Artistic bone carving. Types and techniques of bone carving: a master class for beginners Modern Ukrainian bone carvers

Chess. First half of the 18th century

The carving on the bone of distant Yakutia is peculiar, which formed a bright local art school thanks to the influence of Russian settlers and the skills of processing this noble material that already existed among the Yakuts. The upsurges of the bone-carving art of the Nizhny Novgorod and St. Petersburg masters of the 18th-19th centuries were short-lived. The craftsmanship of bone carving turned out to be extremely stable in the Arkhangelsk province in Kholmogory, their district and Arkhangelsk, as well as in Yakutia. It was the Kholmogory and Yakut bone carvers who left us a wealthy population. Both Tobolsk and Chukotka, the well-known centers of the Soviet folk art of bone carving, did not form in the 18th-19th centuries as independent centers of artistic carving. Very soon they showed interest in three-dimensional sculpture, which was developed in the Soviet era. If the history of the emergence of bone carving in Tobolsk at the end of the 19th century is known to some extent, then it is extremely difficult to judge the works and their artistic specificity. Only a few copies of Tobolsk products of the late 19th and early 20th centuries reached the nagas.

Sculptural group Alexander the Great, second half of the 18th century.

Kholmogory- a kind of progenitor of the refined art of carving, which in the capital cities acquired new, one might say, academic forms, and in Far Eastern Yakutia absorbed the features of local culture. The stylistic characteristics of the works, combined with historical facts, will help us to recreate the community process of development of the diverse forms of bone carving art that existed in Russia for centuries and continues to develop today.
In the specialized literature, the question of the technology of production of bone carved items is covered quite fully. In the works of A. Selivanov, G. Roganov, B. Zubakin and other authors, there are data on the properties of bone - a material for artistic crafts, on the main main methods of its preliminary processing, and the carving process itself is covered.
Curious information on the coloring of the bone is given by S. Vanin and S. Vanina in the book “Technique for the Artistic Finishing of Furniture”, where the authors refer to the manuscript of the 16th-17th centuries “On dyeing a vessel”, “Decree, what kind of blackening”, finally, to the decree “ On the blackening of the crosses of fish teeth.
Moreover, in our days there has been an increased interest in the revival of light bone coloring or engraved design.
The art of bone carving by Russian masters has the deepest traditions. The surviving archaeological sites allow us to imagine how bone carving skills were gradually developed, how ornamental patterns were formed (some of them - the “eye ornament”, that is, a circle with a dot in the middle, became traditional until the 19th century), how three-dimensional forms and pictorial motifs were developed carved art, as they achieved success in small plot plastic. It is no coincidence that many foreigners wrote about bone carving, which was common in the Muscovite state of the 16th-17th centuries - S. Herberstenn, D. Fletcher and others. Some of them, for example, a diptych depicting Fyodor, Dimitry, Gregory and Andrey Stratilat, executed by the Solvychegoda masters, apparently for the Stroganovs, amaze with the filigree work of the relief, the multi-figure complex composition. In this respect, the diptych argues with the bone carvings of Moscow and North Russian masters of the 16th century. A small bone icon of the 16th century from the collection of the State Hermitage Museum depicting holidays can be attributed to this period. Its compositional construction is clearly geometric. In each hallmark there are micro-compositions with obronnmmi inscriptions. Numerous figurines are placed mainly frontally, but the ability to arrange them in each stamp, the plasticity of modeling, the proportionality found - everything speaks of the skillful hand of the carver, who probably worked not only on bone, but on wood. It is difficult to put this icon on a par with accurately annotated works, since such a small number are known. This icon is closest to the carving of the Cilician Cross from the Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery in Vologda. However, it is more plastic in interpretation. One thing is certain, that without the traditional succession of carving craftsmanship, it would be impossible to create such a work.

Needle bed in the shape of a steam locomotive. 1840s

Northern Russian bone cutters have achieved significant success in this regard.
In the specialized literature, the names of those carvers who were listed in the documents of the Armory Chamber are repeatedly mentioned, and their works were published in the last century by A. Viktorov and A. Uspeshki. These were unsurpassed artists of carved herbal ornaments, in which various images animals. The throne was completely covered with embossed bone plates, some of which were lost over time.
The Sheshsnns re-carved several reliefs, restoring the ceremonial throne and, by this alone, preserving the glory of the art of the northern Russian masters of the 17th century. And the Armory Chamber can see this unique work on display. A semicircular bone comb made by one of the Sheshenins is also stored there. A double-headed eagle, a unicorn, a lion and grass patterns make up the pattern of the relief carving on a transparent background. Freedom to us the manner of performance speaks of the great experience of the artist. Archival documents testify that the last of the carvers of this family, Vasily, continued to work in 1723. That is why the names of Shesheniykh, Denis Zubkov, Ivan Katerinin and others are next to the names of Polish and Belarusian masters Kirill Tolkachev, Danila Kokotka, Ivan Dracula, Samoila Bogdanov, Ivan Nikitin and the “foreigner” Ivan Gan.
On the one hand, a school such as the Moscow Armory Chamber polished the art of bone carvers, bringing them to the forefront of artists. On the other hand, returning to their homeland, they brought with them vivid impressions, developed artistic tastes, perfection of performing skills and perfection of style. On local soil, all this was again enriched by the bright source of folk art, and this whole process was infinitely long. But it was precisely in this process that the power of the art of the northern Russian masters consisted. That is why, since the beginning of the 18th century, Kholmogory bone carvers have become regular guests of the new capital of St. Petersburg.
A slightly larger number of bone-carving works have survived from the 16th century. Combs, caskets, caskets, chess and other highly artistic household items made up the range of products in carved bone. Usually they were decorated with a through ornamentation of lush flowering plants, which were woven into openwork details, vases, and less often figures of people. Their relief carving is large-scale, close to patterned woodcarving and at the same time, undoubtedly, is associated with the ornamentation of book headpieces made by Russian xylographers of the 17th century.

Plate with a portrait of M. V. Lomonosov. Early 19th century

As one of the characteristic examples of this kind of artistic products, there can be a casket-teremok from the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries from the collection of the Museum of Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR. The lush herbal pattern was a success for the master with its juiciness, lively feeling of a plant filled with juices, powerful vitality. On the lid in the center there is a tower with two windows, in which a fabulous princess with a trefoil crown on her head is sitting, in a mantle over a long dress, and on her knees is a skull. On the bevel, in the center of the ornamental composition, there is a man in a caftan with a frill and a magnificent wig, he is surrounded by curls with serpentine heads. What kind of images the bone carver wanted to introduce into the decorative carving of the lid is hard to say. On the front wall of the casket, among the foliage surrounding the pointed buildings, there were two seated female figures with loose hair - this process was infinitely long. But it was precisely in this process that the strength of the art of the northern Russian masters lay. That is why, since the beginning of the 15th century, Kholmogory bone carvers have become regular guests of the new capital - St. Petersburg.
As one of the characteristic examples of this kind of artistic products, there can be a casket-teremok from the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries from the collection of the Museum of Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR. The lush herbal pattern was a success for the master with its juiciness, lively feeling of a plant filled with juices, powerful vitality. On the lid in the center there is a tower with two windows, in which a fabulous princess with a trefoil crown on her head is sitting, in a mantle over a long dress, and on her knees is a skull. On the bevel, in the center of the ornamental composition, there is a man in a kafgan with a jabot and a magnificent wig, he is surrounded by curls with serpentine heads. What kind of images the bone carver wanted to introduce into the decorative carving of the lid is hard to say. On the front wall of the casket, among the foliage surrounding the pointed buildings, there are two seated female figures with flowing hair in long dresses. One has a vessel in the shape of a skull in her lap. Such images can be explained if we recall the special vitality of anthropomorphic images in the oral folk art of the Pomeranian population. It was in the North that myth-making preserved the image of a mermaid, who lives in rye in summer and is called noon, and in spring - in water. Apparently, the bone carved casket turned out to be the object on which the master's fantasy boldly combined the diverse but meaningful figures of a gentleman full of realities in a European dress and a mermaid, traditional for mythology. She is the spirit of nature, so it was so natural to introduce her into the lush herbs of carved ornamentation. Here, as it were, ideas about the power of nature, about its mighty beauty, merged. The master expressed his love for decorative patterns, fantasy and realities. He embodied his idea in the harmony of the carved pattern, in its special proportion, which can be compared with a musical phrase, a clear rhythm of sounds that cannot be broken, because then the unity of the artist’s intention will be destroyed.
Another example of magnificent bone carving by northern Russian craftsmen of the early 18th century is the casket-teremok from the Hermitage collection.
The through carving decorating the surface is superimposed on gilded foil, which creates a delicate color harmony with the warm shade of bone. The carving pattern is distinguished by the juiciness and splendor of sprawling herbs. Each wall has a compositional center: on the end walls there is a rosette of a flower, from which two pairs of acanthus branches with clusters of fruits symmetrically diverge to different sides, on the front and back walls there is a double acanthus shamrock with branches extending to the sides with unfolded flowers. The compositional center of the lid is the image of the Main Savior. In the works of icon painters, he occupied a place of honor, he was placed instead of Densus or under him on the iconostasis tabla. The opinion expressed by E. Smirnova that this image was especially revered towards the northern region, apparently, is true. Otherwise, why would it have been placed on such a magnificently carved bone casket made by North Russian, Kholmogory craftsmen? It is interesting to pay attention to one more detail - to two masks of monsters, located among the branches on the bevels of the cover. Such masks were typical for the applied arts of Western European, especially German masters. On wooden cabinets, chairs, caskets and other objects of the 13th century, they are constantly found. But the same masks can be seen in the ornamentation of book headpieces and in engravings of the time of Peter the Great. In bone carving, they turned into conditional images such as palmettes. The rethinking of borrowed motifs led to the enrichment of newly created compositions, which were performed in accordance with local traditions. The master was clearly well versed in matters of art and reunited its elements in an artistically integral work.

Podchasnik. First half of the 19th century

Practically, even to this day, the role of the ornamental pattern is extremely shin mi. Each time the master faces the task of taking into account the peculiarity of the material, harmoniously linking the pattern with the shape of the object. The specificity of the ornament and conventionality, which does not allow it to be a complete, independent work, isolated from the form and purpose of the subject. Whatever principles the pattern of the ornament comes from, it always retains the right to be called a decorative element in the general plan of the master. Therefore, the role of grass ornament in the art of the 17th - early 18th centuries is just as important and decisive as ovals, pearls, meanders and acanthus shoots with rosettes, wreaths and garlands are for the art of the first quarter of the 19th century.
The stylistic features of the time were fully expressed in the ornamental and pictorial bone carving of the northern Russian masters not only at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, but also in subsequent decades.
So, with the appearance in the Russian translation of 1705 of the book "Symbols and Emblemata", it began to be widely used by a variety of craftsmen, including bone carvers. Kholmogory carvers bought this book more than one copy. For example, in 1718, Andrey Protopopov, a bone craftsman, purchased seven copies of this richly illustrated edition from the Vegetable Row in Moscow at the same time. That is why relief and engraved images appeared on bone items, varying the compositions of round medallions from the Amsterdam edition. Indicative are two gunpowder horns from the Hermitage collection. They are solved exclusively decorative, in the spirit of Peter's time. The powder flask of 1719 is decorated with only one relief with a rather complex composition of symbolic images and explanations and other inscriptions. On one side, cupid takes away the heart from the many-headed hydra, which is explained as follows: "No one will take it away from me"; on the other side, cupid hovers over an altar with four hearts - “One is enough for me”, here is the date: “1719”. The side rib is decorated with a three-dimensional figurine of a lying lion, and the end of the horn is designed to look like a monster's head. Leaf curls of the cartouche, dividing strips, inscriptions and figures - everything is done in a relief, rather low, moderately generalized, in a word, as was the custom in the art of the first quarter of the 18th century. The logic of constructing an ornamentally decorative solution, its complete fusion with the shape of the object give us the right to consider this small thing as one of the most typical for its time. The tradition of craftsmanship here is that the bone cutter calculated everything and properly, in accordance with the artistic style of the time, solved the composition and its individual images.

