artful commissioned works established the reputation of Lukutin's lacquer miniatures.
The artists were employed in the factory. Many had worked in the icon-painting workshops of Sergiev Posad (a city north of Moscow, near Fedoskino) and Moscow. Some of the miniature painters had artistic training that they had acquired at the Stroganov Art School in Moscow.
The Moscow founded in 1825 Stroganov Art School (ger .: Stroganov Moscow State University of Arts and Industry) in 1945 in central Moscow art-industrial school (Russ. - Московское центральное художественно-промышленное училище МЦХПУ renamed).
Nikolai Aleksandrovich Lukutin ( Николай Александрович Лукутин , * 1852; † 1902) was the last Lukutin to own the factory in Fedoskino, he was the son of Aleksandr Lukutin and grandson of Pyotr Lukutin. Nikolai Lukutin opened a shop selling the lacquer miniatures in Fedoskino. He married a very wealthy bride and became a well-known Moscow industrialist, collector and patron . Since he was not dependent on the income from the Fedoskino factory, he only ran the Fedoskino production on the side to pass the time, although it did not bring him any profit. Nikolai Lukutin had a new manor house built in Fedoskino in 1893, in which he also had the painting workshops housed.
After Nikolai Lukutin died in 1902, the heirs closed the business in 1904. His daughter sold the unique collection of lacquer miniatures from Fedoskino abroad. Some of the masters then worked in the workshop of WO Vishnyakov ( В. О. Вишняков ) (see below ), who had a relatively large workshop in the village of Ostashkino, a few tens of kilometers from Fedoskina. In his workshop, metal trays were decorated with paintings.
Artel
In May 1910, ten former miniature painters founded a cooperative ( Artel ) - the working Artel of the former masters of the Lukutin factory in Fedoskino ( Федоскинская трудовая артель бывших мастеров фабрики Луктинатики ). The financial support for this came from the local administration of the governorate ( Zemstvo ) and from St. Morozov ( Ст. Морозов ), a promoter of handicrafts.
In 1912 14 masters worked with nine students at Artel. The range comprised 160 different goods. The quality did not lag behind the famous miniatures from the Lukutin workshop and far surpassed the quality of similar miniatures from the Vyschnjakov workshop.
As early as 1913, Artel's products received a small gold medal at the All-Russian Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition in Kiev. For a while, an image of these medals was also stamped on the back of the goods.
The revolutionary years of 1917 and the years of the Russian Civil War were the hardest in this craft. In the first years after the October Revolution and the onset of repression and suppression of religion in Russia, the Artel had major problems, as demand fell sharply and the new rulers had a negative attitude towards the motifs on the lacquer miniatures. The masters were taxed excessively and the state tried to close the workshop several times. The icon painters also had great problems in the first post-revolutionary years, as there was no longer any need for icons. In order to secure their livelihood, many icon painters in the Soviet Union had to realign their handicrafts in the 1930s. They turned to lacquer painting with folk motifs, but kept the painting style of icon painting. This led to the boom in lacquer painting on paper mache boxes.
The turning point in the official attitude to the Fedoskino lacquer miniatures came in 1923, when the products of the workshop on the All-Russian Exhibition of Agriculture and crafts (russ. Всероссийская сельскохозяйственная и кустарно-промышленная выставка ) a diploma first degree was awarded in Moscow. These first awards after the 1917 revolution boosted the reputation of miniature painters. Production was gradually expanded, demand for miniatures from Fedoskino increased, they were also sold abroad. It is worth mentioning a diploma from the Paris World Exhibition in 1925 and the Milan Exhibition in 1927. The craft survived and recovered in the late 1920s. At that time, a group of the most talented artists from Vishnyakov's workshop (see below ) was integrated into the Artel. AW Bakuschinski ( А. В. Бакушинский ) and WM Wassilenko ( В. М. Василенко ), two well-known art historians , supported the workshop with their creative help in the 1930s.
In the early 1940s the Artel became a factory producing art on an assembly line. During the Second World War, on Stalin's instructions, the artists from the factory in Fedoskino were not called up for military service. Another order from Stalin meant that all former artists from Fedoskino who were now working elsewhere were resettled in Fedoskino.
In 1931 a professional school for miniature painting was founded in Fedoskino to promote this craft. The school was headed from 1931 to 1982 by Mikhail Andreevich Bokow ( Михаил Андреевич Боков ). Many of the miniature painters perished during the Second World War.
From 1930 to 1950, the miniature painters in Fedoskino mainly copied panel paintings . In order to expand the range, an experimental workshop was also founded in 1945, the scientific and artistic direction of which was subordinated to the Scientific Research Institute for the Art Industry (Russian: НИИ художественной промышленности ). Old, abandoned types of decoration and mother-of-pearl painting have been reintroduced into the program.
present
Only at the end of the 1950s did individual miniature painters emerge. Recognized miniature painters who made great contributions to the development of the Fedoskino miniatures included: SI Borodkin ( С. И. Бородкин ), DA Krylov ( Д. А. Крылов ), GI Larischew ( Г.И. Ларишев ), VD Lipitsk ( В.Д. Липицк ), MG Pashin ( М.Г. Пашинин ), PN Putschkow ( П. Н. Пучков ), SP Rogatorw ( С. П. Рогатов ), AA Shavrin ( А. А. Шаврин. ), II Starachow ( И.И. Страхов ), AW Tichomirow ( А. В. Тихомиров ) and MS Tschischow ( М.С. Чижов ).
