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By the time the magnificent icons and
frescoes of Rublev, Dionisii and others were covered with silver or gold, or
worse, with a layer of darkened varnish and dirt, or were repainted entirely.
Hardly any painter of the 18th century had ever seen them; and if they
sometimes painted icons, again they turned their eyes to the west for
inspiration and "Poldlinik." They severed all relations with medieval
Russian art, and with iconography in particular; the tsar's izografs were no
longer at the Kremlin's Icon Chamber; even many monasteries were without their
icon painters. The ancient art of icon painting would have died if it had not
been for the self-taught simple craftsmen and peasants who became the only
perpetuators of the old traditions. The three villages; Mstyra, Kholui and
Palekh, about sixty miles to the East of Suzdal, the heart of the old Russia,
emerged as the new center of Russian iconography. Already in the 17th century
word of their art had spread, and since the icons they painted was under the
control of the archbishop of Suzdal, the icons became known as
"Suzdal." Legend says that when the Tatars invaded and burned Suzdal
and Vladimir, many people fled for safety into the deep woods and founded
Palekh and other settlements. Among them were a few Suzdal monks - icon
painters who taught the villagers their art. Palekh acquired great fame; it was
unique in the history of art, in that most of its population was making its
living by painting icons. They worked in several workshops that existed in
Palekh until the revolution. Often the owner was also the master painter,
passing his knowledge and his shop to his son; generations of hereditary
painters were raised this way. Women did the polishing, covering
"Oklad" with brass and other paint and some other secondary jobs.
Apprentices, often young boys, worked and lived in the workshops without pay
for about six years before becoming salaried painters. Usually they studied and
were guided by one master, first copying figures from old books and later doing
the same with icons. The apprenticeship lasted for a long time because the boys
were used most of the time for all sorts of incidental jobs. One apprentice was
the future People's Artist of the Russian Republic, Nikolai Mikhailovich
Zinoviev, whose lectures printed in 1968 gave us many interesting details on
the history and art of Palekh and its iconographers. In view of Zinoviev's age,
without his knowledge and his book much valuable information on
pre-revolutionary Palekh would have been lost for ever.
The painters of Palekh, too, claim that they developed their own style, which
is only true to a certain degree. It would be more appropriate to say that
early in the 18th century they combined the styles of Novgorod, Stroganov and
Moscow and arrived at something seemingly their own. I would say they drew the
most from Stroganov's best iconographers. At the same time the Palekh painters
continued to differ one from the other primarily because of their artistic
values and because of the likeness that their icons had either with Novgorod's,
Moscow's, or Stroganov's style, and when western influences reached them at the
end of the 18 Th century, Palekh too saw its first iconographers paint icons in
"Friz" (friazhskii) style. The imitation of various styles was so
wide-spread that the painters were divided into several categories in
accordance with the style they chose to work in. The icons done after the old
schools were the most appreciated, followed by the "Friaz"
imitations; the cheapest were massproduced icons where only the face and naked
parts of the body were painted. Some highly talented painters of the first
group were able to imitate an old icon with such perfection that even
specialists could hardly distinguish it from the original. But the painters had
several things in common, which should be considered typical of Palekh art. The
composition of their best icons was even more diversified and complicated than
the Stroganov's; animal and floral life was richer; there was a larger range of
colors; and occasionally a polychrome background; and the Palekh painters
achieved an intense depth of coloring by applying several separate thin
translucent layers of paint, "Plav" creating an effect as if the
color were glowing from inside, like a jewel. The icons were painted on
seasoned wooden panels specially prepared and covered with gesso (levkas).
Frist a cartoon was made with charcoal and finished with pencil, and then the
figures and the main objects were outlined with a special needle (grafya) so
that their contours could be seen after the icon was covered with the first
layers of paint. Besides their stylistic distinctions, the painters were
divided into two basic groups: "Dolichniki" were those who
specialized in painting the landscapes and the garments, and
"Lichniki" painted faces, heads, hands, legs and naked bodies. After
everything else had been done, "Dolichniki" usually painted the
background, sky and water first, followed by the hills, trees, animals and
architectural objects and ending with the garments. To achieve depth, intensity
and volume in each object, the "Dolischniki" painters laid on another
layer of a darker or lighter shade and combined this with their specific
"Probel" method by applying several brush strokes of lighter tones
or, more often, gold. Probel is here best translated as "Blanching."
We see this technique in the form of strokes or lines of various sizes, or
curls, triangles, curves and sometimes patches (plots), called
"Silki," often used as the beginning point from which the lines were
drawn.