Decorative cabinet with clavichords. 1830-1840s

Just as accurate was the placement of the engraved image on another powder flask of the first quarter of the 18th century with the engraved monogram of the carver “IKH”. Its shape is the same - a slightly flattened horn with relief figures of a lion and a dragon along the upper rib and a monster's head at the pointed end. On the sides are scenes of the battle between Samson and the Philistines. The presented event is confirmed by the corresponding text at the top of the composition. It is worth emphasizing the technique used by the master to depict the enemy army: numerous peaks sticking up with their points upwards create a close crowd, while there are very few figures of warriors. On the feet of the defeated (there are several of them on both sides), Samsa steps with a belligerently raised sword in his right hand. On the other side of the horn is a figure of a man carrying a basket with a heavy load on his shoulder. At some distance, a village of several houses is depicted; the vegetation is represented by very graceful triple twigs-bushes, characteristic of Kholmogory bone cutters. The conventionality of the image, the emphasis on the main character has always been a specific feature of the artistic creativity of the northern Russian masters. The stroke of the drawing is erased with dark paint. This creates the illusion of an engraved image, especially since the background of the bone is light, as is the background of the paper on which the engraving was imprinted. The master without embarrassment used the engraved printed sheet as the original for his composition on the bone. Relief carving in the form of three-dimensional figures of animals is preserved only to decorate the rib and the tip of the horn. Works of this kind date back to the period of the greatest enthusiasm for engravings, which was observed at the beginning of the 17th century. Indicative in this respect is a group of bone-carved powder flasks from the collections of the State Hermitage and the State Historical Museum, made in the first decade of the 18th century. They are united by the common solution of the form with the obligatory three-dimensional figurines of animals on the edge, as well as with the identical carving of the tip in the form of the head of a sea monster, possibly a whale or a dolphin. Scenes of hunting and fighting animals are the main theme of the relief carvings on powder flasks. Comparison of powder flasks with individual works of Kholmogory bone cutters of the first half of the 18th century - the walls of chests, boxes of various shapes - leads to the conclusion that the craftsmen use the same graphic originals, but each time purely individually, according to the artistic and decorative task. Therefore, we see variations of well-known engravings from "Symbols and Emblems". An eagle chasing a hare, or a rider hunting an ostrich, on the one hand, on the other hand, some other patterns made it possible for the carvers to perform the composition of the bear-baiting. The hot fights of animals, their intense struggle are emphasized by the elements of the landscape and neighboring more calm figures. The frieze solution of the compositions on the powder flasks is quite logical, and on one of the boxes, apparently a cigarette case, the carver performed several plots less justified: the baiting of a bear, a reindeer team in the forest, a rest near the plague of northerners in malitsa, and all of them are given in stripes with a clear overload in relief carving.
And in some works oblique shading is preserved against the background of the undoubted influence of engraving with its specific cutting of the background. And in the 1730s and in the middle of the 18th century, this source will be felt to a lesser extent, as carvers will be carried away by subtle modeling of relief in sophisticated through carving, in creating uniquely skillful compositions combined with portrait and plot images. But individual drawings were repeated many times throughout the 18th century. Among them were especially loved "The Judgment of King Solomon", "Adam and Eve in Paradise", "Samson and the Lion", "The Whale Throwing Jonah", "The Fruit of the Promised Land" and many others. They were taken from special editions, carefully studied, copied, redrawn the main figures, details and created original independent compositions on this basis. Throughout the 18th century, literary and graphic subjects were closely included in the work of bone carvers. It is known that sometimes they used sheets even for ceremonial or commissioned works.
A vivid example of this is the decorative plate based on the first engraved sheet "The Theological Thesis of Sylvester Kulyabka". As is known, in 1744 a huge ceremonial engraving on copper was made, dedicated to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. She is represented sitting on a throne, next to her is Peter II and Anna, Duchess of Holstein. Next to the thrones, decorated with magnificent baroque carvings, are allegorical figures, which are well linked with the symbolic compositions in six round medallions located above the central part. The medallions are also in magnificent ornamental frames made of leafy scrolls. In the upper part of the composition there are figures of Peter I and Catherine I floating in the clouds, they lower the chain with a crown on the head of Elizabeth, they are surrounded by figures of angels. The group of courtiers who swear allegiance to the service of Elizabeth Petronna is full of dynamics. It is picturesquely located at the base of the throne, and somewhat lower in large oval cartouches of the engraving is the text of the thesis of Sylvester Kulyabka, who at that time was the rector of the Academy in Kyiv. The engraving, executed on six boards, was clearly a complex custom work. The characteristic features of the artistic style of the era received their typical expression here in the structure of the composition, in the use of allegories and symbols, lush-leaved cartouches, and extensive glorifying texts. The bone carver managed to get access to such an engraving, which already indicates his special position and the possibilities of getting acquainted with small-circulation works of art of that time. The bone cutter used only the central part of the composition, greatly transforming it - the figures of angels in the clouds turned into heads with wings, interspersed with round convex clouds. The carver used only three central figures on thrones. Apparently, he was attracted by their special solemnity and splendor.
Despite the compositional solution, which has been greatly changed in comparison with the engraving, the relief, in its plasticity, is perceived as a finished work of applied art of the 1740s, quite expressive and characteristic. It was at this time that the Baroque style received very wide recognition among artists. This plate confirms this. As a rule, bone carvers gave their own versions of compositions, although they took engraving as a basis. The only exception is one carved bone plate in the size of a book sheet, on which the entire composition of the title page of the book "Symbols of the Emblemat" (State Historical Museum) is completely copied. In the relief, the carver repeated the portrait of Peter I, and the medallions surrounding him with symbolic images. We should not dwell on all known uses of engravings for compositional and purely portrait carvings. All of them are independent already because they are translated into relief, into another material, into another type of work, they are all solved, as it were, anew and in a completely original way.