In the 1960s, the Artel was converted into the Fedoskino Factory for Miniature Painting (Russian Федоскинская фабриа миниатюрной живописи ). In 1931 a craft school (russ. Профессионально-техническая школа миниатюрной живописи ) was founded, which is now called the Fedoskino School for Miniature Painting (russ. Едоси ).
1950 to 1980 the school trained specialists for lacquer miniatures, Finift from Rostov (Russian Ростовская финифть ; artistic enamel work) and for painting on metal from Shostov (Russian Жостовская роспись ). From the 9th grade onwards, the students learn their trade for four years.
In the 1970s a new seven-story building was built for the Fedoskino factory and a wing for the school.
Currently (2009) the factory is state-owned. Around 100 artists work for the factory, mostly freelance for commissioned work and continue the tradition of the Fedoskino miniatures. However, the economic situation of the factory has been tense for years, among other things because the large government contracts customary in Soviet times were no longer required on the occasion of the frequent official anniversaries. In the winter of 2004/2005 the workers and artists were sent home for four months. The production was between 2500 and 300 pieces from 2003 to 2005. In 2006 6000 pieces were produced. The factory produced a total of 20,000 units in Lukutin's day and 120,000 units during the Soviet era in the 1970s and 1980s.
Attached to the company is a museum with 2000 exhibits, the oldest being 150 years old. The museum has 1500 visitors a month.
The paint miniatures from Palech are the greatest competition for the products from Fedoskino today.
Vishnyakov (competitor of Lukutin)
At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, numerous workshops were set up in the Moscow Governments and in the Saint Petersburg Governments , in which lacquered paper mache snuff boxes were made. Similar painting workshops were later set up by other entrepreneurs in the neighboring villages.
The Vishnyakov family also had workshops for lacquer miniatures in the northern vicinity of Moscow. They came from a family of serf peasants of Count Sheremetev and had several workshops in the Moscow area. The brothers were called Taras, Egor and Filipp.
The first workshop was opened by Filipp Nikititsch Vishnyakov ( Филипп Никитич Вишняков ) in 1780 in the village of Shostovo ( Жостово ), which was then moved to Moscow. He had worked in the Fedoskino workshop for a while, looking at painting techniques and technology there before opening his own workshop. After Filipp Vishnyakov had accumulated enough capital, he traded his goods himself in Moscow and then moved to Moscow, to Zwetnoj Bulwar ( Цветной бульвар / Flower Boulevard). His factory existed until 1840.
He opened a new workshop in Moscow, while his brother Tars Vishnyakov continued the workshop in the village of Shostovo until his son Osip grew up. In 1825, Ossip Filippowitsch Vishnyakov ( Осип Филиппович Вишняков , † 1888), the son of Filipp Nikititsch Vishnyakov, took over the workshop and successfully continued it until it was continued by his uncles Peter and Wassilii.
Ossip Vishnyakov later founded his own workshop together with EF Beljajew ( Е. Ф. Беляев ). Vishnyakov and Belyayev's workshop, the first products of which appeared in 1830, became the largest in the region and became an important competitor for Korobov and Lukutin at the beginning of the 19th century. In the second half of the 19th century, the paint miniatures from the Vishnyakov factory became just as famous as those from Lukutin. Both factories competed, they were the two outstanding workshops for lacquer miniatures in the Moscow area. Both workshops influenced each other in their art, masters were exchanged, painting techniques picked up, technical innovations from the other were adopted.
The working time was 14 hours, on fair days 18 to 20 hours. All workshops were family workshops. The tradition of miniature lacquer painting had a fruitful effect on the painting of the other workshops. This is how a strong lacquer painting center arose in these villages. His village neighbor, Belyayev, exceeded the financial success of the Vishnyakov family. He had 50 employees and earned 20,000 rubles a year, surpassing Vishnyakov's by 8,000 rubles.
In 1830 there were 8 workshops in the area, the number of which grew to 20 by 1876. From 1876 to 1888, farmers in dozens of villages in the Moscow governorate dealt with lacquer painting:
- In the village of Sorokino ( Сорокино ) Aleksei Wiswchnjakow ( Алексей Вишняков) opened a workshop together with Sakhar Petrov ( Захар Петров ) and EF Beljajew ( Е.Ф.Беляев , 1830–1885).
- Vasily Wischnajkow ( Василий Вишняков ) and Kiril Panski ( Кирил Пански ) opened a workshop in the village of Ostashkowo .
- Stepan Filischkow ( Степан Филишков ) had a workshop in the village of Novoselzewo ( Новосельцево ) .
literature
- L. Pirogowa (author), O. Serebyakova, J. Doroshenko (author), W. Guljajew (introduction): Russian lacquer miniatures. (Fedoskino, Palech, Mstera, Cholui), Aurora-Kunstverlag, Leningrad, 1989, ISBN 978-5730000193
- Irina Uchanowa: Russian lacquer art: From Peter the Great to the Great Revolution. Exhibition at the Museum für Lackkunst Münster, Munich 2002, publisher: BASF, ISBN 978-3930090112
Coordinates: 56 ° 3 ′ 17 ″ N , 37 ° 35 ′ 1 ″ E