he village of Zhostovo outside Moscow has become a symbol
of unique folk art. For more than 150 years now many of
its inhabitants have been developing the skill of decorating
but one thing, trays. Their skillful hands have turned this
household utensil into a work of art. Bouquets or garden
and field flowers strewn against the black background adorn
these trays, giving people joie-de-vivre and awakening admiration
over the beauty and diversity of nature. Every human being
shares these feelings, and therefore few people remain indifferent
to the Zhostovo craft, which has long become world famous.
Zhostovo wares belong to the family of Russian lacquers,
whose history goes back to the emergence of miniature lacquer
painting on papier-mache in the village of Danilkovo near
Fedoskino in the Moscow Region, in the late 18th century.
S.Pronin Oval winged tray. 1998
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The tray as a household
utensil had been known since times immemorial, but in the
19th century the demand for trays rose as a result of the
growth of cities and the expansion of the network of hotels,
eateries and bars, where trays were used both for their
immediate purpose and as interior decorations. It was that
new market that enabled the Zhostovo masters to establish
themselves as a distinctive tray-making industry. They took
into account the experience of other production centers,
but instead of merely borrowing the shapes and techniques
they liked, they reworked them into their own inimitable
style.
The first trays were made in Zhostovo in 1807, when Filipp
Nikitich Vishnyakov founded his workshop. After he moved
to Moscow, his brother Taras carried on the family business.
Yegor Vishnyakov started the manufacture of papier-mache
and metal lacquers in the village of Ostashkovo 2km away
from Zhostovo in 1815, and Osip Filippovich Vishnyakov,
whose name is associated with the flourishing of the craft,
opened his workshop in 1825.
"Peter the Great on Lake Ladoga"
Studio of T.M. Belyayev. 1850
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Every tray was usually
handled by three craftsmen - a smith, who produced shapes,
a spatler, who covered the tray with a layer of ground,
and a painter, who did the painting. After the tray was
dried, the ground-worker covered it with lacquer. In the
beginning the workshop master and members of his family
worked on a par with other employees.
As the Zhostovo craftsmen expanded
production, they took account of and absorbed the experience
of other tray-makers. They were prompted the idea of replacing
papier-mache with metal, which was hardier, by trays from
Nizhny Tagil, which had become a well-known production center
way back in the 17th century. Those masters were making
large trays painted from original canvasses or engravings.
The Zhostovo masters admired the virtuoso mastery
of St. Petersburg trays and learned from them the art of
decorative still life, also adapting it to fit their own
wares. Along with absorbing some of the techniques of other
tray-makers, the Zhostovo craftsmen primarily tried to develop
their own, local traditions. Zhostovo tray-making was born
of the miniature lacquer painting craft that was practised
in villages and townships around Moscow, and that umbilical
cord was not cut for a long time. Until the 20th century
the trays and lacquered wares were produced in the same
workshop and painted by the same masters. Even after tray-making
had spun off as a distinctive industry, the Zhostovo tray
painters continued to improve the techniques of processing
lacquered papier-mache boxes while using the same grounds,
lacquers and oil paints .
P.Plakhov "Flowers, bird and butterfly"
Tray. 1950
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The specific Fedoskino techniques
of multilayer painting, subsequent light brushes against
metallized or multicolored backgrounds and mother-of-pearl
inlay were borrowed from lacquer miniature painting and
applied to tray-making. The scenes painted on early trays
- troika carriages, tea-parties and rustic character scenes
- were close to the compositions used on lacquer miniature
Alongside using genre scenes, Zhostovo
craftsmen increasingly developed their own style of decorative
floral compositions. Local artistic traditions and the creative
development of the main accomplishments of other crafts
enabled Zhostovo craftsmen to evolve their original style
and an unique system of the local craft that are manifest
in every piece dating to that period.The Zhostovo masters
painted their trays on colored and golden backgrounds as
well as on black and white ones. The surface of the tray
was prepared with bronze or aluminum dust which, showing
through lacquer, shone like gold and resembled the famous
Khokhloma wares. The colors looked especially vibrant against
the golden background and the tray seemed a really precious
item.
In the
1910s, Zhostovo tray-making, like many other folk crafts,
was hit by a crisis. The demand for trays had slumped, and
production was shrinking. Painters and smiths were leaving
their workshops for farming or seasonal work. It was only
in the 1920s, with the overall revival of folk crafts and
the rebirth of artels across the country, that they reemerged
around Zhostovo.
I.Vladikina "Two branches". 1995
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Zhostovo fell on hard times in the 1920s and 1930s. The
tendency for the uncompromising assertion of modernity and
realism that were common for Soviet art prompted the authorities
in charge of the folk crafts to try to influence their traditional
developmental trends and impose on the Zhostovo painters
easel-painting and naturalist models of ornamental and thematic
compositions that had been devised by professional artists
without any regard for the specific features of the local
craft. The leading Zhostovo painters understood that those
innovations were alien to the very nature of folk art, so
they effectively countered those new trends and infused
new ideas into the traditional school of painting.
In 1940, the Fedoskino
vocational school opened a department of Zhostovo painting
to train young craftsmen. Two remarkable Zhostovo painters,
P.Plakhov and V.Dyuzhayev, taught there for many years,
the activity that was responsible for their emergence as
original masters. They trained several generations of young
craftsmen, who developed in their own way the Zhostovo painting
traditions, and themselves represented two different, highly
dissimilar aspects of the local craft.
Another stage in the history of
Zhostovo craft started in the 1960s and continues to our
day. Overcoming tendencies leaning toward easel painting
and natural is in, tray painting has been gaining in prestige
and popularity not only owing to large-scale output of serial
works, but also owing to unique items that increasingly
attracted public attention at numerous exhibitions both
at home and abroad. Ever since its outset Zhostovo craft
has been developed by several generations of craftsmen,
who formed painter dynasties. It is being carried on today
by the familial Belyayev, Kledov, Antipov, Saveliev, Gogin
and Vishnyakov clans. Many of them have been granted the
honorable title of the Merited Artist of Russia, are members
of the Artists' Union, have been decorated with medals of
the Academy of Arts, and have won diplomas and awards at
numerous exhibitions of different levels. Their works are
stored as a national treasury and exhibited by major national
museums.
G.Hitrov "A morning outside Moscow". 2002
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Constantly perfecting
their craftsmanship, Zhostovo painters give free rein to
improvisation, demonstrating diverse styles and techniques.
Modern Zhostovo craftsmen are increasingly turning the tray
from a household object into a work of art, and decorative
Zhostovo painting is elevated to the level of an independent
genre capable of addressing directly people's thoughts and
feelings. B. Grafov goes on to say: "Zhostovo trays
are increasingly acquiring the meaning of decorative objects
rather than a mere household utensil by virtue of the special
importance of their painting. Our trays are both beautiful
and meaningful. At first sight the painting seems to be
finishing off and adorning the tray, but there is more to
it than meets the eye... Take a closer look and you'll be
enchanted with the meaning of the bouquet... Every flower
is looking at you and telling you something, or reminding
you of something. These flowers are inimitable and always
different, each with its own original character, and even
the artist himself will not be able to produce the same
bouquet."
Zhostovo trays have transformed
from a household object into full-fledged decorative panels
in the course of their history, and the craft which served
as an auxiliary source of income for farmers, has acquired
the status of a unique Russian folk art.
T.Sholokhova. "Evening garden"
1993
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