Bust of an unknown merchant with award medals. The work of Y. Seryakov. 1868

Three ceremonial goblets of the middle of the 18th century by the master-monograrimist “AD” can serve as an example of the creative comprehension of contemporary bone-cutting sources. The cone-shaped body of each goblet is completely covered with a relief with images borrowed from medals and engraved sheets by I. Shtenglin, I. Sokolov, with emblems and sayings: “He is not afraid of either”, “Reward to the faithful”, “Renews hope” and others from beloved by masters of applied art of the book "Symbols and Emblemata". The splendor of the goblets is not just in the magnificent carving, but in the skillful combination of the pictorial, semantic beginning with the purely decorative with curls, restless contours of the soaring cupids. Such a variety of forms of relief carving is found primarily in wood, especially if we recall the gilded carving in the interiors of palaces, mansions, and churches of the time. Here, in the bone goblets of the master “AD”, we are faced with a vivid expression of the characteristic features of baroque art with its emotional intensity of forms, richness of decoration, richness of compositional solutions. Medallions, cartouches, swirls of lush plants, fluttering ribbons with inscriptions, pictorial motifs in c are fused into a single ensemble of lush decorative carvings.
The bone sheath of a dagger with an engraved state coat of arms and the date “1754” on a carved handle made in the shape of a grinning lion’s head is an amazingly integral work of this era. The figurines of cupids with and without arrows literally merged with the relief ornament of shell curls. The carving strikes with plasticity, dynamism, originality of craftsmanship. The bone carver used ornamental and pictorial motifs in their unity, indivisibility, and undoubted expression of the style of that time and its artistic tendencies. And further there is a noticeable change in the manner of carving, in the use of seemingly well-known motifs. Gradually, the passion for classicism captures the bone cutters (decorative richness in the works of small plastic). Its variations in the second half of the 18th century are indicative. The relief modeling of each scroll and a grid of shells, and on the works of Kholmogory bone carvers of the second half of the 18th century this is very common, is striking in its subtlety, thoroughness of study. If you look at the works of O. Dudin, where the shell ornament has reached its apogee in its execution, you can be convinced of its ultimate perfection.
It is associated with a great demand for artistic crafts, caused by the wealth of the ruling classes.
The development of foreign and domestic trade contributed to the spread of bone products. Within the country, the network of fairs expanded, which had a beneficial effect on trade exchange between different regions of the Grana. It is difficult to say how, under what conditions, the artistic crafts of northern Russian bone carvers got there, but this happened in the second half of the 18th century, when not only explorers, Arkhangelsk went to the East in search of new untouched natural resources, opportunities for their development.
Apparently, the use of a planar distribution of carved images, its preservation even on voluminous things, indicates Dudin's tendency to preserve the technique typical of folk art, associated with the traditional principle of peasant creativity. To a certain extent, this folk basis is also seen in the recognition of a color contrasting solution in the general decorative design of an object. Brilliant in execution are plates from the collection of the State Russian Museum. One of the plates is relatively small, the compositional arrangement of six portraits in a free environment of ornament against a background of dark brown bone makes it both unusually clear and at the same time free and easy to perceive. Both this plate, which comes from the old collection of the Hermitage, and a number of things close to it have much in common in the manner of carving with the precisely attributed works of Dudin. Therefore, they can be included in the circle of works of the famous master already in the 18th century.
The portrait of Catherine II is highlighted in the center size. The master was characterized by a sense of extreme decorativeness, which did not betray him even in this format. It is unlikely that in St. Petersburg in the second half of the 18th century there was another master, except for Dudin, who would have been able to cope with such a decorative plate as this one. Its fundamental closeness to the portrait plates from the Hermitage collection is beyond doubt. This work does not leave the circle of Dudin's works.
After the Great October Socialist Revolution, it took its rightful place in the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin. Another mug with fifty-eight portraits - from Rurik to Catherine II is now kept in the State Hermitage. Previously, it was located in the Winter Palace, before that in the Kunstkamera, the first Russian museum of various rarities of nature and art, organized by Peter I. The basis for its creation was the work of M.V. Lomonosov "A Brief Russian Chronicler", published in 1750. In the future, this series of medals was joined by single copies, supplementing it. Bone carvers used this source extremely willingly. We can judge this both by the work of Y. Shubny - his large elegant portrait plate of 1774, stored in the State Historical Museum, and by other works of this kind.
Knowledge of history, visual material, the art of small plastic, understanding the tasks of the art of his time helped Dudin in his work, allowing him to create compositions of various highly artistic works that delighted his contemporaries.
Dudin achieved perfection in the harmonious combination of various carving techniques, in the wide use of sophisticated rococo ornamentation with portrait images of historical figures. Many carvers followed him. That is why the medals of S. Gouen, Comrade Vanova, L. Schultz, I. Gedlinger, I. Wachter, S. Yudin, I. Gass and others have become so popular. In this phenomenon, as well as in the work of Dudin, there is a process of rapprochement at the core of its folk peasant art with the refined urban art of court artists. The city, with its high general culture in relation to the peasantry, attracted masters with different artistic potential into its orbit. In fact, at some point in the previous seventeenth century, the same phenomenon could be observed. This general pattern persists at all times.
It was as if there was no calm balance of the ornament. Shelly, vegetal curls twirled in a dynamic rhythm. The effect was also enhanced by the introduction of color into the engraving and the overall color of the plates. The combination of through and embossed threads (with a colored spot and a pattern, as well as with a much more complicated shape of the object led to a fundamentally new solution). The stylistic orientation in carved bone not only corresponded to the main types of Russian art of the middle of the 18th century, but also enriched them to a significant extent.
Vereshchagin, in his childhood, he received good skills in bone carving. One pair of egg-shaped vases, completed before 1790, was presented to Catherine II. On the central part of the body there is a decorative belt with the inscription:
“These four times let fruit grow for all the current ages.” The inscription past accentuated the plot side of the skillful carving. If the entire body of the vase is an egg-shaped figure of the finest through carving, then the master assembled four medallions with allegorical images, designed in the style of ordinary genre compositions, into this openwork grid of the upper hemispherical part. The motif of a gracefully climbing plant, which makes up the pattern of decorative carvings, merges surprisingly harmoniously with the medallions, supporting them in space. One of them presents a picture of a hot summer. Against the background of the partially compressed Field, several women settled down to rest. One of them, in a kokoshnik and a national Russian costume, is reclining, leaning on her arm, (the other one is sitting almost with her back to the viewer, the third one is drinking from a jug: there are sickles nearby. The master, with very limited means, managed to convey the conditions of summer peasant labor, the fatigue of the reapers.
Another medallion depicts autumn harvesting in a fruit reptile. Several people pick up fruit, others carry away filled baskets. Here the artist showed the work of man and the richness of nature.
This scene is distinguished by immediacy, truthfulness.
Winter is depicted in the next medallion. Against the backdrop of bare bushes and rare trees, three people settled around the fire. A bearded old man bent over the fire, a young man stands nearby, the wrapped figure is given with his back to the viewer. An ax lies on the ground near them. And this decision is distinguished by simplicity and expressiveness - we have before us a picture of reality.
Finally, in the last medallion there is a scene symbolizing spring. On the terrace near the balustrade with a vase are a gentleman and a lady dressed in elegant noble costumes. The maid serves food on a platter. This scene can be interpreted as a procession of the young, which is fully associated with the awakening of nature, with the beginning of a new life, the coming spring.
The grooves are a variant of decorative compositions, which in the 18th century find a place for themselves in Russian art. Here is one of them: “Summer, crowned with ears of corn, holds a sheaf in one hand and a sickle in the other. Autumn holds bunches of grapes in her hands or a basket of fruits on her head [...] Winter, dressed in a warm dress, with her head covered, stands in front of a tree whose leaf has fallen […] ”, etc. But if this Lexicon was a translated work from French. then we can recall the more ancient descriptions used by Russian masters back in the 17th century. Nanrp / spring was characterized as follows: “Nesna narntsaeten, the maiden is decorated, shining with beauty, wonderful, and glorious. I am to divitsi to all those who see her kindness and it is sweet to everyone […]”. Images of the allegory of pi atu theme can be seen in various works, some of them are preserved in the collections of handwritten museum books and libraries. The earliest version of the allegories of the seasons were the paintings of the Polotaya Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin of the 16th century. They were described by Simon Ushakov in 1672. In 1801, Vereshchagin went on his next vacation to St. Petersburg, where he stayed for 29 days. The reason for this, most likely, was the creative work of the artist, and not the production affairs of the employee. Apparently, at that time he was working on two vases from the "Seasons" series, which are currently stored in the State Russian Museum. On their basis, his signature was put with the date "1802" and the newly received rank, above which he rose through the ranks. One of them is now kept in the State Historical Museum, the other - in the collection of the State Hermitage. Thus, in total we know eight works by Vereshchagin, and six of them are devoted to the seasons.
The virtuosity of his art is undeniable. He was the best exponent of early classicism in bone carving. Vereshchagin, like Dudin, crossed the border of the primitive beauty of folk peasant art. Both of them are typical representatives of township and urban art associated with the all-Russian culture. They are one of its creators, its creators.
The hinged lid has been converted into a pincushion. The carving of the walls impresses with the clarity of the compositional solution of a strictly classical composition. Palmettes, hanging towels, picked up by ribbons with bows, medallions with the symbolism of the first Thursday of the 19th century, chariots, cupids, weeping trees over urns, acanthus marks with steep curls, and finally, caryatids, herms, standing from 11 mm of each wall. All this carving is superimposed on a bright background of blue-green and scarlet foil, which creates a decorative contrast, causing an additional color reflection on the carved bone.
Extraordinarily close, but in the manner of execution, to the two sewing boxes known to us is a dressing mirror. Its base has a rectangular body with drawers, on which are fixed two risers in the form of balusters, resembling vases with bouquets of flowers, they hold an oval mirror. Its frame is decorated with embossed shells, fruits, palmettes, nets, beads. The riser vases are decorated with a carved pattern of acanthus sprouts and boucrannies. The case is covered with slotted plates against the background of green and scarlet foil. Oval and rectangular medallions with cupids swinging on a swing stand out effectively. a goddess sitting on a chariot drawn by lions, dancing figurines of people with garlands of flowers, and all these antiquities motifs are woven with acanthus curls, rosettes and other decorative elements characteristic of the early classics, which was formed under the impression of unique unusual finds in newly discovered under the ashes of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
However, hardly anyone would dare to use such a fragile thing for practical purposes. Oblique nets of the same finest carving character with delicate floral ornaments adorned many chests, caskets, frames for icons and portraits. Sometimes they used superimposed relief in the form of cornucopias, a quiver, a bow with arrows, etc. Often the walls of loose oval or square baskets, which were inserted inside large caskets, were made using the same technique of through carving (oblique mesh with garlands of flowers). All of them are distinguished by compositional clarity and unusual craftsmanship. Unfortunately, none of these works is associated with the name of a particular master. Works of the 19th century in most cases have to be grouped according to similar stylistic features and dated on this basis. True, attempts were made to attribute the work to a particular master. Thus, there is an opinion that boxes decorated with through net carvings with garlands are characteristic of Olontsov and Maksimov's art. Judging by the literary data, Olontsov lived at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. Therefore, in an era that cultivated baroque forms, the Kholmogory bone cutter could not suddenly choose the forms and ornamentation characteristic of classicism. Maximov Sr. also, but according to available data, lived and worked until the 80s of the XIX century. Indeed, he liked to make boxes decorated with slanting mesh with flower garlands. His early work was done in this style and is therefore dated to the first quarter of the 19th century. It is difficult to admit that the master retained the constancy of his artistic tastes throughout his life, especially since the middle of the century persistently dictated his own laws of artistic style.
A series of caskets and caskets, some of which were intended for card games, is distinguished by a stricter, more voluminous ornamentation of carved bone in relief. For example, the collection of the State Hermitage has a flat rectangular casket from the 1820s, distinguished by its brilliant craftsmanship. The simple form of the box is emphasized by its decorative ornamentation. Bone plates are decorated with acanthus shoots, ribbons, wreaths, bead rods, quatrefoils with specially curved relief petals, and other elements. All this is superimposed on a bright, sparkling background of scarlet foil. The carving design is characterized by a clean finish. The ornament covers the entire surface of the box, taking into account its design features: on the plane of the lid, on the side narrow walls, the composition of the pattern is dictated by this form. The main quality of carved ornamentation is in its strict compliance with the principles of the dominant artistic style in art. The rhythmic pattern, moderate in scale, evenly loads the entire surface, dividing it into rectangles, squares, horizontal rods, which are smoothly arranged in a calm proportion of parts.
Inside the casket there are six patterned square boxes with multi-colored bone chips, crayon holders, brushes and other accessories, made in the same masterful manner. Stopping your eyes on this bone box for a card game, you are involuntarily amazed at how skillful the artist was.
An interesting work of bone cutters of the first quarter of the 19th century was portrait plates with the image of M.V. Lomonosov. The rectangular frame is extremely typical for the ornamental carving of the Northern Russian carvers of this period - a garland smoothly winding over a mesh background. The fact that the Kholmogory bone carvers turned to the portrait of the great fellow countryman is a completely natural phenomenon. They based the carved portrait on an engraving by Fessar and Wortman, made during Lomonosov's lifetime. The scientist sits at a table next to a cupboard where books, retorts and other items are arranged; behind it is a window opening through which a forest landscape with buildings is visible. As you know, Fessar imagined a seascape outside the window. On Lomonosov's recommendation, Wortman's engraving was replaced by a view of the Ust-Ruditskaya factory, the brainchild of the great scientist. It was there that he began his work in the field of chemistry, in the field of smelting colored glass and smalt, which later led to the production of colored glass at the State Manufactory in St. Petersburg, as well as to the creation of mosaics. Bone cutters who cut plates with a portrait of Lomonosov (several are known - in the museums of Leningrad and Moscow), not all are equally Rotten by brilliant artists. However, each of the portraits undoubtedly has a certain charm. It is no coincidence that contemporaries reacted with interest to these works, and on one of them an inscription appeared: “To the Gracious Sovereign Pavel Petrovich Svinin as a sign of respect and in memory of Panaev on March 5. 1826 St. Petersburg.
V. I. Panaev and P. P. Svinin were passionate collectors of works of Russian art. The latter published in 1829 a catalog entitled "A brief inventory of objects that make up the Russian Museum of Pavel Svinin." This inventory already includes this portrait (collection of the State Russian Museum), which was received by P. P. Svinin while working on the newly discovered manuscripts of M. V. Lomonosov and published by him in 1827. Apparently, Svinin included this portrait plate in his collection not only out of ethnographic interest in the culture of the Russian people and its history, but also because of the peculiar high professional skill of its execution.
We only have to regret that the masters did not put signatures on their works. It is difficult to say which of the surviving icons on this plot belongs to Lopatkin. Currently, Zaozersky's work is in the Central Depository of the suburban palace-museums of Leningrad, where it came from the Alexander Palace. If the carving of the monument to Minin and Pozharsky is slightly damaged, then all the inscriptions are perfectly preserved. In particular, on the right side of the pedestal there is the author's signature: "The art of Kozma Zaozersky." Before us is one of the rarest signature items of Kholmogory bone carvers. The name of Kozma Zaozersky is found for the first time. Until now, this work was considered the work of Ivan Zaozersky, apparently taking the word of the first publication of the Moscow Leaflet in 1898.
Paraphrasing the original, as always in the work of Kholmogory carvers, led to the original own decision. New details appeared in the compositions, some separate, most important moments or details were emphasized. In this regard, it is curious to note on one of the variants of the bone monument to Minin and Pozharsky (State Hermitage Museum) the figurine of a kresminin, newly introduced by a bone cutter, carrying a bundle with some, possibly, values, as the communal composition is dedicated to the bringing of donations by citizens of Nizhny Novgorod to save the Fatherland. The ordinary nature of this small figure, its uncomplicated artistic characterization, on the one hand, makes the figure seem invisible, on the other hand, it attracts attention. This is how the master of bone carving expressed his attitude to the topic, this is how he gave a new shade to the famous original that received approval.
