Show all images on one page	#009299 Sale! Title: Scarlet Flower Artist: Gunina Galina Size: 20x15.5x3.5 Size (inches): 7.75x6x1.25 Price: $425 $360

This masterful creation was composed by the thoroughly talented Galina Gunina (Mochalina) from the village of Palekh.
Her pieces have a unique elegance about them that captures the medieval essence of the tales he frequently uses as subject matter. Color and ornamentation work wonders when applied by an experienced hand. This piece is a great example of that fact.
The box depicts a scene from the popular Russian fairy-tale "The Scarlet Flower", written by Sergey Aksakov. The tale is very similar to what we know today as "Beauty and the Beast." This thrilling tale tells about love of a beautiful girl and a horrible beast that afterwards will turn into a handsome prince.
In this fairy tale the merchant who has just come back from his trade trip and brought his daughters the presents. The older sisters try on their new expensive clothes, while the youngest one holds her desirable present - the Magic Scarlet Flower. This beautiful flower the merchant has stolen from the garden of the ugly monster. Being caught by the monster, the merchant has become the monster's eternal captive. His only wish has been to say good-bye to his dear daughters and relatives, and then he has been obliged to return to the monster's kingdom. The merchant's old daughters are very happy to get the presents, and only the youngest one notices that her father is very sad. When she finds out the truth, she decides to become the monster's captive instead of her father. The story has a happy end, daughter has married a Beast, after a kiss he became a beautiful prince.
The palette contains very bold and vivacious colors. The predominance is given to reds, yellow and greens. Gold paint is used to accentuate our attention to small details of the composition: clothes of the characters,bushed of the trees, Scarlet flower and many other flowers on this scene.
The box is constructed from paper-mache. Black lacquer is used to paint the exterior of the piece while a radiant red lacquer completes the interior of the box.
A hinge is fastened to the top of the composition. The box rests flat.
A lovely golden filigree pattern rolls around the lid's composition as the scene's framing. Tiny aluminum beads are used to accompany this pattern. The sides decoration is a little involved. Golden filigree is supplemented with flowers painted with aluminum paint. It is signed with the artist's name and Palekh.