A Lichnik usually started his work by covering the place reserved for the head
and other parts of the naked body with a layer of dark yellow, green-yellow or
reddish-yellow color, known as "Sankir." Then he drew, usually with
soot the face, the hair,, and the rest and was ready to start with several
"Plavs." The first one was called "Okhrenie," - the
application of lighter layers of thin yellow hues on the top of the dark
"Sankir" - to mark the most exposed parts such as forehead, nose,
cheeks, chin etc. Using a very light cinnabar the painter lays the paint on the
lips, nostrils, cheeks etc, to give them a more natural look. The third
"Plav" is done with burnt umber for hair, eye brows, mustaches, the
pupil of the eye etc. These are the three most important "Plavs;"
they were sometimes repeated several times with very thin paint, letting each
coat dry completely, to achieve translucence and depth of coloring and give the
figures a mellow, saintly look. When the paint was well dried, the icon was
varnished with "Olifa," made of boiled and purified flux oil that has
become crystal clear. The varnishing is done with the fingers, and a thin layer
of olifa equally spread over the icon with strokes of the palm, called
"Fikanie," after the whistling that this process usually produced,
and the icon was done.
The Palekh painters used the same method in preparing their colors as all other
icon painters. Most of them were mineral or vegetable materials, ground into a
fine powder which was mixed with egg yolk diluted in kvas (a Russian drink made
of fermented double baked rye bread). The intensity of their yellow and red
hues, of the emerald greens and other colors was considerably enhanced with
pure gold paint used for "Probel." It is not surprising to feel the
sensation of warmth that the old icons produce not only in Orthodox believers,
but in everybody.
The high artistic standards of Palekh iconography began to decline during the
last century, and by the end had turned into a highly commercialized business
which forced the reluctant painters to produce a large number of icons to
satisfy the ever increasing demand of the peasant market. It appears that
Palekh, Holui and Mstera were at one time able to make about two million of
these mass-produced icons a year, each with one or two coats of paint, or, with
the exception of faces, hands and legs, which had to be painted by hand, the
icon was simply covered with shiny metal repousse plate (oklad, riza). Finally
an even larger border of even cheaper icons were produced by the manufacturers
of tin boxes, printed in colors on tin plates of various sizes and then fixed
on a piece of ordinary wood. Many icon painters lost their jobs and had to
learn to paint paper mache objects and metal tea-trays, two industries that
experienced a boom in the 19th century. Those who remained, with the exception
of a very few; who continued to work as they had in old times and painted icons
on request for special clients, rapidly abandoned the traditional mode of
painting icons, introducing more illustrative and realistic styles. Some
scholars and literary figures became concerned about the mediocrity of new
paintings and the eventual complete disappearance of the beauty of the ancient
art as it was still best expressed in the iconography of Palekh. A special
Committee of Guardianship of Russian Iconography was established to salvage
what it could, was established in 1902. It opened schools of iconography in all
three villages. Their work helped to raise new a generation of qualified
painters, but the first World War, considerably reduced artistic activity in
the area, was followed by the revolution, which closed all workshops,
confiscated property and put an end to Russian iconography, not only in Palekh,
Mstera and Kholui but throughout the country.
Most of the unemployed icon painters returned to their villages to cultivate
their land, and managed to survive the troubled times of hardship and famine
during and after the revolution. Sometimes they found time to paint too, but
seldom to paint icons. The need for icons was abruptly rubbed out by the
Bolsheviks. In his book Zinoviev admitted that he painted Lenin's portraits
instead; others found extra incomes by decorating all sorts of wooden objects,
so popular in Russian households. Then one of the most talented Palekh
iconographers, Ivan Ivanovich Golikov, had the idea to try painting on papier
mache. The Moscow Museum of Decorative Arts became interested in his work and
supplied Golikov and some other Palekh artists with papier mache boxes ready to
be painted. At the end of 1924 several former iconographers established their
Workshop "Artel" of Ancient Painting, to paint papier mache
miniatures.
Until Soviet times it was assumed that Russian lacquered box painting started
at the end of the 18th century, and that the panels that covered the walls of
the "Chinese Cabinet" in the Monplaisir palace, which Peter the Great
built for himself at Peterhof in 1714-1725, were painted by Chinese masters.
Pagodas, flowers, birds, the entire landscape: everything was Chinese, and at
that time Russia had extensive trade relations with China. The palace was
destroyed by the Germans during the last World War. The reconstruction of the
palace was begun after the war, and Palekh painters, headed by Zinoviev, were
chosen to paint new panels using the original four panels that had survived out
of almost a hundred as models. When they examined the wood of the old panels,
it proved to be the lime wood so often used by the Russians for the icons, but
seldom by the Chinese for their paintings. Further research in the Archives
confirmed that the "Chinese" panels were painted by Russian painters
in 1722. The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg has several pieces of
lacquered furniture made and painted by Russian masters during the 18th
century. Most of the furniture was done in the "Chinese style with Chinese
motifs and much gold on a black lacquered background. There are several
documents which confirm that in Siberia in the second half of the 18th century
painted metal tea-trays and several other objects were made by Russian masters,
often working for the members of the famous Demidov family. Then in the
seventeen-eighties F. N. Vishniakov, a former serf of count Sheremetiev,
started a small factory to produce painted and lacquered objects in the village
of Zhestovo near Moscow. The village got its name from "Zhest"
meaning tin-plate which was used to make lacquered trays. There were several
others who followed his example.
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