Since the monument by Martos was erected in Moscow after the appearance of his chamber reproduction in the carved bone, it becomes obvious that the craftsmen used one of the first sketch engravings that reproduced the design of the monument. In 1810, the second project of Martos was approved and accepted for work, intended for casting and installation in Nizhny Novgorod. His image and the text of the inscription were attached to composition II. Chekalevsky "Experience of sculpting from bronze with one method of colossal statues". The carvers could only use this single source. Consequently, once again we are convinced of the special mobility of bone carvers, their ability to navigate the novelties of art, to select the latest and most interesting for their work. In this regard, one should single out the talented ivory carver Andrei Korzhavin, one of the first who repeated Martos's original in miniature with extraordinary freedom of plastic skill. In the State Tretyakov Gallery there is a chamber reproduction of Minin and Pozharsky, performed between the exit from the engraved image (1810) and the recording in the documents of 1811 stored in the archives of the State Hermitage. Document:> that worm “Monument […] from the room of Mr. Obergoff Marshal and Chevalier Grif Tolstov (Head of the Court Office.) Sent with a warrant to the Hermitage on January 25, 1811. Monument to the labors of the peasant Andrey Korzhavin near the city of Arkhangelsk. Only one year passed before the Hermitage received two identical works by Korzhavin (the second one is kept in the State Russian Museum). The extraordinary tension in the creative work of the carvers is striking. One has to regret that so little information about talented bone carvers has been preserved.
Small three-dimensional plasticity in carved bone clearly demonstrates the latent possibilities of northern Russian masters that have been developed. None of them has ever competed with foreign bone cutters, who in the past demonstrated their art to the whole world. In order to follow them, in line with their artistic trends, Russian bone carvers had to fundamentally change their aesthetic credo. Different cultural traditions, a different national school, different conditions for creativity - everything contributed to the fact that Russian bone carvers primarily followed the principles of flat-relief, ornamentally decorative carving, and not chamber, miniature sculpture of foreign schools. If we compare similar drawings of a carved pattern or plot depiction by Russian and Western European masters of the 17th-18th centuries, then the contrast of the very creative consciousness itself, formed on fundamentally different foundations, is striking, although both have a sense of plasticity and artistic expressiveness.
The sewing box in the form of a locomotive with wheels, a transmission chain, a pipe and other details, with openwork carving walls, has a roof - a velvet pillow for needles. The practicality of such things is highly questionable. They, apparently, existed as a kind of "kunstshtyuki" of their time.
By the middle of the 19th century, a decline in artistic taste was observed in the work of northern Russian bone carvers. But individual masters continue to create interesting things both in terms of general compositional construction and in terms of performance technique. Catchy patterning, the introduction of new techniques of two-layer carving, high relief were a completely natural phenomenon in this period. Strict classicism has long been forgotten. Eclecticism also captured bone carving. A lot of works from this period have been preserved, but for the most part they cannot be associated with the name of one or another master. One of the rare signature items is a brooch depicting a reindeer team with a bonnet. The artist managed to convey the specifics of northern nature in just a few strokes.
The second half of the 19th century saw the activity of the father and son of the Bobretsovs. MP Bobretsov was the organizer of the training class at home. M. M. Bobretsov continued his work, at the same time creative work. The most interesting signature work of M. M. Bobretsov is a round table decorative sculpture kept in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum on four small ball-shaped legs. Taking as a basis the Martosov original of the monument to Lomonosov, Bobretsov executed it in relief. The three-quarter turn allowed Bobretsov to show the figure of Lomonosov from the front side, to clearly outline the silhouette of the monument. Above the monument on the right and left are two armorial shields: on the one hand - the coat of arms of Arkhangelsk, the other Kemi. Reliefs-symbols of these cities are skillfully woven into the thinnest mesh of the background: Michael the Archangel in the fight against the dragon, a pearl necklace made up of river pearls, which were mined in large quantities in the past in the Kem and other northern rivers.
The great scientist was associated with these cities in his youth, so it was no coincidence that M. M. Bobretsov chose these emblems. A decorative tray with a geometric carving along the edge with an elegant monogram in the center of the field, covered with red velvet, belongs to the same kind of work; a set of chess in the form of figurines of barbarian warriors, also stored in the State Hermitage, can be attributed to the same carver.
The four brothers of M. M. Bobretsov were also bone carvers, but they went to work in St. Petersburg. Only nineteen cutters remained in place, Bobretsov was considered the strongest of them.
On the one hand, the Doronin workshop was an example of traditional “business”. On the other hand, it was a model of exploitation by enterprising people of both beginners and quite mature masters of bone carving, who fell into complete dependence on the owner. It is known, for example, that Vasily Petrovich Guryev, one of the largest Kholmogory bone carvers, was in such dependence. It was he, together with his comrades Grigory Yegorovich Petrovsky, Vasily Timofeevich Uzikov and their teacher Maxim Ivanovich Perepelkin, who formed the core of bone carvers, who transferred their experience and knowledge to Soviet bone carvers.
The decline in artistic taste caused coarsening of forms and weakness of technical execution. The reasons for the decline were due to the development of capitalist industry, which limited the growth of individual creativity.
Under the conditions of capitalist oppression, talented craftsmen sometimes did not have real opportunities to develop their professional skills. Consequently, the artistic value of the works was inevitably lost. The desire of the master was reduced to the largest possible number of products. However, his manual craft was replaced by a machine, and the competition was not in favor of a private manufacturer.
The true mastery of bone carving was preserved only in the hands of the oldest talented craftsmen - M. I. Perepelkin and his student V. II. Guriev, V. T. Uzikov and G. E. Petrovsky. They managed to pass on the traditions of the northern Russian art of bone carving to Soviet bone carvers.
The Nizhny Novgorod province has long been famous for its masters of carving and painting on wood. This region is rich in forests, the tree was an affordable material, which determined the main direction of occupation of the local population. There were wonderful carpenters and ship builders, carvers of various decorative and household items, ornamentalists with a rich imagination, which sounded most vividly in the art of house and ship carving. And at the same time, the Gorbatovsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod province with a number of villages became famous for the skill of blacksmiths. Their work has always been intricate in form and construction. The leading role in this matter belonged to the village of Pavlov on the Oka, where already in 1621 there was a considerable number of forges. The Pavlovsky forgers were engaged in the manufacture of weapons, as well as "various peasant handicrafts." Raw materials were bought in the Urals from industrialists. Processing was carried out on site. Sheremetev called his enterprise a "locksmith's factory". At one time, it became known about her from a decree to the house office of Count Sheremetev.
The decree gives an idea of ​​the nature of the work being done, but nothing is said about the quality of the products, about their artistic design, except for a subtle hint and a message from Sheremetev in the 1750s to the elected representative of the village of Pavlova. It is curious to note that in the 1790s, the Pavlovian craftsmen made many different things for N.P. Shepometev, among them were “two bunks of lions under the hangers. One pair of three hanging lions. Two pairs of lions of the castle, as well as several pairs of mouthpieces, “sugar and nut crushes”, “a dozen Zhukov folding penknives. A dozen of his own. A dozen pocket doubles, etc.
Apparently, buyers were satisfied not only with the quality of the metal, but also with the additional work of the cutters. It is possible to judge her by scattered things. For example, a table set of knives and forks with mother-of-pearl handles, decorated with engraved inscriptions and vignettes with allegorical images, has been preserved. “Love and harmony”, “Honor, courage, glory”, “Love and rebirth” - these are the inscriptions over the images of birds, animals, cannons, etc. Metal blades also have inscriptions next to the drawings, including the signature of the masters : "Ivan Alekseev. N. A. Terebn. Judging by the inscription on the cover of the case, it was made for A. II. Sheremeteva "of the Pavlovsk patrimony by the peasant Ivan Elagin" in 1839.
Whining maybe these craftsmen worked not only on mother-of-pearl? The images evoke sympathy, they are fanned with lyricism, and in some of them a violent fairy-tale fantasy appeared. A lying lion with a bared mouth looks like a stern guardian of the house. Indeed, lions of a similar type in the period of early classicism become a necessary addition to the decoration of mansions and their fences, in tiles and decorative vases, in paintings, molding and porcelain. On the miniature handle of a penknife, this regal beast even looks monumental, the Nizhny Novgorod carver, unknown to us, so precisely defined its silhouette and expressiveness of the pose.
An interesting microsculpture depicts a naked young man leaning on a club. Perhaps the master wanted to represent Hercules, but it turned out to be a humorous figure of a perky little man, causing a good-natured smile. According to the plasticity of the form, the figurine of a sad woman sitting on a pedestal, where the inscription: “Sad Offspring” is engraved, deserves wine mania. The figurine is covered with a veil. The overall silhouette is soft in its smooth lines. The master depicted a mourning man, whose image has repeatedly appeared in Russian art, and in particular - in carved bone. Here it was impossible to imagine a figure bent over an urn and under the branches of a birch, it was necessary to simplify the compositional solution, which nevertheless retained the flavor of the time, the typical features of art of the late 18th century.
Bone figurines of birds are expressive, they are unusually elegant, painted with greenish and black colors. The craftsman delicately applied strokes to the plumage of the wings and tail, shaded the head, highlighted the eyes and beak. Without tinting, apparently, the author did not dare to "finish" his work - it is too small and would not make the proper impression on the viewer.
Very attractive sculptures of handles in the form of a young man in a tailcoat or a lady in a wide-brimmed bonnet - typical representatives of the society of the early 19th century. The master found and accurately described both the general form and the details, shading the tailcoat and shawl on the lady's shoulders with color. Such strokes enhance the expressiveness of the figures. There is no doubt that the bone carvers who worked in the Nizhny Novgorod province had a good sense of the style of the time, skillfully emphasized the most characteristic features in their miniature sculptures. It is curious to note one more stylistic feature. A small hand saw with a carved wooden handle in the form of a griffin and a decorative curl with the date "1836" and the birthday of the master "MP" also belongs to the same circle of works. The fantastic bone figures of a griffin and a dragon on a penknife can be compared to some extent with their unusualness and the nature of the carving, but they clearly belong to different times. Judging by the styles and plasticity of the carving, the bone dragon is earlier. The very theme of exotic animals for folk arts and crafts is not new. Variants of images of lions woven into flowering shoots of puffed vines and acanthus leaves are typical of the carvings of peasant huts of the Volga-Oka basin. This theme was heard in the small bone sculptures of the Nizhny Novgorod masters.
The blades of penknives were often branded. Moka they are not all deciphered. And only on one knife, on the back side of its bone base, the master engraved: “the village of Vorsma Nlugin”. The inscription is placed on a fluttering ribbon; it is characterized by the same plasticity that the carved figure itself is endowed with. Who is Plugin - it's hard to say. Among the Vorsma masters mentioned in the literature are Baranov, Bratanov, Devyatoye, Korytsev, Eropkin, Zavyalovs. And yet the signature on the knife revealed the name of one of the Nizhny Novgorod bone carvers. This is the key to defining interesting group works of decorative and applied art of the Nizhny Novgorod province.
The signature knife from the collection of the Historical Museum has a counterpart of the exact same knife with a figure of a lying lion from the Hermitage collection. Therefore, taking into account their identity, taking into account the stylistic and constructive proximity of the carved figures, the typicality of the artistic images chosen for carving, which are characteristic of early Russian classicism with its commitment to anti-Kissing motifs, heroic themes and genre, it is possible to date the original penknives made by the Vorsma masters to the end of the 18th century. -beginning of the 19th century. At that time, the traditions of the charter of the “locksmith factory” of the 18th century were still not forgotten, the memories of orders, and possibly auxiliary graphic materials, that fell into the hands of the Pavlovsk and Vorsma peasants, outstanding masters of folk art, were still fresh. All this determined the general artistic style of the works corresponding to a certain era.
Figured carving of handles for penknives is original in form and has undoubted artistic value. The simplicity and constructiveness of the form are enlivened by the spontaneity and vivacity of the creatively gifted artist. All these figurines are examples of small plastic art of folk art of the Nizhny Novgorod crane with well-established traditions. which enriched the art of metal craftsmen.
Currently, attempts are being made to restore forgotten traditions in the ancient center of blacksmithing and locksmith production and the production of knives with carved handles at a high artistic level.
As early as the beginning of the 20th century, one of the researchers in decorative and applied art, A. Felkerzam, drew attention to the need to study bone carving art in the main centers of ancient and modern times - Kyiv, Novgorod, Moscow, Arkhangelsk, and St. Petersburg. Today, significant archaeological and factual materials have been accumulated. There are few special studies devoted to the history of bone carving. Basically, they relate to the art of northern Russian bone carvers. Meanwhile, Petersburg, which began its reckoning in 1703, was actively built and developed, attracting scientists and architects, craftsmen and artisans of various specialties. They came to work from all the provinces of Russia, especially from those places that were distinguished by fertile lands. There has long been a "departure" - teams of craftsmen went to work. Carpenters and masons, casters and carpenters, tailors and weavers, gilders and jewelers, coppersmiths and bone carvers arrived in St. Petersburg. Foreign craftsmen settled near the Moika, on the so-called German Street (now Khalturina). The section from the Field of Mars to Zaporizhzhya Lane was called the Greek Sloboda because of the foreigners living here. Among the visiting craftsmen and artisans in this area lived the leading architect of the city D. Trezzini, who arrived in Russia in 1703. Russian joiners, carpenters, carvers settled on Okhta. But in almost all areas of the city under construction lived those people, whose hands created the new capital. Many craftsmen were closely associated with the Admiralty Board, not only because the construction of shipyards, shipbuilding required dexterous hands and quick-witted minds, but because in the early years of the St. Petersburg period it was the most important organization in charge of all the key work in the city. Since 1706, administrative management has been concentrated in the Office of City Affairs, which was then transferred to the Office of the Buildings.
In this early period of the history of St. Petersburg, the turning workshop, which existed from 1705 to 1735, stands out. Its organization is connected with the production needs of the country, with the development of a number of industrial operations, as well as with purely artistic interests.
Twenty-seven machine tools were intended for artistic work. These included "iositural", "oval", "pink" cars. Work on the machines was done manually.
It was possible to connect several round medallions, tie them on a cross, and provide decorative figures in the form of spikes. It is on this principle that a decorative cross depicting a crucifix and saints on round bone disks was made. The ebony of round profiled frames shaded and emphasized the noble beauty of the bone.
Three unique bone chandeliers have completely survived to our time. Their design is always of the same type. The trunk, decorated with apples and other decorative figures, served as a support for the required number of branched candlesticks, which made up a kind of bouquet, both constructively justifying and decorative. This work showed the imagination of the masters, who planted a wide variety of chiseled figures on the rod - oval, spherical, cylindrical, openwork, pear-shaped; candlesticks amaze not only with the numerous curved lines, the shape of the horns and profits, but also with the variety of star-shaped and flower fixtures. Three tiers of these branched candlesticks make up a light openwork pattern. appearance, amazingly elegant decoration.
It is likely that some more works by Zakharov have been preserved. Perhaps they include bone medallions from medals kept in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum. One of them reproduces the medal for the death of Peter I.
At the bottom of the round base of the stem is his engraved monogram and the date 1748. The beauty of the bone revealed by the master, its quivering transparency, is striking. Perhaps Kushelev was one of the court turners of the bone business, along with Goman, Melis, Galaktion Shchelkunov, Erik Lundholm, who worked in St. Petersburg in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Undoubtedly, each of the masters contributed to the development of the turning art of bone, turtle and other materials.
It should be noted the most general provisions from the history of the organization of the shop device in Russia in the 18th century. In the papers of Peter I, among his various notes, one short note dated January 14, 1715 “On the workshops” attracts attention. It served as a kind of starting point for the development and publication special laws reorganizing the life of the artisan population of Russia. These were the “Regulations or Statutes of the Chief Magistrate” of 1721 and the decree “On Workshops” of 1722. The introduction of the guild organization into the life of Russia had a positive significance; it took urban artisans under its protection and defended their rights. Unlike European ones, there were no medieval orders in Russian workshops, only the old, accepted finished shell was preserved in them. The fact that the shops did not receive strict regulation of production, and that access to them was free for people of various classes, is a distinctive feature of the Russian shop organization.
It is no coincidence that in old documents those of the turners who know "skill in copper, bone, iron and wood" stand out. And in connection with this, it will be interesting to recall the instructions given on August 24, 1727 by the St. Petersburg chief magistrate to the carpentry workshop and included in the list of Russian workshops for 1701, apparently as a reminder for carpenters, carvers and turners. Thirty-nine paragraphs of the instruction determine the relationship between the members of the workshop, their duties, the nature of their behavior, their attitude to their work. In this regard, paragraph five is of particular interest: “Each master had diligence so that he always produces his art for the better, without arguing, as it used to be, that when he does it, because of the workshop or for labor he will receive or for the cheapness of his work from another master attracts oneself forever, how later to mention good craftsmanship and a worthy price when selling or for work receives, so that from such obscene envy in the skill of neglecting one against the other in work and from that in the subsistence of grievances, and especially between masters in art, there was no ohul.
Perhaps behind this lies the desire of the government to develop only high technical skill in artisans. But if the craftsman is a high professional and works on bone, wood, turtle, etc., then we should also talk about the artistic side of craftsmanship, about art. The elevation of the craft to the level of art was not alien to the activities of "small" artists, called artisans.
From this comparison it is clear that at the end of the 18th century the ratio between bone carvers and the total number of artisans remained unchanged. They never completely broke with their native land. They did not depart from the typical northern, Kholmogory idea of ​​the beauty of a carved bone. Having absorbed the traditionalism of craftsmanship, enriching the spiritual culture, mastering the innovations of a century-old art, they reached the heights and stepped far beyond the limits of ordinary creativity. Their art is an example of a logical synthesis of primordially folk, peasant creativity with urban culture and its latest trends. Without any artificiality and eclecticism, they made a natural transition from one historically established artistic style to another, they kept pace with the times, their searches, they were winners in the field of decorative and applied art, because bone carving is one of its types.
One of the workshop bone cutters, Kholmogory craftsman Sergei Ugolnikov, was assigned to the St. Petersburg bone turning business in 1820. Apparently, he was a qualified bone carver, as he immediately entered the category of masters. In 1820, he was already involved in the case of hiring Alexander Alekseev, a former yard man of collegiate assessor Dubrovin, as an apprentice. He was accepted into the St. Petersburg bone turning shop “and in the regular payment of taxes, an obligation was taken for the signing of the masters Pyotr Larionov, Pyotr Akulov and Sergey Ugolnikov.
In 1811, Lavrenty Moiseyevich Lukashevich was inscribed in the turning shop of St. Petersburg, from the dignitary Shipnevsky released to freedom. In the same year, Ivan Matveyevich Bezin, a native of the state peasants of the Arkhangelsk province of Kholmogory district, was also recorded. In 1816, a forty-eight-year-old bone maker of Grigory Mikhailovich, a freedman of Count I Peremetev, worked in a Moscow craft shop.
The list of masters who worked on bone could probably be significantly expanded if more documents had come down to our time. However, even now attention is drawn to the fact that a very significant percentage of masters come from the North. Apparently, the professionalism and originality of the artistic style of the Kholmogory carvers knew no rivals even at the beginning of the 19th century.
The possibility is not ruled out that the northern region supplied craftsmen to the continuously ongoing construction projects in St. Petersburg. It can be assumed that among those who worked on the creation of the palace, for example, in Gatchina, there were northerners. Here are their names: Galaktion Shchelkunov, Fyodor Strong, Mnkhanlo Mikhailov, Kvdokim Mikhatin, Ivan Kuvychkin, Andrey Veloy, Alexander Tarbasov, Ivan Petrov, Visily Nikitin and students Konstantin Serov, Maxim Klimov, Grigory Karamyshev. These were craftsmen who mastered the turning of copper, bone, iron and wood. They began working in the suburban palaces after graduating from school at the govt. office. This school played a significant role in the training of specialists - masters of artistic crafts. Students there studied geometry, arithmetic, architecture and drawing. Only those who mastered specific knowledge were selected as masters. According to the official lists of students, it can be seen that among them were the sons of carpenters, carvers, and turners. Consequently, the hereditary transfer of professional skills from father to son could be improved through training in a special metropolitan school. But students could receive such craft skills from the master of a particular workshop. It is difficult to say how exactly the masters followed this rule. With regard to the northern Russian bone carvers, it is known that in the 19th century they came to short term Petersburg, then returned to their homeland. Apparently, one of these craftsmen made in 1870 in St. Petersburg a carved bone fan in a case in the form of a quiver with arrows (collection of the State Hermitage Museum). The fan consists of 20 oval bone plates, connected in the upper part with a white silk ribbon, at the base with a metal pin, which is fastened to the handle with a design in the form of a deer head with branched horns. Each of the plates is a complex ornamental and decorative composition of hunting attributes, symbols of the merchant guild (two crossed keys), symbols of a seaside port city (anchor with dolphins), dates, letters that make up a dedicatory inscription from St. Petersburg citizens. On the outer plates you can see a miniature image of the coat of arms of the city of Arkhangelsk (Archangel Michael slaying the dragon), included in the overall composition. This is a kind of signature of the master.
No one other than the northern Russian master, from Arkhangelsk, would have introduced this emblem into the elegant carving of the fan. Consequently, the fan could only be made by a bone-carving master of Arkhangelsk origin, the most skillful of whom at that time were M. Bobretsov and his brothers, who tied their fate with St. Petersburg. The work of V. T. Uzikov is associated with the same city. He was educated by M. I. Perepelkin, worked for a long time under his supervision, and in 1903 he left for St. Petersburg, where he wanted to take the place of a bone carving master in a school of folk art. Its lid is crowned with a sculptural group - a reindeer team with a musher. The light gracefulness of the pattern of the ornamental carving creates the feeling of a snowy whirlwind, which is in harmony with the plot group on the lid. This thing is signed, dated and is located in the Central Depository of the suburban palace-museums. Undoubtedly, Uzikov's work demonstrates the best traditions of bone carving.
It is now difficult to confirm this estimate, as the work is unknown.
The very first biographers of Yakov Seryakov noted the extreme indifference of the Academy officials. The master of a fine chamber portrait, a young gifted self-taught sculptor, was not accepted by the Academy of the "Three Noble Arts".
. At one time, one could see Seryakov's "bone portrait in a medallion" there. Indeed, in addition to voluminous busts and figurines of persons unknown to us, he often carved relief portraits such as medallions or on rectangular plates. In the portrait reproduced in the sixth issue of the Illustrated Newspaper for 1863, Yakov Panfilovich Seryakov is shown sitting at a table with three bone-carved busts and one oval medallion.
In the extremely scarce literature on this bone carver, it is noted that he either used a graphic source or cut directly from nature. There he could familiarize himself and acquire the sheets that interested him. This was in the tradition of bone and wood carvers. But the second option - cutting directly on the material during the session - is in doubt. Either Seryakov was a miracle worker, or he still made a preliminary sketch. Most likely, his sketch was not a drawing, but was expressed in a plastic form. Clay or wax must have been familiar to him. After all, the works of Yakov Seryakov in biscuit, plaster, bronze, cast iron are known; all of them required preliminary preparation before casting. Carved wood, like bone, and especially marble, were also secondary materials after the working sketch. The sharp observant eye of the carver-artist not only fixed external forms, but also knew how to penetrate into the essence of nature.
Faces, figures, merchant costume are carefully worked out. Surface modeling testifies to the skill of the carver. The main thing that is characteristic of his work is a realistic interpretation. Portraits are endowed with a psychological characteristic; they are expressive and emotional. The clear handwriting in which the inscriptions are made does not allow us to think now that the bone cutter has recently mastered the letter. Contemporaries, however, noted his perseverance not only in mastering the art of carving, but also in the study of writing and reading from various manuals already quite early. adulthood. Portraits are endowed with a special quality - the subtlety of psychological characteristics.
Others are fanned by the all-pervading human kindness. Typical in this regard are the relief profile portraits of the military paramedic Georgy Stepanovich Petrov and the nanny of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin Arina Rodionovna. Particularly attractive is the image of a Russian village woman with a barely noticeable smile. The plasticity of the embossed bust is enhanced by the smooth lines of the folds of the headscarf, they generalize the image, help to contrast clear, expressive, individualized facial features with their mass.
A curious work in Roznomdorovo is a portrait of the dramatic actor VV Samolov. The bust is slightly tinted. What prompted the artist to use this technique is hard to say. But one can agree with the opinion of E. Tomilovskaya that the roots of Seryakov's work go back to folk art. The sincerity inherent in most of his knowledge finds something in common with the carvings of folk craftsmen on wood and bone. It can be assumed that Seryakov communicated with northern Russian bone carvers in the same way as with lithographers and engravers. During this period, there were quite a few of them in St. Petersburg - they were enrolled in a bone-turning shop and temporarily arrived to work. By 1868, there is a bust sculptural portrait of a merchant with two award medals around his neck and one in his buttonhole (State Hermitage Museum). The purity of the finish corresponds to the clarity of the artistic performance. The hand of a brilliant master of bone carving distinguishes the last of his known works.
If we look at the works of a talented self-taught artist as a whole, we can note the unity of style, the subtlety of the psychological characteristics, the well-known strictness of the solution without excessive looseness in movement or facial expressions. He did not belong to the academic or romantic direction. This is a realist who managed to study the laws of plastic art on his own.
Seryakov's works are of interest both from the point of view of iconography, because he created a gallery of portraits of his contemporaries from minor officials to the most distinguished persons, and from the point of view of performing skills.
The publication of works of art by St. Petersburg bone cutters makes it possible to clearly demonstrate the characteristic features, specific shades of this art, which merged into the urban culture of its time. The richness of forms and ornaments, variations of plot compositions, technical skill - all these features are inherent not only in bone carving, but also in all Russian decorative and applied art. Without continuity, without studying the work of previous generations, it would be difficult to correctly assess the artistic heritage protected by the Soviet people.
The art of bone carving, so firmly rooted in the North of Russia, at a certain historical stage had an impact on the artistic creativity of some Siberian peoples. This was no accident. There were certain historical prerequisites for this. More than others, the art of bone carving was developed among the Yakuts.
Siberia, with its vast expanses of taiga, turning into forest-tundra and finally into tundra near the Arctic Ocean, in the latitudes of permafrost, still keeps great wealth - mammoth tusks. Fossil mammoth bone, as well as walrus tusks, the so-called "fish tooth", were mined by industrialists on the ocean coast and transported to Siberian cities, and from there to Moscow and abroad - to China, Mercia and other countries. Not only in the 17th century, but also throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, bone was an extremely attractive commodity, it was mined and taken to the Yakut fairs, the largest of which was in Yakutsk itself.
In 1660-1662, “fish bones” were brought to Moscow from the shores of the ocean - 339 pounds 25.5 pounds. This is not the only indication of the shipments of valuable bone arriving in the capital of the Muscovite state. The figures are significant, they show how great importance was attached to this valuable material.
The transition to artistic creativity was not immediately made from the manufacture of the simplest forms of household, hunting and fishing tools. It is quite obvious that the influence of Russian settlers with their culture and arts and crafts turned out to be decisive in the process of formation and development of the Yakut art of bone carving. V. Seroshevsky was the first to pay attention to the influence of the Russians on the technique of bone processing among the Yakuts. More specifically, M. Rekhachev expressed the idea of ​​the impact of Russian immigrants from Pomorie. He noted: "The Ustyuzhans and the Pomeranians were well versed in the technique of processing and carving bone and undoubtedly had a corresponding influence on the development of bone-carving craftsmanship in Siberia." At the same time, he made a special emphasis on the fact that carving in Tobolsk and Yakutsk was influenced by Kholmogory and Ustyug (Solvychegodsk) bone carving. S. Ivanov gives an even more detailed description of this phenomenon. Already in the 18th century, along with ancient ornament and religious sculpture, sprouts of a new art appeared, which began to develop rapidly and to XIX century develops into an independent area of ​​everyday art. Attention is drawn, as Seroshevsky did, to the use of Russian experience in the technique of bone processing, in borrowing tools. But the main thing is the acquaintance with Russian folk art, which was distinguished by a wealth of forms, ornamentation, plots, which helped the Yakuts to realize their own capabilities in creating works of art, in the full disclosure of talents.
The road to the East has long passed along the northern rivers - from Moscow they went to the Northern Dvina, and then a long journey began to Vychegda, Pechora, Kama, to the upper reaches of the Tura, to Tobol, to the Irtysh - beyond the Ural Range. At the end of the 16th century, Russians sailed to the Ob, maintaining constant contact with Siberia by the “Northern Road”, that is, from the Barents Sea they passed to the Ob Bay, through the Taz Bay to Mangazeya. The results of the excavations of Mangazeya, conducted under the direction of M. Belov, showed that Pomors from Kholmogory, Vologda, Pustozersk, Moscow, Tobolsk and Berezov inhabited this northern city of the 17th century, a city located in the latitudes of permafrost. The discovered materials testify to the development of many crafts in it, including bone carving. Carved bone chess figures, walrus tusk blanks have been preserved. This is one of the most interesting examples of how immigrants determine their occupation by their appearance in a new place.
The emergence of an urban settlement set in motion hidden forces that entered the orbit of all production processes. The activity of craftsmen was subordinated to the needs of the city, its economy.
There is no need to dwell in detail on all the paths along which the explorers penetrated into the Siberian taiga, descending or ascending up the currents of full-flowing, mighty rivers, deepening along their tributaries into the taiga of Eastern Siberia. Among the most famous explorers of the 17th century, people from Kholmogory, Veliky Ustyug, Kargopol, Vyatka, Perm and other Russian northern cities, were Semyon Dezhnev and Fyodor Alekseev, Erofey Khabarov, Pantelei Ustyuzhanin, Vladimir Atlasov and others. Isn't it significant that even today, in relative proximity to the mouth of the Yenisei, there is a settlement of Kolmogory? This name alone speaks for itself. It should only be noted that since the 14th century, not one of the early Pomor settlements on the Northern Dvina was called Kolmogory (modern Kholmogory).
In the 1020s, from Mangazeya and Yeniseisk, detachments of Russian industrial and service people along the Lower and Podkamennaya Tunguska, along the Angara paved the way to the Baikal region and Yakutia. In 1630, the Ilimsk prison was founded, in 1631 - the Buryat one, and in 1643 a prison was set up on the Lena, that is, Yakutsk was founded. Through the Yenisei Territory, whole families of peasants, servicemen and townspeople come here. These are Ustyugians, Kolmogorians, Belozersk, Mezens, Usoltsy, Pinezhans, Vologdas, Vazhans and others.
At the end of the century, there were already 39 Russian villages along the banks of the Lena. Among his "out-of-town guests" merchants were Stepan Filippov from Veliky Ustyug, Nikandr Borodin from Moscow, but apparently many others. In one private collection there is a comb of rectangular shape, as usual, with frequent and sparse teeth on the horizontal sides, decorated in the middle part with a vignette and the owner's monogram carved in low relief.
One of the earliest dated items is currently a rectangular carved comb of 1743 from the collection of the State Historical Museum of Moscow. Only one inscription clearly testifies in favor of Russian craftsmanship or speaks of its unusually strong influence on the Yakut carver. The names hidden behind the first letters of the monograms, as a rule, are not deciphered. But the figures of a lion and a unicorn immediately remind us of the typical images of Russian art.
XVII century. The iconography of this heraldic image goes back to the relief of the gates of the Moscow Printing Yard. From the moment of its appearance, the lion and the unicorn have become a constant motif in the decorative design of copper inkwells, carved, engraved, chased silver and copper products. “These images,” as V. Vasilenko notes, “that penetrated into Russia from the East or West earlier, in the feudal era, had a symbolic meaning, which was interpreted in different ways. Many of them, like the image of a griffin, turned out to be close
Russian person. They were unfailingly benevolent, protective, protective beings." Yakut bone cutters turn a unicorn and a lion into animals that are very similar to short, strong horses, the type of which exists in Siberia to this day. The method of transferring the unicorn's mane, resembling a wide, somewhat oblong oval sheet with cutting, is curious, and the lion's mane can very often be compared with the petals of some flower, its solution in the carving is so ornamental. A typical example is one of the carved bone combs depicting a unicorn standing in a tense pose, as if waiting for the enemy to attack. It is surrounded by leafy ornamentation. The integrity of the drawing is well connected with the decision of the low relief, its strict processing. Both this and another fairy-tale plot with Polkan speaks of a close connection with Russian art. On some bone crests, one can find the image of two opposing figures of a rider and a centaur. For northern Russian art, such a composition was quite common in the 17th and early 18th centuries, especially in folk painting. On the caskets and headrests, made by the masters of Veliky Ustyug, among the lush foliage with flowers, the fight between the fantastic Polkan and the Russian hero is a frequent composition. They interpret it as a fairy tale plot with a symbolic connotation - a hero in the fight against a formidable, ferocious enemy, personifying the external enemies of the Russian state. On the Yakut ridge, a Cossack with a spear and a saber fights with Polkan the centaur, between them there is a separating element - the all-seeing eye - a triangle with an eye in the center. The background of the two relief figures is a through oblique grid. The very principle of through carving proves the knowledge of various works of Kholmogory bone carvers. Why this image of a centaur, called the Russian fabulous Polkan, took root on the basis of Yakut artistic creativity, can be explained! the similarity of folklore images. Most likely, the image of the centaur combined the most ancient figurative form with the folklore one, and therefore it so easily entered the bone carving of the Yakuts. This should be seen as a manifestation of cultural influence, enrichment of local forms of decorative art. A semi-cylindrical box with purely genre carvings, borrowed from Russian bone items, should be included in a number of such works. The whole box is made in the technique of through carving, only its bottom is made of a smooth whole piece of bone. The main motif of the carving is the tea drinking scene. On one of the sides, the bone cutter depicted a table with a samovar, a damask and a teapot. On the sides of the table, two women sit on high-backed chairs and drink tea. On the sides of the feast there are two houses of the original form with a window opening and a roof in the form of an overturned umbrella inflorescence of an exotic plant. On the side semicircular walls, the master carved birds of prey, apparently eagles - a typical totem image of the Yakuts, one of the most revered. If the scene of tea drinking speaks of Russian origin, then the rest of the elements are characteristic of the Yakut artistic worldview.
Arriving in Yakutia in the 1630s, the service people of the Moscow tsar found the established Yakut people there with a characteristic economic structure, social life, and a defined religion. The Yakuts were characterized by a shamanic cult and totemic beliefs. Each clan had its own sacred patron in the form of a bird or animal. Not why the eagle - "toyon-kyyl", the master-bird - personified the highest deity of light, the revivalist of nature. And it is no coincidence that on many ends of chasses, in voluminous carvings, the eagle is very often in the center of the ornamental composition.
It should be noted that the eagle, hawk, falcon were well known to the ancient Altai tribes, the image of these strong birds played an important role in their mythology and art. They especially liked the image of the vulture. It is found in a variety of materials, sometimes in a conventionally schematic, sometimes in a realistic way. The oldest image of this bird dates back to the 7th-4th centuries BC. e., that is, it is the most stable in the artistic work of the Siberian peoples.
The collections of the Hermitage and the Historical Museum contain bishops' crests with attributes of church authority, and eagles familiar to the Yakuts also appeared in this original decorative composition. Only a few of these, apparently, ritual crests have been preserved in the North Russian bone.
The favorite theme of the Yakut bone carvers was the genre theme of the century, it can be divided into two types: associated with national rituals and holidays, and purely commercial. The theme of shamanic ritual, which found its place in one of the works of 1754, stands out in particular. This is a watch holder, which is a special stand-screen with a round hole and a hook for hanging an onion-shaped watch. In itself, this is a household item for a wealthy city dweller. Among the peasant population, they could not appear, but among the townspeople, industrial, service people, such an object undoubtedly existed. The style of the Kholmogory carving is easily guessed in the decoration of the chalice, perhaps this thing was carved by a northern Russian master. The execution is too technical, the ornamental and plot carving is too specific in its design. Behind everything one can feel great experience, traditional skills of art. In addition, it is unlikely that the Yakuts - artists of the 60s of the 17th century could break the precepts of old beliefs so quickly.
With Christianization, new decorative elements entered the bone-carving plastic, entering into a natural combination with the previously accepted totemic ones. Based on this, it is unlikely that the Yakut bone carver would have dared to give a detailed composition of the shamanic ritual. Meanwhile, the figure of a shaman with a tambourine in his hands is given full-length, the plasticity of movement is defined, which the ornament plays along with. Three and two sit on the sides of the shaman, they are participants in his actions, some especially significant dance. The "bitikhiter" dancers were the assistants of the shaman, they helped in the fight against the spirits. The carving at the top, above the plot scene, so characteristic of Yakut life in the past, is interesting. Above the round hole are depicted two figures, as it were, floating, holding a crown strictly in the center. Still higher, on the crest of a rectangular pedestal, there is a date, a relief heart and the final figure of an eagle with spread wings.
The proud, bold bird entered the Yakut mythology, ancient beliefs and art. The stability of the preservation of mythological images brought to the 19th century in bone carving the figurine of this bird in its most traditional form. The general design of the chasuble and the technique of carving are typical for Russian bone carvers, but the plot speaks of a strong influence on the bone carver of the local culture with its specific rituals. This influence was, as it were, the beginning of a process that led to the formation of the Yakut school of bone carving in the 19th century. Therefore, on bone carved boxes, caskets, you can see all kinds of genre scenes, as well as preparations for the Yakut spring holiday of koumiss “ysyakh”. This holiday was first described in detail at the beginning of the 19th century by one of the exiled Decembrists, the famous writer L. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky. "Ysyakh" was accompanied by all sorts of games, dances, jumps, wrestling. They liked to portray him in different versions. In many of the compositions, the carvers included images of winter and summer yurts, trees, large vessels for storing koumiss, people distributing and receiving a cube of kichorony to sample a freshly prepared drink. The spring festival for the Yakut horse breeders was one of the most important, having a ritual character. In general, the attitude towards the horse was especially respectful, which was reflected in rituals, works of oral folk art, and in the art of bone carving. The cult of the horse persisted until the end of the 19th century. L. Yakunina in her work cites a curious entry: “Mares and horses were once our deities.
Yakut cattle breeders did not yet know full settlement in the 19th century. Therefore, twice a year they necessarily switched from winter roads to summer roads, changing their permanent residence, grazing dictated their conditions to them. This explains their attitude to the horse, to the "serge" as an object closely associated with it. The sacred hitching post was driven in at the new home of the young; beside her, the parents blessed their daughter-bride. On a number of ridges there are compositions where the hitching post plays a significant role. An example is one comb with a detailed composition of scenes of a very different order. On a rectangular field, in its upper part, the inscription: "Yakutsk 1843". In the center, in the middle of a hilly area, there is a yurt, next to it is a vat for koumiss. A woman stands near him and holds out a goblet with koumiss to a child. Behind her, on the right side of the yurt, another vat of koumiss rises. The left side of the composition is balanced by a rather large image of a rider with a child seated behind the yen. It is curious that the horse is still standing at the leash, at the carved post of the hitching post, but it seems to be stepping over with its feet, the bone cutter outlined the rhythm of movement. This rhythm is continued in the plastic pattern of mounds, a rounded yurt and an uneven wavy line on the upper edge of a huge vessel with a cape on the right. Along the edge of the entire rectangle, the master arranged a very conditionally interpreted leafy shoot as a frame. Who is the clarity, almost geometricity is opposed to the rhythm and plan of the post of the overall plot composition. On the reverse side of the crest there is a female dance “osuokai”: five women in elegant clothes embroidered with patterns stand facing the viewer, on the left the figure is set in profile, on the right is a woman with a bowl in her left hand, in her right is a ladle to pour koumiss from a vessel. Strict composition is executed clearly. The confidence of the hand of the bone cutter was manifested in the performing skills. The graphic quality of the line goes well with the flat relief, which is sufficiently modeled, all the necessary details are highlighted, and
Pse items. There is no abstraction of images, symbols here, everything is interpreted quite realistically. When compared with other crests, this one stands out for its undoubted advantages in terms of plastic and compositional-rhythmic solution. There is evidence that this comb belonged to the Decembrist I. Yakushkin, he was sentenced to death, replaced by twenty years hard labor, later somewhat reduced. Since 1835, Yakushkin lived in a settlement in Yalutorovsk, Tobolsk province (now the Tyumen region). Apparently, the carved bone comb is a family relic and therefore was preserved by his son, an ethnographer, for posterity.
The friendly contacts that arose between the Yakuts and Russian settlers in Siberia are reminiscent of the crest of 1844 depicting a scene of treating a guest. A Yakut in national fur clothes with a choron in his hands receives a Russian, apparently a military man, as he is dressed in a uniform. They sit opposite each other, talking. The scene is deployed against the background of the interior. The artist depicted the building in section. To the right are dancing women. The reverse side of the crest depicts Yakut dwellings and several figurines. Residential buildings of the Yakuts are of undoubted interest. Zimnik is a wooden house made of larch, a yurt, in the form of a truncated quadrangular pyramid with a rather sloping gable roof. Its more ancient ting is a booth, with the obligatory three windows covered with a fish bladder or mica. Winter roads existed until the middle of the 19th century. The summer dwelling was urasa - a cone-shaped structure made of birch bark and poles. Yakut carvers but bones liked to introduce these buildings into their compositions. On the crest of 1844, buildings of this kind are represented. Moreover, the carver managed to create a kind of strict compositional rhythm of the sketch. It would seem that the static nature of buildings cannot give the desired emotionally effective image in a small space. But this was achieved through the introduction of small figures of people, a modest hint of the landscape. On the whole, the comb carving attracts with its unconstrained simplicity, natural composition, and good performing skills.
If the box of the Hermitage collection, marked in 1742 with the monogram “KITD”, is all decorated with a through thin ornament, under which the plan is placed with foil, unusually reminiscent of the bone corrugated items of the Kholmogory craftsmen of the 18th - early 19th centuries, then in the plate (detail of the box) with a skier and riding dogs rushing under the spreading branches of the cedar, this connection cannot be found. Here, as in a number of other compositions on combs and plates, one can clearly see the independence and originality of the artistic thinking of the Yakut bone carvers.
You should pay attention to the box 18(i(J), on the lid of which the central place is given to the courier. The main thing is highlighted - a characteristic hat with a high crown, a voluminous bag with dispatches, a figure bending down to the neck of a galloping horse, behind which there is already a milestone with the inscription : "Courier". An ingenuous, but vitally truthful scene has an emotional effect. A racing horseman, a Russian coachman (namely, the Russians were engaged in coaching on the Siberian highway) - this was a conspicuous figure, and the artist introduced it into his art. The compositions on the side walls of the casket are also full They reproduced the main scenes from the holiday "Ysyakh" - drinking koumiss from one choron, where three men pass one vessel, but according to the custom of brotherhood, one vessel; everyone stands in a row, intertwining their hands, in one line and slowly, rhythmically moving. oh oblique grid, under which blue foil is placed. And this again manifested a trait that came from the Kholmogory bone carvers - love for the color saturation of the bone carving work.
Surprisingly graceful and easily arranged hunting scene on one of the pods. In the lower part of a rectangular plate with a round hole for a clock there is an image of a Cossack, on the sides of which trees are placed. Their branches, rising up, create the basis for the hunting scene. In the forest, not one, but two scenes are played out: on the right, a hunter with a gun shoots a deer, a dog is nearby; on the left is a kneeling figure of an archer shooting at the same deer. A light floral ornament and a pattern of an oblique grid help to imagine, as it were, a parted thicket of the taiga, the edge of the forest, where a deer ran out. Let the conditional, but essentially true image, seen in life, be turned by the artist into a specific artistic image.
There is one more interesting image in the composition of this pedestal. On the upper cornice in the center is the so-called "wheel of the law" - a symbol of Buddhist teachings. And this is not an accident. Given the origin of the Yakuts from the Baikal region, it can be assumed that this element of art was introduced from the culture of neighboring peoples, because Buddhism still exists among the Buryat population.
From the point of view of the overall composition and technical performance, this is one of the integral, extremely skillful things. The logic of the arrangement of pictorial motifs, their proportionality with the ornamentation, skillful placement on the plane - everything speaks of the high skill of the artist who cut this bone casserole.
From Oriental art, the Yakut bone carvers were introduced by specially interpreted figurines of lions, usually lying in a tense posture of a guarding animal. At the same time, in the relief carving on the chasses, there are lions that, in their appearance, are closest to the turnip wooden lions that adorn the friezes of peasant huts in the Volga region of the 19th century. Rethinking, creative processing of the perceived is undoubtedly characteristic of the Yakut bone carvers, this is evidenced by the works of arts and crafts created by their hands, this also contributed to a certain successful synthesis of decorative motifs in the works of bone carving art. Evidence of this) is a number of ceremonial caskets, somewhat eclectic, but for many reasons of considerable interest (collection of the State Hermitage), One of them - a rectangular shape, decorated with sculptures of four lying lions and a vase with a lush bouquet of flowers and a double-headed eagle in the center - is dated 1889 year. The walls of the casket, as well as the lid itself, are covered with through carvings in the form of geometric patterns.
The most curious thing is the procession that surrounds the casket. On a rectangular base, in the immediate vicinity of the walls, three-dimensional figures are placed, carved rather primitively, but expressively. The composition opens with a dog team, behind it stands the figure of a hunter with a hare behind his back, on the head of a Yakut is a headdress made of a deer skull turned back to front; further the sledges with a child and a dog sitting on them, followed by a Yakut in a ritual headdress made of a deer skull, behind a dog and a hunter shooting a bear, behind them a reindeer team with a driver, with a deer skull on the sledges, finally, completes the procession "the figure of the Yakut riding a deer. Before the viewer, obviously, some important ritual procession is revealed, associated with good wishes for success in the hunt.
Taking into account the special purpose of caskets of this type, they, as in a focus, concentrated everything that the Yakut bone carvers mastered, and everything that was characteristic of them. Techniques of carving, the composition of the composition, the concentration of the viewer's attention on the main thing, dedicatory inscriptions - everything speaks of a complete and fluent mastery of the techniques of artistic creativity. Dedicatory inscriptions are also known on other caskets and caskets. So, on one of them you can read: "Yakutsk in 1853 in memory of Ekaterina Jesusovna Vasova." The images on the walls illustrate the koumiss festival in various compositions. The combination of such plot carvings and dedicatory inscriptions testifies to the close connection between masters and customers, Yakuts and Russians. The carving of a double-sided carved comb speaks of creative contact, which shows a cab with a driver and a rider on the street of a Yakut town with winter houses, with street lamps. The inscription “I give to whom I love” frames this uncomplicated genre scene with elegant ligature. In its execution, proportions, rhythm, balance of masses, a well-thought-out combination of through and relief carvings are observed, which speaks of mastery and mastery of the specifics of bone carving art. In the works of northern Russian masters of bone, birch bark and other materials, such inscriptions are a common addition.
It is curious that some Yakut bone cutters of the 19th century tried their hand at a kind of modeling. The Art Museum of Yakutsk has a reproduction of the Yakut eight-tower prison of the 17th century, made by bone carvers in 1867. Being an interesting example of carving art, this model is currently of historical value. As you know, only one fortress tower has survived to this day.
The art of bone carving cannot live and develop without traditions, without those conquests that have already been achieved. That is why the desire to know one's art as best as possible, first of all, has a beneficial effect on the search for a new one. The combination of knowledge with the development of new things, with the possibilities of one's own creative individuality, constantly helps in the process of developing art. Once the French painter Courbet succinctly expressed the essence of what should be the property of the creator, "to know in order to be able." For him, this expressed the essence of creativity in painting. We have the right to emphasize the correctness of his words in relation to the field of arts and crafts, to bone carving. To assimilate what was achieved by the predecessors means to get a solid foundation for the development of the art of the next historical stage.
Based on the transfer of accumulated experience by the oldest masters of youth, both in Kholmogory and Yakutsk, creative teams of artists engaged in bone carving were revived. In the 1930s and 1940s, Soviet schools were already established, where talented bone carvers worked. At the heart of their work, dedicated to reflecting Soviet reality, lay a realistic drawing, which they combined with traditional artistic techniques of carving. At present, bone carvers in Kholmogory are united in the team of the M. V. Lomonosov Artistic Bone Carving Factory, and the Sardaana souvenir factory, founded in 1969, operates in Yakutsk. The fruitfulness of studying their national culture and art brings undoubted success to bone carvers. Their work is constantly evolving, improving technically and aesthetically.

The Bureau. Middle of the 18th century Pomeranian gun, work by L. Khorkov, 17th-18th century Powder flask. Early 18th century Powder flask, first half of the 18th century
Podchasnik. First half of the 19th century

One of the most ancient forms of art, mastered by our ancestors tens of thousands of years ago, is bone carving. Products created in this way are still valued today - some works are equal in value to jewelry made of precious metals. In figurines carved from bone, people are most attracted to accuracy, deep attention to small details and natural composition, which is achieved due to the unique properties of the material.

Bone carving is one of the first artistic occupations of man. Creating tools, he eventually began to decorate them with drawings and patterns, and then moved on to the manufacture of fully decorative household items such as necklaces, rings, figurines and caskets.

The material for such products was both "noble" ivory and mammoth tusks, as well as simple tarsals - dense tubular parts of the skeleton of cows, horses and other household animals.

This unusual craft was especially widespread in eastern countries, as well as in Rome, Greece and Byzantium. Each of these places has developed its own style of carving. Not only techniques differed, but also sets of motifs and plots that hung from the culture, mythology, traditions and rituals of a particular people. But, since a significant part of the products were created for secular collectors, there has always been a wide variety of themes and images.

In Russia, the Kholmogory bone carving is well known, named after the corresponding region of the Arkhangelsk Territory. Her "visiting card" is a complex and ornate carved ornament with through holes, combined with relief plot compositions. In the works of the masters of this style, inspiration is read by the beautiful, but harsh northern nature. Patterns resemble frosty swirls, often with floral motifs. Another feature of the style is the decoration of the ornament with color, whether it is the engraving of individual details or laying the background for the entire work.

Slightly less famous Khotkovskaya carving, originating in the town of the Moscow region with the same name. Her style is distinguished by restraint and conciseness. Artists pay more attention to the image of individual details of wildlife: leaves, flowers, animals. Caskets and women's jewelry made in this technique look especially impressive. They often combine Khotkovo carving on bone and wood or horn, and also decorate products with mother-of-pearl and other materials.

The creativity of the peoples of the north deserves special attention. For example, the Chukchi variety of handicraft is characterized by simplicity of execution and a minimum of details. The main material used in it is walrus tusk. Most often, amulets, amulets and decorated household items are made from it, but more complex compositions are also found. There are paintings of fangs, which are a retelling of entire plots in pictures.

The products of artists working in the Yakut technique are distinguished by complex openwork ornaments, in which geometric figures predominate. Sculptures and figurines of these masters are famous for their attention to detail and are created on the principle of a layout.

Tobolsk carving is known for its miniatures depicting the everyday life of northern peoples. In addition, snuffboxes, key rings, women's jewelry and even icons from her masters are popular.

An interesting style, based on wood carving, is distinguished by Varnavin bone carving. Its basis is an openwork ornament, which can be either flat or convex. Varnavin's craftsmen make not only costume jewelry and decor items, but also dishes, candlesticks, chess sets and even sewing accessories.

It is impossible not to mention the Chinese techniques of this ancient art. The most famous are the two schools: Cantonese and Peking. The first is famous for the incredible subtlety and luxury of its works, for which only specially bleached bone is used. The second is a little more restrained and serves mainly for the manufacture of figures of people. For this purpose, the bone is carefully polished, which emphasizes its unique texture.

Craft features

Features of bone carving are related to the material used. First of all, this is the fact that each product created in this way is unique and inimitable - it is almost impossible to recreate the work exactly, even if desired. The shape of the resulting figure is always dictated by the bone itself. Each bend, small unevenness, build-up or crack is woven into the composition by the master, creating a unique work of art.

Due to the high cost of the material, they try to make its losses minimal. Despite this, in some types of work, for example, drawing up openwork ornaments, 50% or more is still cut off from the bone. At the same time, they do not make sketches on paper for the future figurine - usually the details are marked on the bone itself. By execution, the thread is divided into several types:

Working with bone

The times when it was possible to learn an artistic craft only from its master are long gone. Now instructions for decorative bone processing are available to everyone, as is the purchase of the tools needed for this. There are master classes for beginners who are going to start everything from scratch, as well as for experienced creators who want to improve and develop their skills.

Material selection

For artistic cutting on bone, noble varieties of this material are most often used, corresponding to the craftsmanship and beauty of products made from it. However, beginners and those looking to get more practice should look for readily available options, such as cow bones, which are sold cheaply in many grocery stores and markets. The most popular types of bones for carving include:

It is worth noting that harvesting the bones and horns of many of these animals is illegal or heavily restricted in many countries. The exception is the tarsus and mammoth tusks. The extraction of the latter does not harm nature, since these relatives of elephants became extinct more than 10 thousand years ago. However, the extraction of this material is still quite difficult and requires special permission (and whole, well-preserved tusks suitable for carving are very rare), so the price of the material remains high.

Suppliers most often sell the material in a form that is already convenient for the master: the bone is degreased, bleached, cut into pieces of the desired shape and size. Those who have chosen a bobbin for work can prepare it themselves. For this you need:

1. Saw off the ends of the bone, cut off all the cartilage and other formations from it. Thoroughly clean it both inside and out.
2. Boil the prepared material for half an hour. Then drain the water - it will contain fat that has come out of the bone.
3. Put the bobbin on the fire again, this time filling it with water with the addition of soda ash. Keep 1.5 hours.
4. Leave overnight. The next day, darken again for 1.5 hours, but this time with baking soda.

The material treated in this way becomes stronger, whiter and easier to process. In addition, it is cleaned of fragile tubular fabrics, grease and stains on the surface.

Instrument preparation

Tools for working with bone are somewhat similar to those for carving horn, but there are differences due to the difference in strength and structure of these materials. The main device necessary for careful and accurate processing of the product is a drill and a chisel-nozzle for it. They come in a variety of sharpness and shape, depending on the function performed:

Sometimes other tools are used, for example, a pyrographic device for burning wood. It helps to create shallow embossed lines of beautiful brown.

The choice of tips depends on the type of work and the type of bone - some of them are very fragile, others are stronger, the shape and structure also differ.

Lessons for beginners

Bone carving is a fairly complex craft that takes years to master. Creating even a simple craft is a long and painstaking work, which, nevertheless, can deliver a lot of pleasure both in the process and in the result. To understand the basics, a step-by-step lesson on carving a figurine in the form of a Cheshire Cat from a mammoth tusk will help:

Artistic bone processing is an ancient art, which for many has become both a favorite pastime in their free time and the main source of income. High-quality and full of details figurines, created by the masters of this craft, have become not only a worthy decoration for both museums and private collections, but also symbols of wealth and taste.

The time has passed when we decorated our interiors with stamped faceless products. Today, everyone wants to have at least one, but a unique thing that gives originality and sophistication. Bone carving is the type of art that creates truly amazing things that literally fascinate with their appearance. They seem to attract your attention, forcing you to peer into the elegance of the lines again and again, to examine the ornament, finding more and more interesting strokes.

Bone carving is carried out by very talented, highly spiritual people who are able to revive this seemingly unsightly, albeit very expensive material. The skillful hands of the master turn the bone into the finest lace, into a unique ornament, where one element complements another, where the end of one line is a continuation of another, and in the end the whole product is a fundamental completeness.

Perhaps such a high emotional impact can be explained by the fact that bone carving is a very ancient art. It has come a long way of development: from the simplest decorations and household items to products of unique beauty and delicacy that decorate the interior. The talent and work of some generations was multiplied by the work and talent of others, the achievements of nameless creators found worthy successors in the face of masters whose names remained in history. The techniques of bone processing, which have developed for a very long time, do not change at the present time.

There are several types of bone carving:

• smooth
• embossed
• through

Smooth carving is easier to perform, it is used to make various amulets, small figurines of animals, people. According to a pre-drawn drawing, recesses are formed by the master, which are then highlighted with paint for greater expressiveness. Volumetric carving involves the creation of more complex, three-dimensional products that make up entire sculptural groups. And finally, for the manufacture of the most unique in beauty and difficult to work openwork caskets, caskets, the technique of through or so-called bone carving in the opening is used.

Bone carving of the peoples of the North

Bone carving of the peoples of the North belongs to one of the ancient folk crafts. The inhabitants of Chukotka used for their work the most accessible material for them - walrus tusks. Products of Chukchi masters are distinguished by simplicity and conciseness, a minimum of details. For the most part, these are numerous amulets and items used in everyday life: various tips, knives, harpoons. Their art of engraving is also of interest - whole stories in pictures are created on fangs.

Yakut carvers create their works with the help of openwork carving, using geometric ornaments. The sculptural direction is highly developed, distinguished by careful elaboration of details and construction according to the type of layout.

Tobolsk craftsmen create miniatures from walrus fangs and sperm whale teeth that tell about the life and life of the peoples of the North. Among their products you can also find women's jewelry, knives for cutting paper, various key chains.

Kholmogory bone carving is one of the first Russian art crafts. The Arkhangelsk Territory, with its harsh and beautiful nature, inspired its talented residents. The products of these masters are very recognizable for their unique delicacy, ornateness of numerous ornaments. Caskets and chests with a traditional four-sided lid, women's jewelry, goblets and even icons - everything is decorated with floral ornaments and lush curls reminiscent of frosty patterns.

Khotkovskaya carving

The best traditions of Russian masters are continued by Khotkovskaya bone carving. The city of Khotkov, located in the Moscow region, gave its name to the whole direction of the art of carving. Unlike Kholmogory, the style of Khotkovo carvers is more concise, based on specific forms of wildlife. The main products are caskets and women's jewelry. The combination of various materials in products is characteristic - bone, mother-of-pearl, horn, hardwoods.

Features of the bone carving material

View finished products largely depends on the material that was used to create them. The bones of all kinds of animals are pre-treated, degreased, bleached, cut into pieces of the required size. Knowledge of the features of their structure allows the master to use them in his product with the greatest benefit.

allows you to get an unlimited number of product options. Mammoth bone is softer than walrus, it is easier to process, it makes it possible to use various techniques, including through carving. From its tusk, you can get a sculpture of quite a large size. In addition, as a result of occurrence in permafrost, mammoth bones can be painted in various dark colors, which is successfully used by craftsmen for decorative purposes.

not much inferior to the processing of mammoth bones. When creating products from ivory, you can also use openwork ornaments, relief carving, although its whiteness requires a clear study of relief lines in order to obtain the best contrast of light and shadow. Ivory does not limit the shape of the products, allowing you to get graceful figurines of decent size.

Modern masters of bone carving create their products in the best traditions of this art. The figurines and caskets made today still amaze the imagination with their beauty and expressiveness, have a high artistic and material value.

Products made from animal bones are very often put on the same level with things made of precious metals due to the quality of the work performed and the cost of the material. The more natural the figurine looks and the more accurately its small details are processed, the more valuable such bone carving is considered.

History of the craft

Working with bone has come a long way bone carving became one of the first human occupations. Over time, thanks to the folk craft, people began to receive not only tools: needles, pins, buttons, tool handles, tips, but the products also began to perform a decorative function. So, bone household items began to be decorated with intricate patterns and cutouts. In addition, jewelry appeared in the form of neck necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings, hairpins.

Each nation has preserved special signs of bone carving in the form of unique motifs. In Russia, this is Kholmogory bone carving, historically formed in the Kholmogory district of the Arkhangelsk region.

The traditions of patterned carving in the Kholmogory style were formed during the 17th-18th centuries. The main features of Kholmogory carving are in the patterns with which it abounds:

• carved ornament with through holes;

• relief plot compositions;

• multi-colored engraving of elements;

• putting colored foil under the ornament.

As a rule, craftsmen use mammoth or walrus bones as a base, but if it is not possible to buy such expensive materials, animal bones are used - cows or horses.

Tools and materials

The art of bone and horn carving presupposes the presence of specialized tools, without which a thorough processing of the product is impossible. These include a drill and a chisel - special cutting tools with pointed tips of various shapes, designed for cutting, sawing, scraping, drilling, grinding bone surfaces.

A compact drill designed for personal use, and not for industrial orders, can replace a wide variety of devices - it all depends on the nozzle you have chosen:

• coarse sawing tips - removal of the upper unnecessary layers;

• abrasive nozzles - the function of grinding and sanding;

• sharp thin nozzles - to highlight fine lines;

• nozzles with balls with a diameter of up to two millimeters maximum - study of the relief of small details;

• rubber granular heads - grinding the surface of the product;

• brushes, soft materials - polishing work.

In some cases, you can use the same tool as during wood burning - it will help create dark brown concave depressions-lines.

The choice of tools depends entirely on the intended type of work, on the material that you will be processing. For example, bone carving and the horn is performed differently - the bone of some animals is more fragile than the horns. At the same time, mammoth tusks and skeletal elements are equally strong and are considered the hardest in comparison with the rest.

As a rule, artistic bone carving involves the use of bones of a cow, horse, deer, elk, mammoth. In addition, work on the horns and tusks of these animals is highly valued.

You can purchase whole horns, bones, tusks and fangs. But in recent times selling cuts in the form of flat medallions or small stumps is practiced - such blanks can be used to create small figures, miniature products, brooches, pendants.

Preparing the bone for work

Mammoth and walrus bones are a very expensive material, which, moreover, is quite difficult to get. The fact is that walruses are protected by various environmental organizations, and the number of mammoth remains found is decreasing every year.

With these reasons in mind, beginning craftsmen are advised to opt for readily available materials. For example, it will be good to study on cow and horse bones, which can be easily found in any grocery market at an affordable price.

Such a purchase will be only a preparation for the upcoming work - it needs to be prepared by getting rid of fragile tubular fabrics, cleaning it of stains and grease.

• Saw off the ends of the bones that hold the cartilaginous formations.

• Clean the workpiece inside and out.

• Now you need to cook the material for half an hour - gradually the fat will come out of the bone.

• Rinse the blanks under the tap and put them to cook again, but in clean water. At the same time, add about half a pack of soda ash at the rate of eight liters to the pan.

• Let the pot boil again for about an hour and a half.

Remove the pot from the oven and leave overnight. A similar process can be repeated the next day with baking soda if you want to whiten the material and make it even stronger.

Master class - bone carving for beginners

Below you will see how, with the help of basic tools, experienced craftsmen Alexander and Elena Koptelov, whose work is known far beyond the borders of the CIS countries, will cut out the figure of the Cheshire cat from the fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland". Since the work is very laborious and the material is expensive, beginners should not repeat it without some experience.

However, in this master class is clearly visible bone carving- photos of the process will show the basic principles of material processing. It is they that should be practiced by novice artisans, honing their skills before taking on even the most seemingly easy work.

Take care of the equipment of the workplace - next to the table on which you will saw and crumble the product, install a good hood to get rid of working dust. All tools must be within reach and positioned so as not to obstruct movement during operation.

As a basis, you need to take a piece of mammoth tusk weighing about one kilogram.

• Using a chisel and a hammer, chip off the parts that are separated from the body of the workpiece by through cracks.

• At the initial stage, use the coarse milling nozzles of the drill.

• Remove excess from the workpiece and give it the main relief.

• Use the small bud tip to smooth out any pointy areas.

• Sand the workpiece, making the surface smooth.

• Using a special machine, trim the base of the figurine. This process can also be done with sandpaper.

• Starting from the head, draw a drawing of the parts of the product with a simple pencil.

• Further carving on the bone should be done with a thin sharp nozzle - process the main lines of the face.

• Use rounded tips to carve a smooth surface pattern.

• You should get a similar blank.

• Emphasize the main lines with the thinnest nozzle.

• Work out the details.

• Make a blank for the eyes and buttons and paste in place. Use expensive types of wood, for example, to match the main material - mammoth bones.

• Use rubber discs to sand the surface. Remember, with such a nozzle you can only work at low speeds, otherwise you will “set fire” to the bone.

• Polish the figurine on a special machine or by hand.

Your product is ready! Cover the work with a fixing varnish to add shine. If you have not yet decided how to choose your hobby, think about it - perhaps such an interesting and original activity as bone carving will suit you.

Finally, check out the video, which shows in detail the process of making a beautiful bone flower.

Take it, tell your friends!

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Russian traditional art folk craft - bone carving, which arose in the 17th century. in Kholmogory (Arkhangelsk region). Kholmogory bone carving has existed for about four hundred years. In the XVIII century. the fashion for household bone products - combs, chess, caskets, snuff boxes, cups, toilet boxes, wooden caskets, pasted over with bone plates, often painted brown, yellow or orange - contributed to the flourishing of the art of Kholmogory carved bone.

Products were decorated with engraving and openwork carving “on the opening” (colored foil or mica was placed under it, which enhanced the decorative effect). In the center of the object was placed a plot image (everyday or hunting scene). The ornament consisted of twigs, berries, curls and zigzags. In the technique of high and low relief, crosses, icons and other figurative images, portraits of kings on goblets were made.

Kholmogory carved bone combines the features of peasant and urban art. Dutch and German samples, Western engravings (the masters got acquainted with the collections in St. Petersburg) influenced the skill of the Kholmogory carvers. In the second half of the XVIII century. local artists creatively rework the themes of professional art, introduce images of local animals and plants into the ornament.

Masters this direction figurative and rich imagination, a subtle sense of national motifs, their artistically made crafts are included in the fund of the best products of Russian arts and crafts. Carving masters used walrus and mammoth ivory, tarsus, creating from them both luxury items and everyday items. The customers of the Kholmogory craftsmen were not only the royal court, but also monasteries or temples.

The generalization of form and silhouette, the symmetry and simplicity of the ornament, the use of flat carving characterize the works of O.Kh. Dudina, F.Ya. Lopatkin, Evsey Golovin, etc.

In the 19th century the Ugolnikov, Kalashnikov, Shubin families worked in Kholmogory, but the fishery was in decline. By the beginning of the XX century. art practically ceases to exist, only a few masters continue to be engaged in creativity.

Its new rise since the 1920s is associated with the activities of such artists as A.E. Shtang, P.P. Chernikovich, N.D. Butorin, V.P. and A.S. Guriev. Since 1929 there has been a bone carving school in Kholmogory, in 1932 the Kholmogory bone carving artel named after M.V. Lomonosov was formed. Now it has been renamed the M.V. Lomonosov Bone Carving Factory. The skills of openwork and relief carving were revived (boxes, knives, powder boxes, pendants made of mammoth tusks, sperm whale teeth, walrus tusks and ordinary bone).

Art Center of the Kholmogory carved bone - with. Lomonosovo near Kholmogory. Since the 1930s, the work of artists - masters of bone miniatures M.D. Rakova, S.P. Evangulova.

Art reaches its true heyday in the early 1960s, when a younger generation of carving masters joins the art. The conquest of this time can be considered a natural beginning in creativity, when less technically complex, but much more expressive motifs of Kholmogory carving began to be used.

characteristic feature of the 1990s. is the growth of the individual principle in the work of masters. This is due to the new historical conditions, the new worldview of artists. A new type of master of the modern art industry is being formed, in the nature of which the new and the very well-forgotten old are combined. This is expressed in a self-conscious selective attitude towards traditions. Traditions are very diverse and the master, correlating them with his personal concept, chooses the most acceptable for himself, his concept of beauty.

The leading craftsman is a member of the Union of Artists Gennady Fedorovich Osipov. He was awarded the title of Honored Artist of Russia. The large caskets of Vladimir Nikolaevich Khabarov attract the attention of connoisseurs and tourists. This is a master who knows the traditions of craft very well. Student N.D. Butorina.

Significant works of modern Kholmogory carving are the works of a member of the Union of Artists in Russia Vitaly Aleksandrovich Prosvirnin. His works are exhibited in many museums of the country, as well as at foreign exhibitions. The name of this artist will remain in the history of craft.

The last decade includes the largest number of works exhibited at various exhibitions in Russia and abroad, which makes it possible to clearly present the work of both outstanding experienced artists and the independent steps of young people just entering art.

In the village of Lomonosovo, at the factory of artistic bone carving, mass products for sale and unique thematic items are now being produced. Traditional material is used: walrus and mammoth bone, as well as simple beef bone-tarsus. A new generation of craftsmen is growing. The industry never gets old. He is young, and the search for new ways in art, and the constant influx of young creative forces.

To the 290th anniversary of M.V. Lomonosov, a new building for the exhibition hall was built, which meets all the standards of museum business. In essence, two exhibitions are exhibited here: "Rural Art Gallery" and "Kholmogory Carved Bone", where about 500 unique bone products are exhibited. These exhibitions are very popular with museum visitors.

bureau secretary
Mammoth tusk, walrus tusk, bone, wood, mica, paper, metal
Openwork carving, color engraving, painting, pasting, upholstery 29x13x9. GIM

Casket "Spring Song", 1989
Bone. Openwork, relief carving, toning. 24x17x24. Lomonosov Museum.
Osipov Gennady Fedorovich (born 1945), Honored Artist of the Russian Federation.

Casket "Peter 1", 1981
Bone. Openwork, embossed carving, color engraving, toning 16.5x10.4x10.4 AOMII
Carver Lavrentiev Nikolai Nikolaevich (b. 1962)

The name of Peter 1 is associated with the construction of a sailing fleet at the shipyards of Vavchuga, on the right bank of the Dvina, opposite Kurostrov.
Therefore, on Kholmogory caskets and goblets, portraits of Peter I always coexist with images of ships.

Wedding casket-teremok
Openwork, embossed, turning carving, engraving, upholstery 32x27x22.5. GIM
Wood, walrus tusk, fabric, silver, paper.
Russian North. 1770 - 1780

On the lid and walls of the wedding casket there are 33 round and oval medallions with images of cupids, allegories of friendship, love and fidelity. The master copied these motifs, as well as texts, from the book "Symbols and Emblems" (1705)

Casket - teremok
Mammoth tusk, metal. Relief carving, engraving. 17x13x11.5. GIM
Unknown carver. Moscow (?). 1718-1725

The casket-teremok is made of bone planks. On the front wall there are carved figures of Adam and Eve near a tree surrounded by animals. On the lid - the scene "The Judgment of King Solomon". All other planes are decorated with images from the illustrated edition of "Symbols and Emblems" (1705). The reliefs are supplemented with engraved texts.

Decorative plate "Genealogy"
Walrus bone, wood, fabric. Openwork, relief carving, color engraving, upholstery 39x41.0x3.5. GIM
Carver Shubny Yakov Ivanovich. Kholmogory, 1774

There are 61 portraits made on the decorative plate "Genealogy". On the frame below is the signature of the carver, which is an exceptional phenomenon. Images of military attributes and sailing ships are reminiscent of the recent victory of the Russian fleet at Chesma in 1770.

Icon "Resurrection and 12 holidays"
Mammoth tusk, ebony, wood. Openwork, embossed carving, upholstery 55x45. GIM
Arkhangelsk province. Second half of the 18th century.

Vase "Seasons"
Ivory (?), wood, silk. Turning, openwork, embossed carving, pasting. 31.5x13.5x13.5. GIM
Workshop Vereshchagin. Arkhangelsk, 1790

The medallions of the vase are carved with images of the seasons, between which the letters “V”, “L”, “O” and “3” (spring, summer, autumn, winter) are drawn from flower garlands. The entire volume is divided into a number of ornamental belts that make up the vase. The thoughtfulness of the form and decor, the purity of execution testify to the high professionalism of the decorator, who worked in the style of early classicism. The virtuoso performance of carvings and turning made the vase worthy of palace interiors. Apparently, the carvers of the Arkhangelsk workshop of Prokopy Stepanovich Vereshchagin, the namesake or, probably, a relative of Nikolai Stepanovich Vereshchagin, took part in its manufacture.

Vase "Ocean", 1983
Mammoth tusk. Openwork, embossed carving 28.5x10.8 AOMII
Butorin Nikolai Dmitrievich (b. 1934), Honored Artist of the Russian Federation.

Bone goblets with lids

Cup with a portrait of Empress Elizabeth
Mammoth tusk. Turning, relief carving, engraving, height 29.5; base diameter 9.5
Workshop of Osip Khristoforovich Dudin. St. Petersburg (?). 1759 - 1760

Cup with portraits of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich,
Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna and Empress Catherine II
Mammoth tusk. Turning, openwork, three-dimensional, embossed carving, painting, height 32; base diameter 9.6 GIM
Saint Petersburg, 1776 (?)

From the middle of the 18th century, bone goblets with lids were carved especially for offerings (gifts); they were decorated with carved portraits and the state emblem. The three-dimensional carving of the legs gave uniqueness to each item.

Sculpture "Peter 1 - the winner of the Swedes"
Volumetric, embossed, turning carving, engraving, pasting 23x19x12. GIM
mammoth tusk, ebony, wood, textile
St. Petersburg (?). 1780 - 1790

Peter 1 is depicted on the field of the Poltava battle. In the dedicatory inscription he is called "Father of the Fatherland". The carver created his composition under the influence of the monument to E. M. Falcone (1782) based on the engraving by Daniil Golyakhovsky (1709). He placed the background image below on a stand.

Chain of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called
Walrus tusk. Openwork, relief carving, engraving
Total length 88 Links: 7 x 4.5 and 10 x 6.5. GIM
Arkhangelsk (?). 1819 (?)

The chain of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called consists of 21 openwork medallions. These carved medallions accurately reproduce the links of a similar order chain made of precious metals and stones. When creating it, the carver demonstrated a virtuoso mastery of the technique of openwork carving. It is possible that the chain was made for the emperor's visit to Arkhangelsk in 1812, but time has not preserved any evidence of this. The temple icons of this t are distinguished by a beautiful pattern of flat-relief inserts and fine carvings of openwork framing plates. They were assembled from separately carved figures, which were mounted on a wooden board.

Chess "Kingdom of Neptune and Berendey". 1976
Bone, sperm whale tooth, three-dimensional carving, Lomonosov Museum
Balandin Vladimir Mikhailovich (b. 1953)

Fine Chess
Walrus bone. Volumetric carving, engraving, coloring
Rook and knight: 4.5x3x 1.8 King: 8.5x4x2.5 Queen: 7.5x3x2 Pawns: 4x1.5x1. GIM

Since the second half of the 18th century, Russian chess of the so-called pictorial type was made in the form of two armies - Eastern and European. The main figures in them were the Turkish sultan and the king holding a scepter. The image of the Turkish Sultan was copied mechanically from a chess player brought to Russia from Western Europe during the reign of Catherine II.

Chess, 1994
Bone. Openwork, embossed, three-dimensional carving, toning
Board: 48x45.5x9.5 Figures: 9 x 3; 6.5 x 3
Author's property Yuriev Alexander Gennadievich (b. 1970)

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